Like pilots, aviation photographers love technology. Any gadget that helps take unusual shots eventually lands in our camera bags. So when AOPA Pilot assigned me to photograph air show performer Dr. Frank Donnelly (“Dr. D’s Old-Time Aerobatics”) I grabbed a pair of PocketWizard transceivers on the way out. PW’s are
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After several years in the deep South, the National Business Aircraft Association bet on Las Vegas for its 2011 convention. I especially looked forward to picking up the special NBAA issue of Executive Controller magazine; its cover is this photo I made in Tulsa last month of a beautiful Gulfstream
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I recently spent a long dark-to-dark day photographing TWC’s snazzy new Van Nuys Airport digs. I shot tethered to a MacBook for the first time, thanks to my wizard assistant Petra Rajnicova. This was our last and most complex shot. TWC wanted us to portray its Gulfstream G550
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At 3 AM this morning, über-genius Bob Vogt turned the last wrench, and a few hours later we were wheels up in Dan Wolfe’s Lear 25B on the very first flight with Wolfe Air’s new Back/Up underwing camera pod.
The earliest camera pod belonged to shooting legend George Hall.
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This shoot, of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, was a long time coming.
First announced as the 7E7 in 2003, the initial concept sported a sleek dropped nose, rakish cockpit windows, and a dramatically curved shark-fin tail. Boeing commissioned models of it from PacMin; this one landed on my doorstep
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Some weekends are just too good to end. This was one of them. The EAA flew into Van Nuys Airport with a program featuring two superstars. First to land was the organization’s flawless B-17G, Aluminum Overcast, still touring the country after 17 years with over a million flight miles accumulated.
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Business aircraft brokers are very particular when commissioning photographs. They like to see their planes lit brightly, popping out from what is nearly always a cluttered airport background. Some brokers prefer a hint of background detail, lending some depth to the photo; others want the airport to go completely
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Masten Space Systems engineers take rocket science seriously—they won Northrop Grumman’s Lunar Lander challenge and the million bucks that went with it—but they have some fun naming their rockets. Meet Xaero, Masten’s newest reusable rocket and the younger sibling of Xoie and Xombie. Xaero was designed to launch vertically, soar
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