Jim, this morning around 11ish I took off from the Uniform taxiway at Addison in a R-44 and heard your callsign "Photo 1". I think you were in a skymaster? The last I heard you were requesting clearance over DFW for a shoot directly west. Pretty cool.
That was probably a guy that flys out of Aero Country and uses Photo One until the controllers tell him he's Photo Two. He shoots air to ground while simultaneously flying a Skymaster and does it all for about a hundred bucks. Not a market I'm interested in, but there's a number of people that do it. My inclination is to head for cover when someone is doing that.
I'm sure they forgot it in a rush for their plane and were too afraid to call back looking for it. Needless to say, I drove free Avis cars for quite a while after that. Will I see you Saturday morning?
JW
I don't miss many Tiger Shoots and since this is the last of 2006 I figure I better make a showing. Besides, Tom will have to walk if I don't go pick him up
Before Christmas has blown by us all, I wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of you the Peace of this season. I have enjoyed our time together on this forum more than I can express and I look forward to getting to know you all better in 2007.
God Bless!
JW
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Apr 08, 2007 at 02:14 PM GMT
That was probably a guy that flys out of Aero Country and uses Photo One until the controllers tell him he's Photo Two. He shoots air to ground while simultaneously flying a Skymaster and does it all for about a hundred bucks. Not a market I'm interested in, but there's a number of people that do it. My inclination is to head for cover when someone is doing that.
JW
Geeze, I tried that once in my 150 and I won't do it again. I can't imagine doing it in a complex multi like a skymaster. I like to think that we as pilots are some pretty smart folks, guys like that make me question that.
Roger that! Add the complexity of the aircraft, no TCAD, our busy airspace and the task of photography and it's a scary proposition. Sounds like an NTSB report doesn't it? Do you ever get up to TKI? Come and look me up, we'll go have lunch.
I've been trying to do that with my C172 in our relatively uncongested airspace. I find that I generally don't have any problems flying/photographing as long as it's not too bumpy. If we're having much turbulence at all, 1) it's hard to get a good photograph anyway and 2) the plane seems to have a mind of it's own. It's not scary, it's not necessarily unsafe (where I fly at), but I'm sure I could do better with a safety pilot along on those bumpy days.
Here's a link to some of the sample photographs I've taken for practice. Camera used is my Canon 20D and the 70-300mm zoom. Being as close to the coast as we are here, I have a lot of problems with blue haze which I've been working to find different methods of reducing or removing alltogether. I could probably reduce a lot of that by flying lower but that would requre a special authorization from the FAA so for now I'm flying at 1000 ft; the 300mm lens comes in real handy from that altitude.
Jim - what I was afraid of might happen seems to be rearing its ugly head. My office has now schedule me for a trip to Canada Jan 22-26 immediately before your first seminar. I know I was probably one of the first to raise my hand to say I'm coming, but I don't think I can do a quick turn fast enough to make it over for that first weekend I'm really disappointed. I suppose I'll just have to wait until the next one you offer either over there or down here in FL. If something changes that would allow me to come anyway, I'll let you know.
Ok guys I need some feedback. Gunny and I have been busy putting the first seminar agenda together and we think it's shaping up to be a very good one. We had some folks jump on the roster and we've had some cancel for various reasons. Gunny and I had decided we would put this one on just to get our program together even if we didn't have a full 20 to 25 attendance. Right at the moment it looks like we're going south of our projected expenses with electronics, meeting room etc.
I need you all to shoot straight with us so we can see if this is a real idea or just something that is going to fizzle. A couple of thoughts I have are, is $500.00 too much? Would a larger number of folks sign up if we ran the seminar at $250 and had an initial limit of 30 to 40 people? Would there be a bigger draw if the venue was directed more toward a variety of photographic subjects, from starting and running a photography business, finding your niche, locating clients to technical aspects of shooting different subjects.
My initial thinking was it would be great to have a group of 20 o 25 enthusiasts so we could really get to know each other and have plenty of one on one time. On the surface, the response to that concept was great, in reality we don't have 20 folks committed to the January meeting as of yet.
There are a few things I am certain of. If someone comes to our seminar with the idea of producing revenue with their camera, they'll get more than their money's worth of tips and techniques. If someone comes to improve their shooting technique, that will definitely happen. I want to design our gatherings so we are all chomping at the bit for the next time we can get together, but I need your collective help to do that.
Truthfully, my shooting schedule is so intensive that organizing and giving these seminars is going to be a challenge. That being said, I think the effort will be tremendously rewarding for all of us, if enough folks are interested. I'm excited about the possibilities and more than willing to put forth the energy and time to make sure y'all come excited and leave even more so.
E-mail me your thoughts guys. We'll plan centrally located gatherings so travel expenses are minimal for you all. We just need to have the right number of commitments in geographic areas to make it work. E-mail me with what you think, where you are and that you'd attend, we'll do the rest.
For the folks that have committed to Dallas in January, if we only have a few, we'll have a great time anyway we'll learn some stuff and maybe we'll all go flying!
Roger that! Add the complexity of the aircraft, no TCAD, our busy airspace and the task of photography and it's a scary proposition. Sounds like an NTSB report doesn't it? Do you ever get up to TKI? Come and look me up, we'll go have lunch.
JW
Usually I'm in an out of TKI a lot but this past break I just didn't have the time. I leave for Florida again tomorrow (SAT) morning and won't be back to Texas until the Spring semester is over in early April. When I'm back I'll hit you up for that lunch and if you happen to know anyone wanting to hire a 500hr pilot for summer work send them my way. This aviation thing is getting expensive.
You know, each type of photography has it's inherent risks. While this subject probably won't kill ya, looking up for long periods can be hazardous. My brother in law is an avid birder so I took him up to Hagerman Refuge early this morning.
JW
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Apr 08, 2007 at 02:18 PM GMT
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Sep 10, 2007 at 03:55 PM GMT
Just to make sure we had enough fun things to do this weekend, I enlisted the dynamic duo of world famous wildlife photographers, Hicks & Neal (sounds like a 70's band!) and they took us on another great big cat adventure. Scott Meril was kind enough to sacrifice a lens shade for our, (and the tiger's) entertainment. The tiger didn't eat the shade, probably because he remembered passing the last one!!
JW
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Apr 08, 2007 at 07:07 PM GMT
FYI, during the Christmas Day storms in Florida a tornado wrecked the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University flight line. 50 of the 65 aircraft on the line were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. A maintanence hangar also collapsed and destroyed two others. Some of the planes were flipped over, some had wings torn off, and some were thrown against a building, and others were simply made into a chunk of metal. Thankfully, as far as I know, no one was hurt.
Aviation enthusiasts should know Embry-Riddle. I'm an alum myself. Pics can be seen here:
I'm really disappointed. I suppose I'll just have to wait until the next one you offer either over there or down here in FL. If something changes that would allow me to come anyway, I'll let you know.
