Answering the call to Photography

I’ve been keeping myself occupied with my models. But last weekend, I didn’t want to spend it torturing plastic again. Sunday morning, I felt the familiar itch to go somewhere locally and do some photography. So, I grabbed up my gear and headed downtown. I had no expectations about this brief trip. I just wanted to spend some time behind my camera. While driving to Detroit, I figured something on Belle isle should be in bloom. And the large patches of yellow lilies on the approach to the bridge to the island was very promising. Once there, the crisp morning light illuminated the Detroit skyline against some approaching dark and moody clouds. I made my way over to the fountain where to my delight the Cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

Soon the angry sky was overhead, the sharp contrasting light faded, and a light rain slowly overtook the island. And in a spirited pace, I made my way back to the comfort of my car where I sipped on my coffee and reviewed my shots. With the rain beginning to let up, I wondered if there were any tulips in bloom around the conservatory. As I got closer, I spotted numerous colorful signs of spring blossoms. But unfortunately, the conservatory was closed. That was strike one.

Well, let’s go hit up those patches of lilies before the bridge. I headed off the island and found parking close by the lily patches, but this would be strike two. The passing rain clouds was still hiding the Sun, making the shots flat and muted. But my itch to keep making photos was still strong. So, I drove into downtown to look for other spring blossoms. If anything, it would chew up some time for the sky to clear and maybe come back to the lilies later.

answering_the_Call_5

Driving through the city, rekindled my love for Detroit. All the familiar sites along with some new ones. But still no tulips. So, I headed down Grand River boulevard to check for some new street art. There were a few blocks that was the epicenter for graffiti in Detroit. But now, there’s barely any to be found. I did manage to spot a new piece by Sintex and other artists. I’ll call this a foul ball.

With the sky slowly clearing and my desire to photograph some tulips unfulfilled, I head back downtown. I made my way to Campus Martius and guess what was in bloom and seem to be peppered everywhere? Tulips! Red, white, yellow, pink, orange… holy fuck! Where can I park? Eagerly searching for a spot, minutes seemed like hours and all the pretty little petals would be dead and gone before I would find a parking spot. After what seemed like a week, I found one.

Parked about two blocks away from the little beauties, I’m now facing a problem. What lense to bring? The 24-70mm or the 70-200mm? Fuck it, the 24-70 should be enough Right?! I slapped in on my 5DSR, put everything else out of sight, lock up and make my way to the plethora of tulips. Finally, tulips in bloom and in some gorgeous light. But after about 5 or 6 shots, I found myself wanting more focal length. The 24-70 could not get in close enough to produce the images in my minds eye.

Time to hike back to the car, switch lenses, walk back and continue shooting. This time, after the first few shots, I heard myself say, “I love this lense”. Home Run!

After using up all my bag of tricks and finally fulfilling my desire to photograph some tulips, it was time to head back home. Despite the hiccups, it was good to get out of my pandemic weekend routine and practice one of my other passions.

Until next time, stay safe and keep busy!

Steven

The Story Behind an Image, Part 6

Ever since 2004, I’ve had a passionate love affair with photography. And come to discover that I have a fondness with photos that comes with a story. Over the years, I have shot a few of them. Here’s the next installment in my “The Story behind an Image” series.

Part 6: The start of a new chapter

This story starts back in 2005 after months of penny-pinching saving, I had finally recovered and upgraded my gear from my break in at my apartment. I acquired at the time Canons new 20D and both their 100-400mm zoom and the 400mm F/5.6 prime lense. But after shooting with both at various events, I felt having them both was redundant. And wanted to narrow it down to one lense I preferred most.

It came down to the classic photographer’s argument of zoom versus prime. What’s more important, versatility or clarity? For me the brighter exposure and its tack sharpness of the 400 5.6 won me over. As well as its image quality was far superior to the zoom and it was an absolute joy to shoot.

Another contributing factor why I got rid of the zoom was during this time in my juvenile love affair with photography, I had a growing concern about the “look” of my images. Specifically, what’s going to set my images apart from others? Especially images from those who attend the same events as I. Since the vast majority of air show photographers prefer using a zoom lense over primes. I chose to shoot strictly prime. But doing so comes with its own issues. The most obvious is its lack of versatility in its inability to zoom. The way I coped with this inability was to concentrate on composition and trying to fill the frame with my subject with little to no negative space.

It’s worth mentioning during this time the highest resolution sensor Canon had was only 16 megapixels with the 1D mk2. Which was totally out of my price range. With such a low megapixel count to today’s standards, tight cropping was very noticeable, and you saw it in the image quality. And my 20D was only 8.2 megapixels and it struggled to shoot 5 frames a second. Without a consistent high frame rate, it made it pretty damn difficult to get a full frame uncropped image of a close flying aircraft successfully.

It was also during this time I discovered I fancied capturing images of warbirds much more than the sleek modern jets. To me, they are like living machines with these old massive engines for hearts. I love the fact that they were painstakingly restored by hand and maintained with great affection. And I sought out aviation events that cater to them. In July I stumbled upon “The Greatest show on Turf”. A warbird show that is held on a grass field in Geneseo, New York. From my apartment in Michigan, it was nearly 6 hours away. If I remember correctly, my plan was to drive to Geneseo on Saturday and stay the night at a hotel. Check out Sunday morning and head down to the show. Then after a day of photographing airplanes in the summer sun, make the grueling six-hour trip back to Michigan so I can go back to work bright and early Monday morning. Looking back now, I was 29 at the time and I know I can’t handle a weekend of that pace these days.

I remember on the drive over being so intoxicated with excitement about the show. I’ve never been to that part of New York before as well as seeing warbirds operate on a grass field. Entertaining all my wild expectations about this virgin show of mine, I drove on into the night. After arriving at the hotel, I found something for dinner and was off to bed.

From the hotel, it was a scenic 30-minute drive to the airfield. And my unexplored airshow questions had a child like rhythm to them in my head during the trip down. The most frequent was, what direction is the crowd line in relationship with the path of the Sun? That has become my main and driving question of what aviation events I will attend. And to my surprise, the event runs southwest to the northeast, with the crowd line facing northwest. Meaning the Sun was to be at are back for most of the day. But come late afternoon, it maybe a bit tricky but nothing that could not be avoided.

I recall flying started early with trainers then worked its way to the fighters. And earlier on in the show the vintage aerial display was interrupted by two New York Air National guard F-16s and performed a couple of spirited passes. I quickly switched over to aperture priority, selected F/5.6, composed my subject and held the shutter down. And as quickly as they showed up, they were heading home. While chimping, I came across the image that is so closely tied to this story.

Since I began shooting aviation events, there is always that one image you want to be razor sharp. You must remember; this was 2005 and the resolution of the LCD screens on the back of cameras were shit. What looked sharp on the rear screen versus what is sharp on your monitor were two different things. The show continued and afterwards I said my goodbyes to sleepy little Geneseo and drove back to Michigan.

After an interminable and exhausting day at work, I finally got to view my images for the past weekend. And to my amazement, the one image I was fixated on was absolutely razor sharp. When viewed full size, you can clearly read the name of the crew chief on the side of the canopy. It’s what this image did for my confidence in my abilities as a photographer and was a turning point in my photographic journey. My mindset changed from “I hope I can” to “I can” capture images with the look I want. Like any creative individual, having the confidence in yourself and your gear is huge. It’s ironic, I went to Geneseo to capture warbird images and unexpectedly gained confidence in an image of a modern fighter.

FAR_71

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My Nerdy Binge List

There are plenty of lists out there, but this one is mine. I love science fiction and well written dramas. There are some popular shows that are not on my list, either because I haven’t got around to them or just not interested. I tend to stay away from cooking, reality and “Who done it” crime shows. You probably noticed I did not put descriptions about any of the series. I have found that shows and movies are so much better when you have little to no knowledge about them. I also added a list of my favorite YouTubers. Enjoy!

Name of Series Where to watch in parenthesis as of March of 2021
Star Trek: The Next Generation, DS9, Voyager (Netflix/Hulu)
Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access)
Stargate: SG1, Atlantis, Universe (Amazon Prime, Netflix/Hulu)
Battlestar Galactica 2004 series (Amazon, not Prime)
Dr Who (HBO MAX)
The Expanse (Amazon Prime)
Farscape (Amazon Prime)
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) Be warned, it’s dark.
Dark Matter (Netflix)
Orphan Black (Amazon Prime)
The X-Files (Hulu)
Firefly (Hulu)
Hell of Wheels (???)
Breaking Bad (Netflix)
Better call Saul (Netflix)
Longmire (Netflix)
Luther (HBO MAX)
Dexter (Hulu/Amazon Prime)
The Walking Dead (Netflix)
House of Cards (Netflix)
Black Mirror (Netflix) Be warned, it’s dark.
Love, Death + Robots (Netflix)
Star War: Clone Wars (Disney Plus)
The Mandalorian (Disney Plus)
Rick and Morty (Hulu, HBO MAX)
Bobs burgers (Hulu)
Archer (Hulu)
The Orville (Hulu)
Defiance (Netflix)
Red Dwarf (Amazon Prime)
Mystery Science Theater 3000(Amazon Prime, Netflix)
Continuum (???)
Torchwood (HBO MAX)
Humans (Amazon Prime)
Futurama (Hulu

Favorite YouTubers
Knowing Better (Educational)
Nerdwriter 1 (Video Essay)
This old Tony (Maker)
CGP Gray (Educational)
Kiwami Japan (Maker)
My Mechanic (Maker)
Captain Joe (Aviation)
Marques Brownlee (Best Tech reviewer on YouTube)
Michael Cthulhu (Big sword Maker)
Bay Area Bugs (Gamer/Humor)
Polecat324 (Gamer/Humor)
ralfidude (Flight Sim/Humor)
Night Shift (Modelmaker)
NileRed (Educational)
Applied Science (Educational)
Sean Tucker (Photography)
Tom Scott (Educational)
Emmanuel Acho (Educational)
Mighty Car Mods (Auto/Entertainment)
Wendover Production (Educational)
Clickspring (Amazing craftsmen)
Practical Engineering (Educational)
SmarterEveryDay (Educational)
Economics explain (Educational)

And if you’re still bored? Take a look here…https://anadventureinawesome.com/2020/03/30/bored-and-in-lock-down-how-to-keep-yourself-occupied/

What are some of your favorite binge worthy shows? Along with who are the YouTubers you enjoy watching?

Stay safe and keep busy,
Steven

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