The photography conference was a blast and we had some great photo shoots, the highlight being the Steampunk themed biplane shoot. It was incredible to watch the hangar doors open and reveal the yellow Stearman. I think I got goose bumps as I marveled at the plane.
We had our intern with us and we brought two models from the convention along, all dressed in Steampunk attire. We helped wipe down the planes leading edges prior to assisting with pushing the plane out of the hangar. The pilot fired up the engine and taxied to the nearby grass runway. We positioned it so we could shoot to the West as we hoped for a cool sunset. It's always a challenge on shoots like this as I'm usually running around at a hurried pace, trying to get everything setup as the others don't know the lighting equipment and what needs to be done. Once I had everything set up, I started shooting the models individually and then grouped. All was going fairly well although in hindsight, I missed some shots I should have got. It's always like that after a shoot where I have my afterthoughts.
The pilot suggested he do a low pass flyover with a smoke trail. HECK YEAH! It's a two passenger plane so he tried to get Jodi to go up with him. That was not about to happen! So I went up with him. Jodi was not too sure about my adventure as I got a very nervous sounding "I love you" as I got into the plane and buckled in. I told her not to worry as if the plane were to go down, I went out doing something totally awesome!
We let the engine warm up a bit as it was sputtering some but then he accelerated and we were careening down the grass airstrip. It was wiggling quite a bit as we gained speed as the cross wind was a bit strong. We roared past Jodi, the girls and the other spectators of the shoot and took flight. It was pretty wild being in an open cockpit as we gained altitude, almost surreal. I'm not sure how high we wound up going but then we did a hard bank over a sports complex and headed back to the airport for the first low pass. I could see the smoke as we flew by the models. Jodi and a photographer friend snapped pics as we raced by. We quickly gained altitude again and came around for a second pass. It was awesome. We flew into the colorful cloud filled sky as sunset approached. I really didn't want to land but we came around and landed on the grass runway. It was incredible. How much do one of these things cost was the first thing on my mind!
A relieved Jodi met us as we taxied the plane back to the photo shoot site. We weren't done yet as I had a 25 foot pink parachute were were going to use as a dress on one of the models. The sunset and sky was amazing as we photographed the parachute and model together. What a thrill.
Here are a couple short videos I have from the shoot. I will be posting images at some point as we get caught up with the editing.
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