4th of July Christmas?

So many people want Christmas in July, we did things a little differently. We had 4th of July in December.

My boss, Jeff Jensen (http://jeffejensen.blogspot.com) had made some plans for our team to get some in studio time after a long day of meetings. His instructions to us were "bring a tripod, a camera, long lens... and a filter you dont care about...earplugs could be nice too"

We went down to a studio in Salt Lake City area where a friend of his is in a Co-Op studio (NSL Studios) look them up on Facebook if your in the area. In the back of his car was a plethora of goodies- Christmas Ornaments, little ceramic figurines, and a dozen eggs... eggs?

Needless to say based on the image above, you can see what was in store for these little festive pieces of glass.

 

 

RGB Explosion

One of the studio guys had this neat little device that was attached to a airsoft gun. It had sensors that would detect how fast the BB was going, all we had to do was measure the distance, set the flashes, turn off the lights, and set the cameras for a long exposure... yes, a long exposure. In this case we were shooting at 5 sec, f11, ISO 200

That egg on the right looks a little too happy, guess he does not know whats in store for him next

Once we got bored shooting things (did I just really say that?) it was time to bring out the big stuff... explosives! Ok, firecrackers, but it might as well been dynamite. Now (most) of us safely were hiding behind a wall, foam core or another person to avoid the flying shards of glass, Jeff was the "fuse man" and yes, he still has all his fingers and most of his clothes came out unharmed.

This little piggy went...

Bad Santa

Super Nova Ornament

No REAL mythical holiday creatures or jolly old elves were harmed in the destruction of their figurine counterpart. Please do not try this at home (use someone else's place). We are not trained professionals, and this just shows what happens when 7 bored photographers have time, explosives, and a lot of tarps to cover the walls get together.

The Great Georgia Airshow

I cant say I have missed too many of these shows and with the Federal Sequester in effect, I thought the lack of military aircraft would hinder the event... well, maybe it did a little as it was lacking the roar of F-18 Hornets, F-16 Falcons, F-22 Raptors and even amazing teams like the Navy's Blue Angels or the Air Force Thunder Birds. On the other hand, I still see aviation photography as a huge challenge.

Exposure settings, focus, tracking and lots of images all add up to get the "keepers". I shot roughly 2000 images (with 2 cameras that can do 8-12fps, that's not hard to do). Balancing your shutter speed is KEY when it comes to the movement of the plane and keeping it sharp. Too fast of a shutter, and the plane looks odd if its prop driven since the props freeze...that's generally a bad thing when flying. So you need to have a shutter slow enough to blur the props, but not so slow to get camera or motion blur... something I got A LOT of this trip as I was pushing my abilities a little too much- something you should always do to help improve your skills.

"J's Bird" American T-6/SNJ

The lighting was great...for spectators, not so much for photography. Sun was directly overhead and slightly in front of us. Exposures were very different from left to right, on the deck and in the air. This made for some GREAT silhouette opportunities.

CAF "Zero" Used in Tora, Tora, Tora. Actually a modified AT-6

The high humidity kept the smoke from the planes down on the flight level so it got smokey pretty quick making it hard to get a clear shot of many of the acrobatic planes. Luckily there was a good breeze, so it would blow through and you could shoot through the holes.

Team Aeorshell

For more images, check out the gallery on the Drew MacCallum Photography Facebook page

Sunflowers Forever

I have never in my life seen a sunflower field this big... Just southeast of Chambersburg, PA in a town called New Franklin, lies two HUGE fields. My coworker and I had heard about this place after giving a seminar at the local camera store (Thanks people of LA Camera for the suggestion) and we got up early and drove out hoping we could find this place. It was a little vague based on the directions, needless to say, we found it.

 

I call this one "First One Up". As you may know, sunflowers actually move and "follow" the sun. Its actually how they grow that makes the stem twist. Some of the flowers were facing the opposite direction from the rest.

 

I just liked the detail in the face on this shot. 

Maybe I was channeling my inner 80's child on this one...

 

Imagine waking up each morning and seeing a massive field of yellow and green.