A veteran's veteran. Served in "only" three conflicts: WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. There are obviously a bunch of clasps missing from that longevity ribbon. Happened across him enjoying the Atlanta Warbirds Weekend a couple of years ago.
JDE1 wrote:
A veteran's veteran. Served in "only" three conflicts: WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. There are obviously a bunch of clasps missing from that longevity ribbon. Happened across him enjoying the Atlanta Warbirds Weekend a couple of years ago.
When I was in Vietnam, there were a few pilots in our squadron that were 3-war guys.
Most of them were Majors or Lt. Col and had flown just about everything.
Seems more and more like something I should have on my bucket list. Steven, tell us all about it, please! Stunning set of images you have there.
Wings Over Homestead seemed to me rather sparsely attended today. No idea why. Of course, in observance of what seems to be a rule of airshows everywhere, we were shooting directly into the sun for most of the show... but other than that, we had a great time. We had good weather, not too hot, my son had a good time (which means I did too), and I have about 3000 files to review. It's all good.
Chandler and I have been discussing it The Canyon trip for a couple of years. I think Larry is considering a small group outing for ISAP as well. Ideally, Chili and I think taking the RV out there with a Jeep in tow would be pretty ideal. I think you would have to make a week of it to make it worthwhile.
Oh well, back to reality. Just spent the past two days all over Texas shooting exterior elevations of medical facilities for a major Texas healthcare group. Twenty one sites in two very long days. I have to go back to three of them for dawn/dusk perspectives but I have the project just about complete. What did we do before Google Maps? Before I launched out on this project, I spent an entire evening researching locations, the direction the key elevation faced, and put together an efficient sequence to capture them. The whole thing worked out pretty well, except for the farthest location, and when I arrived this morning to catch the light on an "east" elevation (noted as such on the client's schematic), the actual direction it faced was northwest........grrr. I shot it so weebeesee what can be done in Photoshop cuz I have less than zero interest in a do over. The good news, aside from having a lucrative 21 site assignment, is that to the skies have been wonderful the past couple of days and that always helps.
I put Sheila on a flight early Friday morning and she'll be gone until Monday night so that helped me focus on this project. She's part of a ministry that plans and executes very special events for battered women's shelters around the US. The ministry was founded by a women who lived that experience and turned it into something wonderful. Ninety women converged on Houston Friday mid morning with the sole purpose of affirming and pampering a group of ladies who haven't had much of that in their lives. Those 90 women devote around 18 hours a day for four days to make sure everyone has a wonderful time, it's the heart, hands and feet of Christ at work, nothing less.
Thanks all. It's honestly well worth the trip in my opinion. But some things to think about.
1. Bring a scanner. Even though there's lots there, it's nice to have. It gives you some sort of scope of just how much traffic is operating in the area.
1A. Keep in mind that not everything that is in the area is going to go through. Even if they call approaching Point Charlie for the Sidewinder there's still a handful of ways to get to the Panamint valley that don't involve coming through the Canyon. Friday morning there were probably at least 25 different aircraft operating within scanner range, from A4's to F-22's with literally everything in between, and we got 7 (which is a lot btw)
2. If you're going to stay in Panamint Springs (the closest accomodations) be prepared to be completely cut off. The internet SUCKS (to put it mildly), there's no cell signal at all, the only store is the general store, and a bag of ice is $6.
3. Go expecting nothing. It's a lot like the loop in Wales that way. There will occasionally be rumours of something coming, but it might come, it might not. The A-10 demo team was rumoured to be coming through yesterday, but it arrived in San Bernadino on Thursday, and wasn't coming.
4. The busiest days are SUPPOSEDLY Tuesday - Thursday, and Fridays are GENERALLY quiet (China Lake doesn't fly on Fridays). But there were 7 jets all day this Thursday, and we had more than that before noon yesterday, so it's all a crap shoot. You might get tons of passes, you might get up there and see 6 passes all day. It's a total crap shoot.
5. Be prepared to not feel overly welcome at first. The regulars don't necessarily love new people. They all want to think it's "their" spot, and people are invading it.
6. Be prepared. Thursday morning was ridiculously windy, like knock you off your feet windy, and apparently Tuesday was even windier. And on the opposite extreme, Friday afternoon was very hot and sunny. I definitely wouldn't plan on going in July.
7. I wouldn't recommend driving out there in the dark...because the road is crazy, and at night it is DARK out there.
Other than that...it was a lot of fun. I lucked out and got some great days and passes...I'm already hoping to do another trip some time next year. It's definitely worth the price of admission. I'd recommend it for anyone in the area...I'm thinking next year I will go do the airshow at Nellis for a week, Wednesday to Wednesday With at least the Thursday and the Monday and Tuesday at the Canyon.
Spectacular Steven! Thanks for the insight! We just need to go out there with a few of "us", then if they don't want to be friendly it's tough darts! What lens did you find most efficient during your stay?
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Spectacular Steven! Thanks for the insight! We just need to go out there with a few of "us", then if they don't want to be friendly it's tough darts! What lens did you find most efficient during your stay?
They seemed a little friendlier on day two FWIW.
I only took one, the 400mm. I shot it with the 1.4 attached most of the time making it 550mm (I know...I know...the Nikon 1.4TC is not actually 1.4X anything btw) that F-35 shot and this one are both full frames with the 400mm naked...but there were plenty of shots I'm cropping a lot off of even with the 1.4tc. It really depends on how they fly it. The guys that get really low are going to be a long reach at 600mm on full frame. The F-35 shot only worked like that at 400mm because they were flying it backwards (they were extremely low, but pulling to exit the canyon for that shot which took them right over top of my head)
100-400mm on crop seems to be popular. But I saw everything from 300mm - 600mm primes up there.
Re: Star Wars canyon, I stayed at both Panamint Springs Resort and in Lone Pine (Best Western) last month and unless you have an RV I'd recommend Lone Pine. It's about a 40 minute drive to/from the canyon but you don't need to be at the canyon before 0830 in my experience. Lone Pine has a variety of accommodation and eating options if you're spending more than a couple of days at the canyon.
You take pot-luck on what you'll get so just pick a week and go. My few days there were ok, nothing special or particularly busy but not a blank either, but just spending time out there with the expectation that anything could happen at any minute is always fun, the scenery is stunning as well.
