Boeing Stearman

Photographers love having lots of gear, that is a known fact in this industry. The reality is sometimes having all that gear is justified because different scenarios result in needing it. Now how to know what is needed and what is not can be tricky but often comes down to experience. I knew when I got the call to fo flying this one beautiful Sunday afternoon that I would not have the right lens. Having been in biplanes before, the 18-35mm would just not be wide enough. A fisheye creates a better perspective but since I didn’t have it I had to make do with what I did have. Now the question is, is it worth getting?

The last plane in the line up that Sunday morning was the beautiful Red Baron Steerman. It has a beautiful red paint job that makes it stand out against any background especially with the light that morning. We had a great time shooting it last time and yet again we had another great time. When we first photographed the Baron we had a great red rock for the background, this time it was the green shubberies of the desert. Not sure which one i liked better, it was the light on the ground that was great about this last time. The patchy light added a bit more drama to the ground which i tried to incorporate as much as possible. It was more of a challenge and definitely more on the mind this time, using the background to the best of my abilities.

At first i thought the background was what it was. Since we were working with planes i didn’t think we could change it that much. Keeping the background in mind it easy to get used to when to zoom in and when to go wide. When there was buildings it would be tight, when there was clean backgrounds it was wide. Didn’t always stick to that formula but it was helpful to have.

Great plane, great shoot. This is definitely a plane worth having in the files.