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May 01
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Sun and Fun Air Show Photos 2013

By aviation, Sun N Fun, warbirds, World War 2
It had been several years since my last “Sun and Fun” adventure which took me to Lakeland, Florida, the home of the second largest U.S. air show. Only the Osh Kosh Fly-In is bigger. 
I am lucky to have a wonderful client who lets me hitch a ride in his twin engine airplane making the boring ten hour drive in just two. Thanks Dan.

The trip revolves around several days of aerobatic performances, modern and vintage aircraft, a huge aviation trade show, and miles of walking. 
The photo below is of the AeroShell Flight Team. These guys are incredibly precise, and they move like one plane during their performance. I look forward to seeing them every year.

From communist China, two Nanchang CJ-6 trainers demonstrate acrobatic maneuvers below. These are often mistaken for the Russian “Yaks”. I can look beyond the political origin of the planes and just enjoy them as beautiful flying machines… or “war trophies” as the announcer called them.

The big draw for me has always been the Warbirds section dedicated to fighters and bombers of yesteryear’s wars.  To me, they stand as proud symbols of some of the greatest triumphs of the American people. There is no denying that World War II and the sacrifices made by that great generation made the United States the superpower that it is today.
My favorite photo of the trip happened by ignoring the air show that was going on. I decided to wander about the Warbirds line while the crowds were elsewhere. This is when I saw a wonderful enthusiast in vintage flight gear watching the planes fly by. He made it easy to imagine what young pilots in the 1940s looked like, and it is the one photo that captures the love of flight to me. The skies are calling to him.

Even before George Lucas made his “Red Tails” movie, I was interested in the famed African American 332nd Fighter Group called the Tuskegee Airmen. It is hard to imagine a pre-civil rights world where whites and blacks were segregated in most aspects of life, including the military.

Many contemporaries expected the Tuskegee Airmen to fail in this experimental program, but instead they served honorably earning many citations, medals and the respect of their fellow airmen. They put their foot in the door of equality that had been shut for African Americans paving the way for future generations of black military men…. and beyond.

The Tuskegee Airmen and their all black ground crews fought with distinction and honor putting their lives at risk and proving that they were a formidable fighting force. Their role as long range bomber escorts deep into German territory is legendary saving countless American lives.

Being a bomber crewman was one of the most dangerous jobs in the whole war. B-17 and B-24 bombers carried up to ten men and thousands died from Luftwaffe fighters and accurate flak. I have read figures of over a 50% death toll for the flyers of the heavy bombers. The protection afforded by these fighters gave them the nickname “Red Tail Angels”.

This fantastic B-Model of the P-51 was on display by the inspirational Rise Above organization. This model uses an older fastback design instead of the later cockpit bubble. It really changes the look of the aircraft, and probably affects rearward visibility. Check out that flip up canopy.

For comparison, the later model P-51 with the bubble canopy is shown below. This one has been elongated to fit two people.

The owners of “Crazy Horse” must love to polish because this plane’s skin sparkled like a mirror.

Some twin engine B-25 bombers were at Sun and Fun, and were great to see flying. Even though they may not be as sexy as a fighter, they did great damage to the enemy. Panchito’s polished aluminum skin shined like chrome.

Yellow Rose had painted camouflage and bristled with twelve .50 caliber machine guns that could unleash fury on a strafing pass. These versatile planes could hold bombs, rockets and torpedoes too.

Nearly 10,000 of these were manufactured, and the distinct split tail can be seen from miles away.
The weather during our trip was a mixed bag. We experienced everything from steamy Florida afternoons to dark and ugly rain clouds. Shooting photos in these extremes can be interesting. 

The available lighting conditions affect the photos that I take of the airplanes. I think I only saw blue skies one of the afternoons we were there.

To me, it can be less interesting to shoot airplanes in a dreary dead light of overcast skies. The clarity of the images are affected by the haze in the air too.

Still, I was there to get what I could. My goal was to get a perfectly focused plane in motion with the propeller blurred. This was not easy for me to do for many reasons.

First of all, I was shooting at the equivalent of a 900mm telephoto zoom, and I was panning to track the planes’ flight paths. At that magnification, even tiny shakes can ruin the photo.

Because I wanted the props blurred, I was shooting in the 1/250 of a second shutter speed.

I could have raised the shutter speed to 1/1000th of a second, but that makes the prop “freeze” in place which ruins the suggestion of motion like in the photo below of a Helio Courier. This plane is used by missionaries in remote locations, and is designed spiral upwards in very tight places like canyons and runways hacked out of jungles. I’ve never seen a plane fly so slow and in such a tight radius. It was amazing.

One of the air show highlights for me was seeing the dare devil wing walker, Jane Wicker. I am not saying that she is crazy, but she is much braver than I am. Just thinking about hanging off a wing as the plane does flips and loops is enough to make my hands sweat. 

 There were no parachutes or safety lines… if something happened, it would be a deadly disaster. I bet she has great abs because she has to do crunches against at least 100 mph of wind pressure, centrifugal forces, gravity and an ex-husband at the stick. To see Jane’s acrophobia-inducing act, check out the YouTube video. 

There were several helicopters in attendance including the Vietnam era Bell UH-1 “Huey”. The unmistakable “wump wump” of the rotors sound just like they do in the movies.

The amazing Bell AH-1 Cobra attack copter was selling rides. Maybe I should have gone because I doubt I will ever get another chance. Would you believe the original design dates back to 1965?

Some aircraft at the air show never make it off the ground, but that still does not diminish their appeal.

Take this 1943 Hawker Tempest Mk 2 for instance. This extremely rare bird was the fastest radial engine powered plane of the war, and the shape is beautiful. This one will be restored in the future.

 Its engine had 2,250 horsepower, and the plane was influenced by the design of the German Focke-Wulf FW-190. The war’s end and the jet age made them obsolete before they had a chance to shine.

The beefy bird below is a Westland Lysander. It was pretty much already obsolete as World War Two started, and it was used as a spotter plane.

One thing for sure, it is chunky… no wait, that is me.

There were other infamous and important warbirds on the line including a pristine Vought F4U Corsair. 

I remember this kind from “Bah Bah Black Sheep”, the 1970s television show chronicling the exploits of “Pappy” Boyington and his Black Sheep Squadron.

The Corsair’s design seems to be unique with its gull wings.

There was also a Curtiss SB2C-5 Hell Diver. I’ve read that these planes were not loved by the men who flew them and they had several colorful nicknames including the “Beast”. This photo shows the flaps with holes deployed on divebombing runs. This is not a small aircraft… it even had a rear seat machine gunner.

Below is a sample of the only kind of wing walking I would ever attempt. 

There was another mystery plane which stumped me and several pilots I questioned. When asked what it was, they replied “I have no idea”… and these are guys that eat and breathe aviation. 

I found out that it started life as a North American AT-6 like the one shown below which is nice, but kinda boring compared to the slick custom built plane.
Some relatively modern jet fighters showed their stuff including the Douglas A-4 Sky Hawk. This small fighter was made for maneuverability. The Blue Angels used to fly these. I love seeing the hot jet exhaust distort the background.

Below my friend, Lewis, was wondering if he could hotwire this thing… the answer is probably “yes”.

One semi-affordable jet is the L-39 Albatross. “Affordable” is a relative term to pilots… as in “This plane costs 1/3 of what a million dollar P-51 Mustang does.” 

The L-39 originated from Czechoslovakia, and the first one flew in 1968. They are still used today.

Something not often seen is the Grumman OV-1 Mohawk, an Vietnam-era observation plane. Notice the bulging cockpit windows designed so the pilots could easily look down. To me, this thing looks like a giant puffer fish with propellers.

There is plenty to see on the ground too…

Pyrotechnics go “boom” during simulated bomb runs.

The look like mini mushroom clouds.

These fireballs sometimes make smoke rings of epic proportions. This one dwarfs a nearby plane.

 The volunteers who work this show are incredible. I see the same guys year after year, and they do a great job keeping everything organized.
If you get tired of looking at flying contraptions, you can always resort to people watching.

I met several people in period clothing including this German soldier with his own Kubelwagen with a working MG-42 machine gun and a very rare 1944 Sturmgewehr MP-44 assault rifle, which was the first of it’s kind. It reminds me of an AK-47, except this one is said to be worth $30,000. I got to hold it too. It looked incredibly modern.

I hope next year brings more planes, warbirds and interesting people to watch.

There are just too many photos to stuff into this article.

See the rest of the 2013 Sun and Fun gallery here…

Oct 28
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Tiny Airplanes In Endless Skies

By aviation, sky, sunset

It is only through comparison can one truly see how minuscule we on the earth, or in the case of this photo… the sky. This jet looks looked a speck when compared to the clouds it is flying through. The color that day was unbelievable. This burst of brillance diminished less than a minute later, so timing is everything.

Apr 30
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World War 1 Air Show in Pungo

By Air Show, airplanes, Andrew Hughes, aviation, Masqueman Photography, Military Aviation Museum, photography, Pungo, VA, Virginia Beach, warbirds, World War 1
Almost 100 years ago, the first aerial battles were fought during World War I. It was a different era where new fangled flying machines represented the state-of-the-art in speed and technology. Horse calvary was still relevant and tanks were just appearing in the muddy trenches.

Last year I attended avery unique air show in Pungo, Virginia at the Military Aviation Museum. The featured planes were all World War I vintage, more than likely scaled replicas.
 

Seeing these wood and cloth planes is kind of like looking a kite with a machine gun attached. 

Today we have stealth bombers, remote controlled drones and satellites, but all our current technology owes a great deal to these earlier pioneers and soldiers of the air.

In the photo below, the World War 2 era P-51 snuck into the background and illustrates the difference that 30 years can make on the battlefield, even ones in the air.

Instead of sitting in a dusty museum, bi-planes and tri-planes zoomed past the crowds in glorious flight.

The first airplanes had less horsepower than most cars on the road today. They employed different shapes and multiple wings for improved lift… two or three wings were better than one, right?

These types of events attract enthusiasts and enactors who are interested in the time period.

Evidently long sleeves were the norm back then, even when it was hot.

I met one gentleman who had an authentic Harley Davidson motorcycle that had seen actual war duty over in France where he found it. It was a joy to see and hear the old hog run. It was a noisy clattertrap.

There were a lot of Germans in uniform.

WW1 machines are not often seen at air shows. In fact, I would say that this was a very rare showing.

The planes had markings that identified the pilot or the air group (or what ever they were called back then).

As the sun went down, hot air balloons were launched over the field.

The fellow below had a solo hot air balloon just like the urban legend about the guy that tied a bunch of helium balloons to his lawn chair.

This show gets top rank, and should not be missed if you are in the Virginia Beach area.

Apr 07
Love0

Epic Photoshoot at Preferred Jet FBO

By aviation, corporate photography, Preferred Jet, retouching
Last year I was approached by Preferred Jet to make a large group photo of the company employees, their FBO (like a private airport building) and some of their airplanes. The photo was to be used in a trade show booth and on various promotions like their web site.

Large Tradeshow Graphic

We discussed optimal schedules to get the look they wanted which included dramatic golden light seen either in the early morning or late afternoon right before sunset. Unfortunately, the only time that all employees could come together was during a harshly bright day in noon sun… usually the worst time of day to shoot drama. To make matters worse, the position of the sun would be behind the building making the front of the building in dark shadow.

I knew this beforehand so my plan was to use multiple exposures to tame the extreme latitude of the scene in front of me. I would take an exposure for the bright sky, one for the mid-tones and a few for the extremely inky shadows. Later, I would composite these together creating a high-dynamic range photo.

Very Expensive Equipment

If you think moving people around in regular group photo is tough, try adding 12 people, a multi-million dollar aircraft, a gasoline tanker and a sports car into the mix. From atop of an aircraft tug, I looked through my lens as workers moved the elements into place. I would pass instructions to my client who would yell them out and use hand gestures. I was about to pull my hair out when it all came together. I was literally asking to move the jet back and forth by an inch or  two, and it was surprising to see how much that could make the difference.

The fun part of the job happened later during the retouching phase. The trick was to find the right balance between realism and idealism… or, let’s call it enhanced reality. Below are the original exposures showing that a single exposure would not have captured details in the bright highlights or the dark shadows.

Multiple Exposures Captured on a Tripod and Combined Later

The most important enhancement I made was to replace the sky which made it look more like sunset instead of noon. The color of the sky meant that I had to make sure that the rest of the photo matched in temperature and color cast. Changing the sky can really effect the drama in the photo as shown by this early color test.

Early Color Sketches Not Used. You can see the harsh shadows that were later replaced by hand.

I also did a lot of cleanup removing distracting elements like wires, gas tanks and even all the cars from the back parking lot. This was a tough to do since I had no reference photo of the lot without cars. I had to draw in the asphalt blacktop and then redraw a digital fence and gate on top. The fence was created using a seamless pattern I made. It’s a small element, but makes a difference in how clean the final photo looks.

The fence on the right was digitally created.

I also took an impromptu fun set of photos that were much less formal…Heck, this one even had a chopper! This was quite a project.

Jun 04
Love0

An Amazing Air Show in Virginia

By Air Show, airplanes, aviation

While visiting my family in Virginia Beach, my brother and I took time out from family events to go to an air show in a place called Pungo… home of the Military Aviation Museum and the Fighter Factory.

Pungo is infamous for the witch trial of Grace Sherwood in the year of 1705. Legend has it that she was given an impossible task to prove that she was not a witch. The accusers would dunk her local river, and if she sank then she was innocent. If she swam or floated, then “obviously” she was a witch. Talk about a no-win situation. Not sure if I would fake drowning in that situation and hope that somebody would pull me out. Full details are here if you want to read the witch story.

The Military Aviation Museum is a world class facility and houses one of the largest collections of working war planes in the world. The majority of the planes in the air show were actually part of the museum. These birds do not just sit around looking pretty… they treat us to the sights and sounds of the 1940s during World War II… transporting us back to the time of our parent’s earliest memories and our grandparent’s finest hours when America worked together towards a common desperate victory. Could such a time ever exist in this country again? It is doubtful and I believe that the ones that won that war were possibly “our greatest generation”. 
Every now and then, you will see heroes from this time at the shows, and I always try to thank them. If I had ever met my own grandfather, I would thank him too for his navy service that spanned the war and beyond.
I have been to many air shows and honestly, I have started to see the same planes repeatedly, like the AT-6 Texan above. It’s not that I do not appreciate all war birds, but variety is the spice of life. I would call this air show extra spicy.
This show had planes that I had never seen before in real life as working flyers like the incredible German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 seen above and below. This particular war bird was painted in Nazi Germany’s  battle markings. In the world of over-sensitive political correctness, I was surprised to see this. It was an amazing to see this plane diving past the crowd, and I could easily imagine American GIs hating the sight and sound of it coming in for a strafing run.
Also on the list of planes I had never seen in the flesh was the Junkers Ju 52. The design of this transport plane lasted long after the war transporting countless travelers in its civilian life.
The equivalent American C-47 troop transport was based on the design of the civilian DC-3. The air show began with paratroopers jumping in vintage parachutes which are not as controllable as modern chutes. Supposedly, one of the jumpers broke his hip the previous day. They were dropping pretty fast.
There are a lot of holes in the chute and few control surfaces to guide it. One of the jumpers had to twist madly to get the guidelines untangled. Yikes. I would not want his job.
For maximum realism, a dreaded 88mm anti-aircraft cannon simulated a flak attack. The concussion was spectacular and it probably rattled a few fillings. The scene below could have been right outside of Berlin.
There were whole units of World War II re-enactors. These guys were dedicated, even wearing woolen pants and hats in the hot sun. All uniforms seemed to be authentic down to the smallest detail like the fellow below in desert attire and a Mauser pistol that turned into a rifle. 
The Allied forces were represented too with these paratroopers. Check out the grease gun.


There were plenty of weapons to look at up close like these British Enfield rifles and a German half-track machine gun tank/car. They told us that this could fire simulated and real ammunition.
This armor-plated monster made a terrifying racket as it drove around the campsite.
Probably the rarest plane there was a British Lancaster Bomber. There are only 2 of these left flying in the world today. These were the bombers that pounded German cities at night while the American B-17s and B-24s tried for precision daytime attacks.

A P-40 Flying Tiger represented early aviation technology from the start of the war. In fact, these were used in China before the U.S.A. officially entered the war.

Overhead, the long-legged German Fieseler Fi 156 Storch (Stork) plane took reconnaissance of the area.

I used a slow shutter speed of around 1/200th of a second or slower for many of the photos taken here. The main thing that people look for in aviation photography seems to be the blur on the moving propeller. Getting a complete prop revolution to make a complete circle is the holy grail of airshow photography.

It can also lead to some interesting action photos like the panned shot above. The biggest problem with photographing fast objects with slow shutter speeds is that you will end up throwing away many blurry photos. This is a new style for me which will take more practice to perfect.

Getting a full prop rotation in your photo depends on the speed of your shutter and the speed of the propeller which changes on how much power the pilot needs. It is a good idea to try different settings to find the best combination. The P-51 Mustang below was photographed with a faster shutter or the RPMs were up.

The museum had just acquired a B-17 bomber named Chuckie for over $4,000,000.

The P-51 Mustang escorted the B-17… just like they did on the long distance bomb runs into Germany.

The British Lancaster bomber and Hawker Hurricane fighter almost repeated the exact scene.

An American AT-6 Texan salutes as British Hawker Hurricane lands.

The Russians fighters were in attendance too like this Yak-9 below… like a Soviet P-51.

And this Russian mystery airplane with an open cockpit. Looks an old race plane from the 1930s.

Local firefighters watched as this Japanese plane rolled to a smokey landing.
It had been “shot down” for the crowds by a Corsair… payback for Pearl Harbor.

It has been said that George Lucas got much of his inspiration for Star Wars from World War 2 fighting equipment. The turret below looks like an R2-D2 unit on this Grumman Avenger.

I had a model of this sea plane when I was a child. The Calypso Society used one like it in their research.

People were wearing vintage costumes too. This hot dish below may have been one of the singers who sang like the Andrews Sisters. Unfortunately, I missed the dance/concert after the air show.

It’s a good thing that we won that war otherwise, we might live in a country that speaks German and paints their planes like this one. I am pretty sure the world would be a different place.

Oct 18
Love0

Blue Angels Strafe Atlanta

By Air Show, airplanes, aviation, Blue Angels

Okay, they Blue Angels did not really strafe Atlanta, but they were flying so low that I could see the pilots in detail. I was doing an outdoor photo shoot at a tennis court when a formation of low-flying f-18 fighters came zooming overhead.

It was an awesome site to behold. I snapped a few pot shots as they went in an out of my field of view in seconds.

Jul 11
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Consolidated B-24 Liberator Bomber at Sunset

By Air Show, airplanes, aviation, corporate photography, Fantasy of Flight, Sun N Fun, Sunsets

I am in the process of sorting thousands of photos to update my photography portfolio, and I realized that some photos (for one reason or another) were never really attended to at the time I took them. Time is always in short supply and new projects mean that I have to constantly move onward.

Here is a perfect example. I took a photo of this little gem at the Fantasy of Flight aviation museum in Polk City, Florida. I was in town for the Sun & Fun Airshow and the warbird community was having a steak cook out in the hangar of the museum. The food was great, but the scenery was unmatchable… better than any restaurant I could imagine.

The airplane in the photo is a Consolidated B-24 Liberator Bomber which has to be one of the most ungainly but successful bomber designs of World War 2. It doesn’t look like it should fly, but it did, and with devastaing effect. They made over 18,000 of them for the war.

Jul 03
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2010 Sun ‘N Fun Air Show and Fly-In

By Air Show, airplanes, aviation, Florida, Sun N Fun, travel

This year I was invited by one of my friends and oldest clients to fly down the the annual air show in Lakeland, Florida known as Sun ‘N Fun. The weather was a mixed bag eventually ending in rain, but some of the time it was beautiful.

I work with Dan Ritter on the popular BugBand insect repellent products that can be found in many stores across the US and in select countries across the world. The stuff really works to protect you against mosquitoes and other pesky insects. Find out more at www.BugBand.net.

Even though this is the 2nd largest air show in the US, the crowds have been noticeably dwindling from the first time I went 5 years ago. The amount of unique airplanes showing up has dropped too. The downturn in the economy has really made it hard for some people to make the trip.

There were lots of of things on the ground to photograph and many nice people all shared the same language… “airplane.”

Imagine the damage the guns below could do…

If there’s time to lean, then there’s time to clean.

 This photo shows the scale of these amazing machines.

Because of this, they had the same air show program running many days in a row. I got fewer unique photos because I was shooting the same thing each day.

The Air Force Thunderbirds were quite good and the snuck up on me a few times almost making me jump during one of their low-altitude high-speed passes. Awesome!

VVVRROOOOOM!!!!
 

Anyway, this was the first year I took my new Canon 5D Mark 2 with me and that was probably a mistake. While the 5D is a great camera for just about any other situation, I prefer my crop body camera such as the Canon 40D or the Canon 7D because they have higher frame per second rates, better focusing and a 1.6X zoom factor.

Without getting too technical, that makes my 400mm zoom lens act like a 640mm zoom. If I use a 2X multiplier, I can get even closer to the action. That would have been useful for the scene above.

I love the explosions they set off for the crowd!

The Russian Yaks above were out in force… The photos below shows what happens right on the edge of the sound barrier.

My thought was I could use  the Canon 5D’s massive file size to grab the photo and them crop into the part of the photo that I wanted in the final crop. The crop below is about 1/4 of the full photo. Not great for enlargements.

The weather was getting downright gloomy by Saturday afternoon robbing me of valuable light for the photos.

The weather was getting downright gloomy by Saturday afternoon robbing me of valuable light for the photos.The weather was getting downright gloomy by Saturday afternoon robbing me of valuable light for the photos. To see the full 2010 Sun N Fun  photo gallery click here…

I have been going to this air show with the same people for many years and I value their friendship and camaraderie even more than the airplanes… and that is high praise.

This year I even treated myself to a biplane ride around the airport. It so much fun and I wanted to keep going… That’s me hoping my glasses don’t fly off in the wind stream…

Jul 03
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My Photograph of WWII Pilot Shown on the Local News

By airplanes, aviation, Roy Reid, Veterans, World War 2

One of my photos was used on a WXIA 11Alive news story featuring Roy Reid, a 90 year old World War 2 veteran. I was surprised to see it because I did not know it was going to be used. I had given photos to the family and the reporter ended up using one of them for the very last shot of the story. I was pleased that my work was used to help tell Roy’s story.

The story was an interest piece on how Roy spent his 90th birthday by flying a vintage airplane. You can see the video by clicking here or the picture below.

Roy Reid flying an AT-6, seventy years after flight school where he flew the same type of plane.
Apr 28
Love0

Sun N Fun 2009 Airshow

By airplanes, aviation, Sun N Fun, warbirds

Sun N Fun 2009 Photos
This year I was able to attend Sun N Fun Fly-In and Air Show in Lakeland Florida. My client and friend, Dan Ritter, flew us down in his Barron twin engine airplane. That turned a 7 hour drive into a 2 hour flight. I could get used to this.

I was there to take as many photos as possible of airplanes, especially war birds. I met up with an ace aviation photographer, Jo Hunter, who was kind enough to share some of her vast knowledge of aviation photography with me. She is definitely worth checking out at www.futurshox.net.

To view my photos check out my Sun N Fun Photo Gallery.

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