Although it has been a few weeks now, I can still remember the feeling of being in a truly amazing place. The scenery around Banff National Park was just breathtaking. While my pictures hardly do it justice, I think I came back with some decent shots. I can’t think of anything that I would have changed about the trip. The food and lodging were top notch, the photo tour leadership by Darwin Wiggett was great and the other participants were amazing photographers. Not only did I have the time of my life, I learned more from just that one week than I could on my own in 6 months.
The photo tour was probably some of the best money I’ve spent on honing this craft. Whoever first coined the phrase, “buy plane tickets not gear,” could not have been more correct. All the gear in the world can’t make you a better photographer. However, being in a truly inspirational place with motivated people will do you wonders.
To see more of my photos head over to my galleries.
If you’re a pilot, or at all interested in aviation, nothing can compare to EAA’s AirVenture. It is the world’s largest airshow and each year draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world. While the numbers for this year haven’t come out yet, last year brought some half a million visitors and over ten thousand aircraft. It truly is a sight to see.
For the past three years, I’ve been spending more and more time at the airshow each year. It started as a day trip with a friend and our Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). The year after that a different friend and I flew in (since I had earned my pilot’s license) and camped for a night. Then, this year, I visited twice, once camping for 3 days, and then as a day trip. The week flew by, and I’m already anxious for next year’s show.
Unfortunately, because of limited capacity, we weren’t able to camp at the Oshkosh airport. Instead we camped about 20 miles south at Fond Du Lac airport. This meant I wasn’t able to wake with the sun and photograph all the warbirds as I had hoped. Despite this, I still had a great time experimenting with my airshow photography. There is nothing better in life than combining multiple passions in a single experience. Given the limited time I’ve spent practicing, I wasn’t surprised to find my panning skills a little lacking. I was still able to get a few in-focus shots, but not as many as I would have liked.
Another thing I came away with was just how hard it is to find a unique picture. Everyone has a camera, and judging only by equipment, there were quite a few experienced photographers. As I took the standard shooting-into-the-sky pictures, hearing and seeing all the other cameras click just made me realize how ordinary the pictures would likely turn out. My goal next year is to try and find the unseen pictures and explore new angles.
Anyway, here are some of my shots! Let me know what you think.
Unfortunately, I missed most of Spring in Minnesota, but was fortunate enough to spend some time in the Los Angeles National Forest in California. This was the first time I was able to spend time creating photographs in an area varried terrain height. The terrain let me explore a large gamut of photograph styles from elevated intimate shots to grand vistas with large depths of field. While I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I would have liked, the time I had afforded me enough time to learn quite a bit.
In Minnesota, with very little variance in terrain height and often tall vegetation, my wide-angle lens has been my favorite, but in the hills more often I reached for my 24-105mm and used it at the 105mm stop. While walking or driving along the ridges I would see a photograph on a hill across the valley but the 105mm would not allow me to crop the scene down to the photograph that caught my eye. During one of my few weekends home I was able to purchase a 70-200mm lens and on the following trip I was able to make some of the pictures I had found on previous trips. By zooming in further, I was able to isolate only the elements of the scene that I wanted, without resorting to excessive cropping in post-processing. I wish I would have spent more time experimenting with my wide angle, the times I did, I wasn’t able to find good forground subjects. Next time I guess.
