Monthly Archives: May 2012

NAS Oceana

The recent ISAP symposium took me to Norfolk VA.  It is a short drive to Virginia Beach and NAS Oceana – the home of the east coast fighter squadrons for the US Navy.  The field trip for the symposium was going to include a visit to Oceana but, since I was there ahead of the event, I decided to pay a quick visit after my arrival.  A slight delay due to travel complications and then the passing through of a pretty significant storm meant I was a little later than planned but no great problems resulted.

The weather was not great so the light was a bit sparse.  Combined with a cloudy sky, photographing grey jets is always a challenge but I was meeting up with a friend from FenceCheck.com who lives locally so there was always time to chat even if nothing was happening.  However, after a pretty quiet period, a few more jets got up and started flying.  I was supposed to be leaving to go and pick up a friend from the airport but the storm that I had come through was not alone and his inbound flight was significantly delayed.  Therefore, I had the time to see what else would fly.

The activity kept going for a bit was the light was fading fast and my ISO settings were getting higher and higher.  Since the time to pick up my friend was now approaching, I decided to pack up my stuff.  Another jet arrived as I did so.  This didn’t bother me until I realized it was one of the CONA painted aircraft so the kit was rapidly extracted again and a few shots taken.  Then it really was time to go.

Thanks for the advice on the spot to those concerned and also for the chance to catch up.  Maybe not the most ideal conditions but still a fun way to kill an hour or two.

Lightroom 4 and ACR

One of the guest speakers at ISAP this year was Scott Kelby.  Nikon have sponsored Scott to speak at ISAP in the past and it was good that they brought him again this year.  He had a longer slot than in past events and so was able to go into a great level of detail in what he discussed.  He also brought his normal style of presenting which combines a lot of humor with the educational elements.  I find him a good guy to listen to.

I learned a lot of little things from him during the course of his presentation but today I want to focus on just one thing.  This relates to the processing of images using Lightroom 4 and Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6.  As he pointed out throughout his session and for those of you that don’t already know, these two things are exactly the same.  The processing engine and the controls are identical and the images can be processed in either and get exactly the same results.

What I found fascinating was the level of aggressiveness possible with the controls.  Having used the previous three versions of Lightroom, I have become accustomed to just how much I can use the sliders without the whole thing becoming a total mess.  With Lightroom 4 there is a new processing engine available and the sliders have been changed in their functionality.  I have been getting used to them and experimenting a little with what they do.

What Scott showed us was that you can really be a lot more forceful with the slider use.  Previously, if you used too much of a slider, the image would begin to look really bad.  Now, the sliders are a lot better controlled and you can use far more of the available range without everything becoming scary.  Scott’s methodology through the sequence of sliders also helps out with this.  After his lecture, I went to the laptop and had a go.  It was true.  You really can be a lot more aggressive and the results are really good rather than horrifying!  This was a great learning opportunity and will significantly impact how I approach things in future as well as making me revisit a few previous shots!

Back from ISAP

Another year’s ISAP symposium has drawn to a close and we have all headed home (or straight off to other assignments for some!).  This was a good year overall and I had a lot of fun.  Having been to a number of them over the years I have built up a number of friends that it is good to see as well as enjoying the content of the presentations.  Not everyone was there this year and I missed the presence of a few people but, hopefully, they will be back at the next event.

I saw a lot of fun things and got some shots so expect to see a few more posts in the coming days that show some of what we saw.

128th ARW Open House

A short drive north of Chicago is Milwaukee.  The main airport at Milwaukee is General Mitchell International and, aside from the commercial services that operate there, the Wisconsin Air National Guard also has a unit based on the field.  It has a fleet of KC-135 tankers operated by the 128 Aerial Refueling Wing.  Periodically, they have an open house  and I went up to the recent event.

This is not an air show.  The field remains open and normal flight operations continue.  However, the ANG unit takes the chance to show off what they do to the local community and let them know what is going on with their tax dollars.  They also invite others to bring aircraft in to give the visitors a variety of things to see.  These visitors include aircraft from other Air Force units, a helicopter from the army and a variety of vintage aircraft, many from the local area.

The event took place over two days of the weekend.  The Sunday looked better from a weather perspective so that is the day I went for.  It proved to be a good choice with plenty of sun but temperatures staying very comfortable.  What I didn’t appreciate was the additional benefit of it being Mother’s Day.  I got their early for the better light but most people were spending time showing their mothers that they love them.  Since I am 4,000 miles from my mum, a personal visit was a little impractical!  It did make for a quiet ramp for quite a while though.

As the day progressed, plenty more people showed up and they probably achieved their goals for sharing with the local community.  I got to chat with a number of interesting people and, since it was quiet, was able to have more than a passing conversation.  I also met a few people who might be interested in some follow up work for the magazine so the trip was productive as well as fun.

I got a few shots of airliners as well as the aircraft on the ramp.  We were also lucky that one of the based KC-135s launched on a mission while I was there so a shot of that flying helped out a lot.  Since it isn’t an air show, that was a nice extra!  I hope to get back up to the unit in due course and find out more about them and maybe put together a more detailed piece on their history and operations.

Some Minor League Fun

A recent work trip took me to Indianapolis for a few days.  A client was down there at a facility and I was meeting with them on a number of topics over a few days.  Since we were all staying away from home, we had free time at the end of the day when we could go out and see what the local area had to offer.  The first night I was there, the rest of the guys had already worked out what they wanted to do so I was happy to tag along.

Indianapolis has a minor league baseball team, the Indians.  They are based at a nice ballpark close the the heart of downtown.  For those that have been following this blog for a while, you will recall that Nancy and I had a weekend in Indianapolis last year when the baby elephant was first appearing in public at the zoo.  The hotel we stayed in was very close to the ballpark and from one end of the building you got a great view of it from above.

This time I was going to get to see the inside of the park and enjoy an evening of baseball.  It should be noted that I am not much of a baseball fan.  I know some imports like me that are huge fans of the game but I have never really got into it.   I used to think that it was something you had to grow up with but that is obviously not the case given the friends I have that have got into it.  For me, it is another sport I am happy to watch but one that doesn’t get me passionate.  As with many sports, though, seeing it in person is so much more fun than watching it on TV.

A trip to the ballpark is a social experience for me.  You get to hang out in a (usually) good-natured crowd, watch some sport, eat some food that you wouldn’t normally bother with and drink some beer.  On a warm evening, there really isn’t much to complain about with that.  If you don’t know either of the teams, you tend to root for the home guys and, in this case, that worked out pretty well since they won convincingly.

I took my camera along because I knew that we were heading to the game before I left home.  It was an evening game and the stand was blocking the sun from the west so light was always going to be an issue.  As the game wore on, the ISO settings went higher and higher.  Looking at the shots at full zoom, they really show the impact of the noise.  However, since these are small versions of the shots, they shouldn’t look too bad.  They were never intended for publication so it is far better to have clarity of the shot than to have a lot of blurry shots with low noise!

I was shooting with the 100-400 which is not a great low light lens at the best of times but it did reasonably well.  I also took along the fisheye zoom since a sports stadium is an interesting shape for that type of lens.  The park allowed you to walk all around the perimeter so I did take a stroll at one point to see what everything looked like from other parts of the ground.  It was nice to see the different perspectives.

I did try shooting from directly behind the batter’s position as the pitcher faced me.  The netting is a problem here, of course.  A faster lens may have better allowed me to take the net out of focus but it was already pretty dark by then so I was fighting on a few fronts.  It didn’t really matter of course.  I was doing this for fun and if the shots are not quite Sports Illustrated standard, I am not going to lose too much sleep.

A fun night out and a win for “our” team.  In the end, that was enough and getting to take a few pictures along the way only made it better. Thanks for the idea guys.

Glorious Cheating!

The moon was supposed to be at its biggest recently. I was all ready to head down to the lakefront and get some shots as it rose and the atmosphere magnified it to the greatest extent possible. However, as the afternoon started to wind down, the fog started to roll in. As the sun was setting, the fog banks were wafting between the buildings around us and you couldn’t see the harbor wall let alone the horizon. Oh well, what can you do?

As the evening rolled on, the fog finally cleared out but, by then, it was too late. The moon did appear amongst some of the buildings so, while it didn’t look significantly different to normal, I still decided to get a couple of shots. The problem with this is that the moon is effectively in sunlight while the city is in night. The top picture is the cheat that resulted. Below are the two shots I took next to each other. One was exposed for the buildings and the other was for the moon. A bit of layering and masking in Photoshop was necessary to get the result at the top. I am not a Photoshop wizard and I suspect those that know their stuff would tell me why it is not as well executed as it could be but this was hardly a client job! Just a bit of fun.

Theater With the Personal Touch

Our trip to Woodstock included poking our heads into the Opera House on the square.  An old building that has history dating back to the early days of the town, we were nosing around the front door when a passing lady told us to head inside.  I was not going to bother but she was quite insistent so we did head in.  One of the staff was in the lobby and greeted us warmly.  He suggested that we should wander around upstairs if we wanted.

We headed up to the auditorium.  It was great.  A small venue so everyone was very close to the stage.  It seemed really cozy.  There was a balcony too so we checked that out as well.  They have a variety of acts throughout the year so the place seems very busy.  They had a musical on that evening but they also had music acts performing at varying times.

The restoration of the place was nicely done and it was in great condition but also felt suitable period.  While Woodstock is not a big town , it does appear that you could keep yourself entertained with the the various acts coming through on a regular basis.  Not only that but the friendliness with which we were greeted by everyone really made you glad to have made the trip.

One last picture of something interesting.  Some of the original seats are on display in the lobby by the box office.  Not a comfy as the present seats, perhaps, but they do have a feature that few seats have today.  Under the seat is a wire frame in which a gentleman can slot his wide brimmed hat during the performance.  Probably a common feature in years gone by but certainly a novelty now.

ISAP Here I Come

It is that time of year again when ISAP members get together to share knowledge, learn knew things, see what each other have been up to and generally have a lot of fun.  Throw in some chances to shoot some great airplanes and you have a great time.  I can hardly wait.  Hopefully more to report from the trip.  We even have an air show tucked in at the end of the weekend so it should be fun.

You shall find out more when it happens – or a little while afterwards…  Blogging might be a bit sporadic while I am gone.