ISnAP 2013-03

check something and verify that all systems are working correctly is all that is required. Many of the same parameters we use on the ground apply; 1/60th of a second for big slow turning propellers is a sweet spot. Don’t shoot at f/16 and above when you pop up on top because you’ll be cloning minute dust particles out of your images for the rest of your natural days. Manually focus so you can choose your plane of focus, not the camera. I bring lots of bodies loaded with 32/64 GB cards.

Once again do you know what a CF card would do to a Gulfstream engine? Ugh! I’ve never asked my good friend Paul Bowen, the hands down B-25 Guru, if it ever gets old. Certainly there are times when the flight is long, the air is rough, it’s cold/hot, you’re exhausted from the preparations and the execution, but I’m sure Paul would say that every time is like the first time. You discover something new on each flight, like his signature vortices, or the shadows of your formation etched in the cloud tops as you drop down to skim them. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, God taps you on the shoulder and shows you something new and breathtaking. Paul, by the way, introduced me to the B-25, and I’ll be forever grateful to him for his kind and generous spirit.

So, you and your crew have pulled off another one and you sit there in the tail as your final subject goes wing up and vanishes, mesmerized by the twilight and the images you have just witnessed. The feeling is like that of the Greek “Catharsis” performances, designed to drain the emotion from the viewer and leave them in an exhausted state of euphoria. Roger that!