Man Don! A pea shooter in Illinois in February, you're a better man than I. We lived in Springfield, IL for quite a while and my biplane spent much of the winter in the hangar. I do have a shot someone took (in disbelief I guess) of me taxiing out in a Great Lakes at Decatur, the ground is white as can be. I went up for a couple loops and rolls, I remember it was like one of those headaches you get from drinking a slurpee too fast. Youth!
Unfortunately because of our suicidal "friends" people with an interest in aviation are relegated to remaining behind a chain link fence at most of our airports. Gone are the days when you could walk out on to the ramp or into the grass and get close to aviation. There still are a few fields where you can commune with pilots and planes but enjoy them while they last, and it isn't coming back. This limits the perpsectives one can capture photographically. If I see someone standing behind the chain link and barbed wire with their little one's I'll bring them down to the hangar and pull out some planes, or load them on the golf cart and bring them out to the flight line. We need to keep the fire alive!
JW
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Nov 13, 2006 at 01:56 PM GMT (Reason: spelling)
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Jan 27, 2007 at 06:19 PM GMT
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Sep 04, 2007 at 06:31 PM GMT
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Man Don! A pea shooter in Illinois in February, you're a better man than I. We lived in Springfield, IL for quite a while and my biplane spent much of the winter in the hangar. I do have a shot someone took (in disbelief I guess) of me taxiing out in a Great Lakes at Decatur, the ground is white as can be. I went up for a couple loops and rolls, I remember it was like one of those headaches you get from drinking a slurpee too fast. Youth!
JW
I was a kid then, to young and dumb and willing to fly anything at any time. Bill was quite a guy. Those that aren't familiar he was probably the first to actually restore warbirds not just convert them like Cavaliar. He had at the time 3 P-51's 2 P-40's, a P-38, T-6, B25 Mk XVI Spit (SL721). Also in the hangar he had a Grumman GulfHawk the F3F series though this was a 2 seater. LOTS of TOYS for a kid like me to be around and play with. Bill, working with the actor Cliff Robertson, restored a Mk IX Spit that was used in the movie Battle of Britian and others since.
Man Jim,
These pictures truly are amazing. The colors, sharpness, clarity, framing and all...WOW...WOW...WOW.
Some of them are museum quality I'd say. Goes to show you what a skilled photographer and a quality camera can do. I've been drooling over the MKII but $7500 for a camera body will never happen. My 20D kiks butt as pretty well though. How is it processing picture files that size from that camera ? Some of my 20D shots end up around 50-100 megs and my poor computer will hardly open them, some it just won't. Do you get special passes at air shows or are you in the Military ? Do you shoot these for fun or is this your work ? If it is your work you've got a kool but dangerous job and very good at it.
Thanks for all the post, these really are professional grade wall hangers.
Do you print these out or do you have it done ?
Psssss...I typed this all up last Thursday and am just now getting to sending it. I have wireless at work so download speeds are better then the 26k at home. ( Yes I said 26k Dial up. )...I have only been thru page 26 so I look forward to see the other posts. 307 post and 15,704 views...YOUR DOING SOMETHING RIGHT. Thanks for your pictures and kind words to all of us. We envy you.
Thanks for your kind words. I shoot with 2 1DsMKII bodies, a 1Ds, and a1DMKII. The processing isn't really a big dal because I've got a dual processor Mac G5 that really rocks. Storage and back up are a little bit of a challenge. next to my G5 are two shelves each containing six LaCie 2TB drives. One shelf is configured as a Raid the second shelf configured as individual drives backing up all the files on the Raid, ugh! I also burn everything to DVD's as soon as I get back from an assignment.
I am a commercial shooter with specialties in the areas of architecture, aviation and advertising so I shoot quite a variety of subjects. You can see examples on my website.I am fortunate in that my work is in fairly high demand and widely known so I do get opportunities to be places most shooters can't get to. I do love this dearly, but it is a business as well and you can never lose sight of that. My schedules is physically and mentally arduous, and I don't have the luxury of ever being off my game. That being said, I wouldn't trade it for anything. The buck really stops at the freelance photographer's feet, if the product he or she produces is not top notch, there's only one place to look. The good side of that is that you have complete control and it is your own personal product, very satisfying. in answer to your question, "Do you shoot these for fun, or is it your work?", the answer is yes to both. I am not in the military but have been flying for over thirty years and have had the opportunity to fly just about everything with wings in that time span.
My prints are done typically by a lab here in Dallas. I have not succumbed to printing my own yet, but I must say I'm leaning that direction with the new line of Canon Pro Printers just released. Hope you enjoy page 27 on!
Sincerely,
Jim Wilson
www.Jimwilsonphotography.com
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Jan 27, 2007 at 06:21 PM GMT
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Sep 04, 2007 at 06:32 PM GMT
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Sep 04, 2007 at 06:33 PM GMT
Thank you! I never expected the response I've gotten on these images. You all are wondeful. I think this has been a catalyst for a number of things I've known I should do, seminars being one.
as someone who is just entering into the photographic world your images are truly inspiring. What i wouldn't give to have an opportunity to pick your brain. I can only hope to attain as solid of a portfolio as you.
Thank you! At the behest of a number of fine folks on this thread, I'm working on putting some seminars together. The task is a bit daunting because I'd like the seminars to be much more than I talk, ya'll listen and spend money. Seminars aren't inexpensive and with the additional costs of hotel, travel, etc., I think the person giving one should make sure it's of great value to the attendees. Some considerations ( and please, everyone weigh in) are :
Do you want to try to make money as a photographer?
Do you want to hone your photographic techniques so your Killer shot ratio increases in relation to the time you put in?
Is the answer "Yes" to both those questions?
Do you want a field trip associated with the seminar. like a morning at a private airport shooting great planes on the ground and ground to air?
Are there a few that would like to actually have an air to air session? This would be expensive but would be quite an experience for those interested.
Would you like to have a cart full of Canon or Nikon gear to try out on our field trip?
I've had offers from several very prominent aviation museums to base a seminar at their facility, would that be of interest?
You see how a gathering would need to be tailored to the needs of the group. If the goal is a Friday evening and Saturday with a presentation consisting of aircraft images and discussions about techniques, you could have as many people attend as would fit in the facility. On the other hand, if we wanted to do the Friday evening, Saturday morning presentation and Saturday afternoon field trip, twenty or 25 people would be the maximum so quality time could be given to each person.
A big factor to consider is pricing. You could do the big group, no field trip for considerably less than any of the other options. I've gotten a great deal of feedback from hotel sources, caterers, and pilots over the past week. My guess right now would be $500.00 to $1,000 per person depending on the style of event. Does that throw cold water on anybody's desire to attend?
Let's not clog up Fred's great site with this particular aspect of the discussion. Anyone can feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] and we can see how viable this idea really is. Once again, I wouldn't have any interest in doing it if it wasn't designed to be a very productive, memorable event for all. Because of my friends and business associates, I think we could make sure it was!
What a nice feel this composition has! Where are you based? I know it can't be anywhere near Texas with that green grass. Keep up the good work! Get me a pass and I'll come hang with you sometime.
Good job on the prop motion. You can't do much about the time of day, they fly when they fly. Don't you wish airshows were scheduled between dawn and 10 am and 4pm to dusk! We've got one at Alliance Field in Ft. Worth that is the worst. The flightline faces west and nothing significant flies until about 2 so you can imagine. You want a laugh? I realized that I was actually going to be in town this year for that show so I e-mailed the person in charge of credentials to see if I could get a vip pass, really just for parking. I offered everything that I would shoot for their promotional use next year. The day before the show some ditz e-mails me back and says, nope. No good deed goes unpunished, you should see the stuff they use for promo.
Thanks for rescueing our thread from oblivion. Nice shot! The 22 is amazing as far as capability, but somehow it just lacks the character of previous fighters. But then again, look at a Mustang next to an F-16, we gain in technology but regress in sexy. I guess these ships do have other purposes than being great photographic subjects. So nice of the Dept. of Defense to spend all that money so we'd have cool things to shoot..."I love dis country!"
Your air-to-air shots are just amazing! Great work and efforts! I think the one of most great part of your posts is sharing with us your valuable successful experience in aviation photography industry. This is just incredible!
If you have time, can you spend few minutes to take a look some my air show photos. I will highly appreciate your comments and suggestions. Thanks!
I bought a print from Jim for my brother for his birthday. He just turned the big 60. He loved the photo Jim.. You definitely are a master in taking these type of photos...
Thanks again.
