Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

[wingman]

I always had trouble getting excited about Pitts Specials. They all look the same, especially in earlier times. I mostly worked with planes and pilots I knew, but they are still just a bunch of Pitts Specials.

One way around that is by shooting racing groups. Not just a couple of red and white biplanes in opposite corners of the frame, but stuff that looked like racing. Opportunities like this shot are quite rare, in my experience. They need to be racing, and they ideally are close together. The light has to be right. When it occasionally does come together, the results can be pretty cool.

We have eye contact with the guy in back, but the guy in front can't even see me (pretty much at the base of the pylon). There is a moment at each pylon when the pilot cannot see the pylon because it is obscured by the upper wing. That has always struck me as a bit spooky...

Neal

[wingman]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

Here is the original capture out of the camera for the above image -- how would you have cropped it?




And then a tenth of a second later "The Other Woman" drops into the frame. This was a Thurday Bronze heat so these guys were pretty slow, but they were racing. #2 won the Heat, with #42 second. This shot is early in the race -- a lap later they were stringing out and I was doing individual airplanes.

Neal

[wingman]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

I remember always being hyper alert and watching the whole course during a start and then the first lap. With the Biplanes (and formulas) with their fixed pitch props there are always guys with takeoff oriented props (like the red airplane above) who jump in front at the start and then the guys with higher speed oriented props (and thus sluggish takeoff performance) have to work through (or over, for the really fast guys) the pack as they get wound up rpm wise. That's what made the opportunity in these posts.

Neal

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

I've got some awesome close battle Bipe shots, I thought they were uploaded, but I can't find them anywhere. When I find them, I'll post some.

Will

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

Here we go.


We need more biplane racers like Phantom. This is such a cool plane.


Not a Pitts...




I was really hoping this guy would be back. He was slow, but he was having fun.




Will

[wingman]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

Nice to see Pitts Biplanes that are not red and white starburst. Nice to see Biplane racers that are not Pitts's. And really nice to see Christen Eagles out there. I've always loved those airplanes -- they really are what a Pitts could be...

Neal

[wingman]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

And, by the way -- #25 is the same very fast Pitts that was in my headon Dennis Vest shot. Nice to see that the new guy (who was doing wonderful youtube videos of Pit walkarounds with his kids a couple of years ago) flies much the same line as Dennis and Karl did. Now if Karl ever gets his Legacy dialed in will he fly it the way he flew Race 25??

Neal

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

And, by the way -- #25 is the same very fast Pitts that was in my headon Dennis Vest shot. Nice to see that the new guy (who was doing wonderful youtube videos of Pit walkarounds with his kids a couple of years ago) flies much the same line as Dennis and Karl did. Now if Karl ever gets his Legacy dialed in will he fly it the way he flew Race 25??

Neal

Tommy Suel's Race 25? Thats cool. Its a good looking plane. To be honest, I thought it was a very modified Christen Eagle. Its a Pitts S-1C. I didn't realize it had a long history at Reno. It was golden this year...




Will

[wingman]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

Nice set of pictures, Will, and thank you. It's interesting to see that Racer 10 years later.I do see the airplane losing gold in the pylon shots. A good thing, IMHO, LOL.

That airplane's been Golden from the start. I think it was mid Silver its first year and in the Gold ever since. It has placed as high as second. There must be something special about it -- it seems to encourage its pilots to race exuberantly...

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

Looks like Tommy finished 5th at 190.187 in the gold on Sunday. Looks like he needs to find about 15 mph to be a contender for the win. Sam Swift flew swiftly to the win in a Pitts S-1S at 205.784 mph.

[wingman]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

This airplane was second in the Gold at 222 mph in 2014. Karl Grove presiding.

Fans have no idea how far it is from 190mph to 200+ mph in a Pitts. There have not been many 200+ mph Pitts's, and they tend not to be able to stay in that bracket. Sam Swift did good.

Neal

[CJAM427]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

Since we're talking biplanes... I went back and edited a few that had room for extra cropping.

CM4_2869-Edit by Connor Madison, on Flickr

CM4_2874-Edit by Connor Madison, on Flickr

CM4_2901-Edit by Connor Madison, on Flickr

CM4_2914-Edit by Connor Madison, on Flickr

CM4_2927-Edit by Connor Madison, on Flickr

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

Holy crap, those ae nice shots!

To everyone who shares shots here, forever thanks!

[wingman]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

I agree -- more nice work here, Connor. You got really lucky with the light for most of these -- nice light on the pilots themselves -- so often they are in shadow and end up as black blobs. That is a great angle in that first shot of Race 44 -- that's a really muscular photograph.

I personally really like the closer look at these airplanes. The Biplanes and formulas are so small that it's easy to present them as toys flying around in a great big sky off in the distance. In fact they are very serious flying machines, and they are racing. I've always tried to present them as such. I want the viewer of my photos to take the machines and the men seriously.

So the question here is, Connor and Will, do YOU like doing some of your work this way? Do you like what you are getting after cropping better than what you were seeing after Reno in your first pass through your shoot?

Does it bother you to cut off wings and tails? There certainly are many who prefer a whole airplane, but I just don't care much about wings. Everything that really interests me visually is between spinner and tail -- the pilot,the engine, the prop -- and I want to see how it all works.

Thanks for showing these, Connor.

Neal

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: Eye contact, and pylon photography -- continued

Yes Great shots. It makes you feel like you are in plane flying it.