Friday, September 12, 2008

Sometimes You Have to "Settle"

It had been a long afternoon waiting for the Apache attack helicopter to take off from its public display in Southlake, Texas. I had talked to the pilots and I knew just what shot I wanted. They were going to lift off, hover a bit, give the "thumbs up" and then move off.

It was that "thumbs up" shot I was waiting for and prepared for. I had the polarizer on and adjusted for the angle of the shot so I could cancel the reflections in the canopy that might obscure the pilots. I had the ISO set high enough to allow a good, quick shutter speed with a moderate f/stop to give me the depth of field I wanted, etc.

Well, as we know "the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry." In this case, there was a malfunction in the helicopter that meant the 5:00 p.m. departure was going to be delayed. When it became 7:00 p.m. and the mechanics still hadn't arrived, I knew it was very likely going to be almost completely dark when the helicopter took off.

I started looking around for another shot and tried to work a bit of the sunset color into the frame. I couldn't get the color on the horizon in the frame (we were in a supermarket parking lot) but as I walked around the aircraft looking for a shot I saw the sunset lighting up the underside of one of the main rotor blades. I thought that glow with a silhouette of the rotor head might just be interesting. Snap! Here's the result. Click on the image for a larger view.

Nope it's not as exciting as shot of a pilot giving me the "thumbs up" as the aircraft flies by but I'll settle for this one. (THIS time.)

Image © 2008 Bill Webb, All Rights Reserved
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Dawn's Early Light (Serendipity)

Well, I was in my home town of Ashland, MS, and was out early photographing an old house in the dawn light. As I was finishing up with shots of the house and lawn I turned and saw the sunlight striking this decorative well covered with vines and festooned with a small American flag.

Sometimes luck is more important than planning (but not often). And to be honest, had I not planned to be on site for the dawn light I wouldn't have "lucked" into this shot.

For those of you who might have spotted the figurine hidden by some of the vines and part of the flag, please read nothing more than "decoration" into the placement. There is no social or racial statement at work here. The people who own the house do not have any racial prejudices that I have ever witnessed.

Image © 2008 Bill Webb, All Rights Reserved
Posted by Picasa