Okay, so mostly this site is supposed to be about nature photography. Sure, I'm not totally one dimensional and have the tendency to shoot other things than one critter after another. Those that have read the "about me" section of the site know I have a lot more interests than just shooting nature photography. Shoot, my day job--test pilot--is interesting enough to keep any one happy. Being trained to fly the latest and greatest aircraft and I only got that skill through lots of hard work including lots of exposure to new and different things. While all aircraft are different and look like they fly differently, after flying enough of them you begin to realize they're like cars. They all drive using the same principals--push stick forward, houses get bigger, pull stick back, houses get smaller. Pretty simple. In my community, there's a certain mystic with flying the warbirds. I'm talking the airborne operating museums of the Experimental Aircraft Association or the Commerative Air Force. They're the guys that fly those vintage aircraft your granddad used to during the big one--World War II. These aircraft are legendary and to fly them emotes a certain sense of accomplishment. Especially in today's world where every year through mishap, neglect, or what have you there are fewer and fewer. It's a foregone conclusion that eventually only the non-flying versions will be available and forever the experience of flying these babies will be lost. So, to add a legend such as the B-17 Flying Fortrest to my flight resume was an opportunity not to be lost.

I have over 40 aircraft under my belt. A good amount in the test pilot community. Not the largest total but it certainly signifies that I've been around. The opportunity came when some realized there was an extra space on the aircraft on a ferry flight from Edwards AFB to Van Nuys. "Hey, do you want to fly the B-17 to Van Nuys?" Think two seconds... "are you kidding!" "You know, since it's a ferry flight, you probably won't be able to sit in the seat or actually fly the airplane." Well, any self-respecting test pilot would be taken aback by such an announcement. But not me. I'm not a typical self-respecting test pilot. I'm just as happy shooting my camera as guiding aircraft around. Darn, I'm probably more happy shooting than flying nowadays. Anyway, not flying was a non-issue in my book. I had my camera and that's all there is to it.

The entire flight was a thrill--the totally story will be up as a separate article in the future. I'll leave the article to talk about this image. Bombers in WWII where crewed by pilots, gunners, and bombedairs. The former were the guys that dropped the bombs. When it came time to doing business they sat in the nose of the aircraft surrounded by Plexiglas with nothing between them and eternity except for a thin sheet of plastic. They'd hunch over their Norden bomb site guiding the bomber in until giving the signal to drop their weapons. It must of been a sight to see even though the war time conditions were terrible. Unquestionably the best seat in the house for this flight was the nose. The view was unobstructed. Sitting up there must've felt like those dogs that crane their heads out in the wind while their owners cruise down the highways, ears flapping back. With little imagination you felt like you were flying yourself. Awesome...

The image was shot just prior to touchdown at Van Nuys airport--the touchdown was an adventure by itself and worthy of a story in the next article. You can see the airport in the distance towards the left of the horizon. I used my Nikon D100 with a 14mm f/2.8 lens. The biggest challenge was getting the exposure right to keep some highlights without blocking out the interior of the aircraft. A lot of post processing using my RAW converter effectively expanded the dynamic range of the image without having to shoot more than one picture. As it was, a single image was a challenge since the flight was bumpy, bumpy, bumpy. Vibration was a big challenge which I conquered by being light on my feet, shooting a high shutter speed, and not touching any part of the aircraft. A real challenge as you can tell.

I hope you all enjoy this short departure from my normal fair. I'll be back to nature stuff as soon as I take time off to get out in the field.

Cheers

Tom Hill