Tentacle, I think you are taking my point out of context. The remote efforts in that era were not successful for deployment. Therefore, there was no threat to the 'flyboys'. The 'flyboys' from that era had egos that needed to be challenged. My 'opinion' is, they would not have appreciated a successful UAV for combat.

ps: I will say that the mechanics in those days may have appreciated UAV's with no pilots.

bobl wrote:
jbear,
Thanks for the kind words. Yes, the BASIC idea is to aim the lights through the sides/top/bottom of the tent, whichever is necessary for a particular shot. However, you said you find what works best for the situation and go with it. and that' perzakly what you do. If the way it's 'supposed' to be done isn't working, try something else 'til it all comes together. I imagine it's a lot like that when you're capturing the screamin' beauties.

Thanks again!

This is something that can also be a fun DIY project.

Get some foam board and vellum paper at Michael's - some white shipping paper from Office Depot and you are set. Can adjust to any size that you need.

Cheap and fun.

Jon,
Way cool set! The only ONLY nit is the reflection of the wall/door?/light in the front element of the lens. Nice control of the shadows and great clarity. Good job all 'round.

Bob,

Thanks! Yeah...I should have controlled that a bit more. I think this was an early "getting the lighting right" shot.

This "light boxes" are a lot of fun on a rainy day, or if you have to produce some product shots. Good fun.

Jon,
"light boxes" are a lot of fun on a rainy day
Boy, you said it and here on the coast we have had about two weeks of high winds (70-90mph), high surf and heavy rain. Having a light box has really helped diminish cabin fever.

For home made backdrops and shooting small stuff - i prefer old magazines. Adds color where you need it and makes for a more interesting image than simple white can do. At least in dental circles where i use my small item photography... most of the other guys there use plain white or plain blue or mirrors.

This image has a Popular Photography magazine as it's background and the image is of a bloody implant part - used to highlight the lack of proper blood-borne pathogen infection control procedures in the dental office. (All blood must be removed from the implant parts before sending to the lab)
The second image is an implant case with a copy of Dental Dialogue behind it. DD has some of the best macro photography and creative use of photography I've seen. I'm showing this one with more of the mag cover in focus - but the one i used had it well out of focus.

jbear,
THANKS FOR THE TERRIFIC IDEER!!!!!!!
doh... why didn't I think of that??

You're welcome my friend. I can set up a macro shot in about 10 minutes in a very small space and when the background is the half of a mag cover that doesn't have a lot of type on it - i dont have to move that far back. I find the 100 2.8 at just less than arms length works well... as i often am holding hemostats with the object on them with my left hand and the camera with the right - using the "sway" focus technique.

I don't have the time or area to set up a large table with studio lights most of the time so I use the macro twin light and leave one on the lens at about 12:00 and hold the other for off-camera dramatic effect.

That's why I've thought of the tent setup - but I have my eye on one about half the size of yours.

Check out this page at B&H... http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?ci=1410&N=4294550797

I have the large 31.5" cube by Photoflex, but I see there are other smaller ones which just might work for you.

Bob,

It is also nice to have a small sheet of glass laying around that would fit into your light tent. Then you can get some nice reflections of your product/subject while shooting it.

Love the mag idea. It is also fun to use other solid color backgrounds or to gel a background light with a snoot/grid to get some color involved.

Lots of things that you can do with these light boxes.

Thanks Bob - that link makes me want to spend money!

JWilsonphoto wrote:

I apologize! Isn't that what we do now, apologize? Right, wrong or indifferent, just apologize, it's much easier to do that than make the difficult choices that require character. I was in a meeting yesterday where some very bright people discussed the very real possibility that this administration will continue to spend us into hyper-inflation in the next 12/24 months with absolutely no positive result from the rampant printing of money (we don't have), other than plunging an already teetering economy into a second and deeper economic debacle. And before you lambaste me, know that I am bipartisan, I'd like to fire them all and begin again, with some people who understand that they "serve" the citizenry and possibly this fresh group might have some memory of what it's like to work several jobs to make ends meet and that you just don't throw trillions out the window and call 1-800-CHINA when you can't pay your bills. Oh yeah, and how about when you have a radical in a leadership role in a branch of your armed services, have the cajones to weed him or her out, instead of "watching" them until they launch jihad and murder a dozen of our heroes. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see this collection of neophytes and crooks are in way over their heads and we can ill afford an experiment at this stage, nor can the world afford for us to be experimenting and borrowing truckloads of money from regimes that intensely dislike us.



Just had to point out something about the rampant printing of money for you JW.

Most of your countries debts are in straight US dollars.

China is the country who stands to lose the most in terms of outright cash from the US. They have currently seen the real value of the debt owed to it from the US drop by over 20%. They are intensely worried about this and frankly I cannot believe most Americans don't know this.

The drop in the value of the US dollar will eventually see the return of the US Manufacturing industry ramping up exports.

The tough times ahead will see Americans do what they have always done in tough times. Succeed. It is for this reason alone the US Dollar still has legs whereas most other countries in this situation would have seen their currency dumped a long time ago.

Chin up dude.

JWilsonphoto wrote:
Dear Mike,

That must be the heavy duty training undercarriage variant they used in Jeff M's squadron.
Well we were based in Texas, and did fly Phantoms....Maybe because a lot of the pilots were Texans? Who knows......

What kind of squadron were you in Mr Wheeeeeelson? Or did you not serve?

jbear,

that link makes me want to spend money!

No problem! That's what friends are for

Slug69, the dirty little secret of US manufacturing is that our government has been striving to shut it down since the 1970's. The US has very little "manufacturing" capabilities compared to the middle of the 20th century. At best, we assemble and integrate foreign manufactured components. Our government's environmental protections and occupational, safety and health regulations have virtually shut down manufacturing. Our current administration is trying to shut down our oil and fuel manufacturing with their cap and trade policy. Where is our steel industry? China. We mine the ore, fill the ships in the Great Lakes, ship it to China, it is returned as manufactured metals.

The irony: the manufacturing labor unions have been providing finacial support to the political party that continues to shrink their ranks. But, that political party scratches the palms of the union leaders who get very high pay, so they don't care. I am amazed how things work here.

I wondered if there were some Aircraft threads on FM...now I know! I've spent half a day going though the 600 pages and am just blown away by the captures.

I scored a media pass to the Avalon Airshow 2005 and took my 300D and a borrowed 70-200 f/4 along for 2 days. Smallest lens on the flight line However, it was great fun and I am really looking forward to getting out and taking some more aircraft shots at the next airshow. Here's some captures from amongst the 3k shots I took, hope they are suitable...

BAe Hawk 127 A27-16

Looks like you're gonna fit right in here, Scott! Welcome!!!

Wrei wrote:
Slug69, the dirty little secret of US manufacturing is that our government has been striving to shut it down since the 1970's. The US has very little "manufacturing" capabilities compared to the middle of the 20th century. At best, we assemble and integrate foreign manufactured components. Our government's environmental protections and occupational, safety and health regulations have virtually shut down manufacturing. Our current administration is trying to shut down our oil and fuel manufacturing with their cap and trade policy. Where is our steel industry? China. We mine the ore, fill the ships in the Great Lakes, ship it to China, it is returned as manufactured metals.

The irony: the manufacturing labor unions have been providing finacial support to the political party that continues to shrink their ranks. But, that political party scratches the palms of the union leaders who get very high pay, so they don't care. I am amazed how things work here.

Dear Slug,

I'm not sure how it will ever turn around. I've never been much of a conspiracy theorist, but it sure looks like these people are trying to do everything they can to destroy what made America great. They've realized that they can build a voting block of people who are too wealthy to care and people who pay little or no taxes so they have no skin in the game. The rest of us are like deer in the headlights trying to keep doing what we do while it all crumbles around us. Being born in Chicago, I'm very familiar with The Windy City's political techniques and now they have taken on a global scope. Doubly maddening is the fact that the "Republicans" virtually paved the way for this with their wishy washy policies. Where do you turn?

Thanks for the vote of confidence Slug! I'd be worried if I was the Chinese. I'm sure we'll give them a couple of states or something if it gets really tough. I heard something interesting today. Self employed people drive the US economy, when they don't have any business and fold, it doesn't enter into the unemployment figures unless they have employees who file. I know dozens of people who have just quietly folded their tent and walked away.

Dear Scott,

Nice work, and a warm welcome to our group! Keep them coming. Tell us a bit about yourself.

JW

Excellent photos Scott. Love the reflection of light on the F111 from it's dump 'n burn.

JWilson, at the couple of states or something line.

Wrei - I think, excluding car production, Unions in the US don't have as much strength as they used to. In regards to the environmental protection and OSH rules smothering US Manufacturing I would say those restrictions are minor compared to the overwhelming fact it is cheaper build things paying someone $2 a day rather than $50.00. At least Americans can live and actually see the sky some days.

Another welcome Scott
and great to see another from Australia on the thread

Something a bit different for me, at Mascot early November in the early evening
Last one I desaturated the blue, would like some help on these if someone has the time. thanks regards

Slug69 wrote:
Excellent photos Scott. Love the reflection of light on the F111 from it's dump 'n burn.

JWilson, at the couple of states or something line.

Wrei - I think, excluding car production, Unions in the US don't have as much strength as they used to. In regards to the environmental protection and OSH rules smothering US Manufacturing I would say those restrictions are minor compared to the overwhelming fact it is cheaper build things paying someone $2 a day rather than $50.00. At least Americans can live and actually see the sky some days.

Plus which the example used for enviro problems and manufacturing was steel. The Japanese nuked/outproduced the US steel industry back in the 60's. I think that was long before most of the environmental stuff really got going. Union salaries have more to do with US manufacturing problems than anything else (as the auto makers have discovered.)

BTW, love this thread and always check it. Amazing photos. (I'm just a lurker at the moment; mostly a birds/nature photographer but I do love watching aircraft do their stuff. The Blue Angels rock.)

Welcome Paul! Birds fly, show us some of your work!!

JW

DrScott...

hope they are suitable...

Suitable? SUITABLE!!?? Surely you jest?!? They way and above suitable. Welcome aboard!

BL