Archive for March, 2011

I tried something different with the photo below. This is an image I captured at the TICO Warbird Airshow. The airplane is a T-33. The original back ground is just the blue sky as you can see below:

T-33 Fly By

The photo is beautiful as is. A clear blue sky and a well painted airplane. As most of you know sometimes I just have to try something a little different. I decided to see what kind of background I could add to jazz up the photo a little bit. I have a software program that contains various frames and backgrounds. I looked through them all and came up with the composite below:

T-33 Fly By with background added

So……. what do you think? Should I just enjoy and be thankful for the beautiful weather or do you like the background? I can’t wait for your responses!

Jim

I recently attended the TICO Warbird Airshow here in Titusville. The lineup of aircraft went from a tri-plane to current jets. The airshow is traditionally held on the second weekend in March. There are shows all three days. The gates open early so people can access the flight line to get up close to the parked aircraft. I attended on a Sunday that gave us great weather. I arrived about 10:30 am but by then there were quite a few people already in the aircraft parking area. It was impossible to get photos of the the more popular aircraft without getting people in the shot. Not only was I trying to not include people but I had to make sure that they had cleared the area so their shadows would not appear in the image either.

My goal for the flight line was to get high dynamic range images of parked aircraft. i also wanted the setting and background give the appearance of the appropriate time period. In other words, I didn’t want modern cars in the image. I am inserting 4 images here that were processed via HDR. Three of the four images were processed using HDR Efex Pro software from NIK software. The other image (the OV-10) was processed using Photomatix Pro. Each resulting image incorporates the data from 5 images shot at different exposures. Let me know if anyone wants more details. In the 3 imahes processed in HDR Efex Pro I used the “vintage” preset.

T-28 Trainer

T-28 Trainer

 

F4 Navy Corsaire

The Next photo was processed using Photomatix Pro:

OV-1 Mohawk

The flying portion of the show was really great and went until 4:30 pm with pretty much non-stop action. I’ll be posting those images on my photo gallery soon. Check Vintage Aircraft on the main page of my gallery. You can link to it through the jbophoto web site.

Keep on clickin”….

Jim

I recently took a client out on a photo training field trip. I call these outings a GIFT -  (Group/Individual Photo Field Training). We met at CrackerJack’s restaurant at the Titusville Veterans Memorial Pier. We spent some time there going over a few things and  immediately applying the tips and techniques. One of the things we discussed was birds in flight and all of the challenges associated with that. I captured the image below:

Tern In-flight

In post-production (aka computer processing) I used Topaz Simplify to the image. I adjusted (reduced) the opacity and erased the effect from the head and eye area. The overall look is still a painterly/realistic effect.

After we left the pier, we took the Peacock Pocket’s loop at Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. There were quite a few birds on the loop. We came across White Pelicans, assorted ducks, various wading birds, Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks, Ospreys, and oh yes….. alligators.

Big Gator

The back left leg was so big, I thought it was another alligator laying up next to the big one. We were also able to witness and Atlas V launch late in the afternoon!

Atlas V Launch

Contact me if you are interested in your own photography field trip.

Regards,

Jim