Book description
Aviation photography is the perfect mix of sleek, beautiful machines, blended with nature’s beautiful skies and fields, along with a fascinating collection of fearless pilots and capable crew, all wrapped in a rich, significant, and crucial part of history. Few genres combine this many elements, and invoke this much passion from photographers. This one-of-a kind book from Moose Peterson, one of the world’s most recognized experts in aviation photography, not only teaches you exactly what you need to know to start making beautiful, intriguing photographs of aircraft, but inspires you and pushes you creatively and technically every step of the way.
Moose takes you through all the basics for camera gear and settings, showing you what he travels with and the settings he uses to get those tack sharp images. He covers one of the most important aspects of aviation photography–light! And, he gives you a number of examples of how to take the best advantage of that light any time of the day. He shares the critical techniques you’ll need to master to create the illusion of flight, speed, and romance in a still image, including which types of prop blur you’re aiming for (and which types you want to avoid).
You’ll learn how to make the most out of air shows and fly-ins–what to shoot while you’re there, and what you might want to skip or avoid altogether (and why). You’ll learn how to photograph aircraft on the ground, from ground-to-air, and ultimately air-to-air, and how to capture one of the most important elements in aviation photography today: the fascinating pilots and crew–the people!
Moose shares many wonderful stories and adventures along the way, which illustrate how, as photographers, we’re also storytellers, and the importance of bringing out those stories in our aviation photos. Plus, you’ll gain free access to his acclaimed KelbyOne film, Warbirds and the Men Who Flew Them.
With this book, your camera, and your passion, your success in aviation photography will quickly take flight!
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- Introduction: The Skies Are Not the Limit
-
Section 1: Before the Prop Turns
- It Started Out of the Blue for Me
- Where Do I Recommend You Start?!
- Terms of Engagement
- BODY BASICS: The Fun Comes with the Autofocus
- Then There Are Exposure Modes
- Then There Is Exposure Itself
- The Need for Speed
- Those Damn Dust Spots!
- Ah, the Glass
- My Aviation Gear List
- Some Specialized Gear for Your Consideration
- Is That All?
- Section 2: Creating Romance for a Steely Subject
- Section 3: Putting Movement in the Still
- Section 4: A Gathering of Planes
- Section 5: The Need for Speed!
-
Section 6: Capturing the Human Element
- The 70th Doolittle Raiders Reunion
- The Hardest One
- It All Started with Dudley!
- They Don’t Fly Themselves!
- Getting Right Down to It
- For Me, It’s Just Like Working with Biologists
- Something to Ponder
- It’s a Small World!
- The Easy Human Element: The Crowd
- Making the Folks Visibly Pop
- This Brings Us to Gear
- The Scariest Piece of Gear
- Light for the Portrait
- The Pilot Portrait Project
- The Rewards Are Priceless!
- That’s an Affirmative!
-
Section 7: Up, Up, and Away!
- It Only Works This Way in Dreams
- Air-to-Air Is Not Cut-and-Dried
- It Comes with a Warning
- How I Got Hooked
- Where the Basics Count the Most!
- First Thoughts on Gear
- The Photo Platform
- Being a Pilot Doesn’t Automatically Make Them an Air-to-Air Pilot
- The Most Important Piece of Gear
- Not a Fashion Statement
- Communication Is Everything!
- Don’t Chance Anything to Memory!
- Shooting Open or No Canopy
- Shooting Through the Glass
- Don’t Forget the Memories!
- Time to Get in the Air!
- The Flight/Safety Brief
- Your Very First Shot—Period!
- A Must-Have Shot for the Shot List
- Do I Have a Typical Shot List?
- Again, Communication Is Everything!
- Shoot, Shoot, Shoot!
- The Horizon Line
- All Too Soon, Your Feet Are Back on the Ground
- Pilots Shouldn’t Be the Only Ones with Logs
- Share, Damn It!
- And the Next Flight?
- Index
- Want to Learn More?
- Continue Your Photography Training–Online
Product information
- Title: Takeoff: The Alpha to Zulu of Aviation Photography
- Author(s):
- Release date: May 2017
- Publisher(s): New Riders
- ISBN: 9780134609539
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