Bill Willson

Viper Sunset – HDR

admin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 06:26:22 +0000

Afghanistan has some great sunsets, this one was especially nice. During a rare free moment, I fired off a few HDR 5 bracketteted exposures. I didn’t know what I had until I got home and processed the shots. A little crop to get rid of some of the distracting artifacts off to camera right and I came up with this.

Helo HDR

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:15:11 +0000

This picture came when we were waiting to takeoff off from a FOB in Afghanistan. This was a single shot that I processed through Photomatix pro, giving it the HDR feel. Without using the RAW image and processed as and HDR it would look like a silhouette. I like this better.

The Portfolio Book, “Do I still need it?”

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:57:27 +0000

I am finally getting serious about making a hard cover portfolio book, one that I can send out to potential clients, magazines, art directors and the like. I found Paperchase located in Hollywood on Sunset, just west of Highland. I met with a very nice women, Dena, we talked about my ideas and how I envisioned this project. At first I really, truly thought I was going there to have someone create this entire book, give great ideas, have incredible vision for the brand and my photo’s and then hand it back to me in a month or so. I wasn’t prepared for what actually happened, I have to design this book, myself,…I was shocked, internally of-course, but shocked still the same. I don’t know anything about designing a book. I know about shooting the picture and putting them together, sort of, but a book, not so sure about that. My fear is that this is a substantial investment and I don’t want to screw it up, and there is a definite potential for that. But, I listened intently and decided instantly that this whole project was going to be up to me. A scary thought to say the least, but march on I shall.

Before I went down there I needed something to show her, something with a definite personality, some photo’s in some kind a discernible order that resembled a portfolio of some kind. I think I used the word some a lot there in that last sentence, sorry. As I was thinking this through, trying to navigate what to bring, in an effort to prove both my worth and leave her with the impression that I was a serious photographer. I thought, my iPad! It is almost perfect for this type of presentation, I have a great portfolio app on my iPad and it would be exactly what I needed. The name of the app is actually Protfolio I tried to install a logo on the front page, this logo on the home page infact, but it would not work, no. matter. what. I. did, nothin!. After some frustration, in trying to get this Logo onto the front page of the App I tried one last thing, I opened Photoshop and created a new document with the dimensions that the app requires. I added a few pictures, I threw in some gradient for good measure and came up with this…

My wife loved it, said it was great. I thought it was ok, not fantastic, just ok. Maybe it was the fact that it only took me about 5 minutes to make, or that I thought other photographer’s would think it was too “simple” to be taken seriously. I felt it required almost no imaginary skill whatsoever to produce, so it wasn’t that good. But when Dena at Paperchase got a glance, she loved it as well. Double confirmation, it guess its ok, we’ll see.

I spent a little time with a Kelby book, because if you need something done in Photoshop or a design problem you call on your trusted friends over at Kelby, (I mean that in the figurative sense) principally in this case Cory Barker, who wrote, Photoshop Down and Dirty Tricks for designers The books these guys write are fantastic, if you want to learn Photoshop or anything relating to Adobe, this should be your first stop.

Today’s Photo:

January 2011, my friend and one of the greatest Pilots, Officers and Men that I have known, retired from the U.S. military, serving the country he loved, defending it in both Wartime and in Peace, took his last walk across the ramp. On this occasion he is saluted by the men and women whom he served alongside, honoring his service with a water cannon drenching from a pair of waiting airport firetrucks. The salute is normally a bridge of water that the aircraft passes under as it taxies into parking, followed by the dousing of the plot who flew his final mission.

More to come later…

Inbound to O’Hare and I looked left

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:30:09 +0000

Somewhere out of FL240, south of Fort Wayne, IN. We were on the KNOX 4 arrival, and we were cookin’ along at about 320 knots, when center told us to slow to 250knots. – This irritates me, I just want to get there – so stop screwing around, and let me fly the speed I want to fly. This is my thought process, the stuff that goes through my head - ”Slow down….really?…what’s our sequence?……..are we following a blimp or something!? My silent sarcasm ringing in my head.

I reached up, spun the airspeed back on the FCU (Flight Control Unit) panel, the nose came up to slow the airplane down and I glanced to my left and I saw this out the window. I quickly grabbed my camera and fired off about 6 frames. I then switched to Bracketing and fired off another 6, hoping not to miss the exposure. I didn’t have time to “chimp” so I just stowed it and hoped for one decent shot.

Another lucky one!

Somewhere over Western Kansas, FL370, .79 Mach

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 04:43:55 +0000

We were heading east over Kansas, somewhere near Liberal (LBL VORTAC) at Flight Level 370, on our way to Dulles when I shot this. The effect of the darkening sky ahead, the cloud deck below and the full moon made for a beautiful night sky. This view didn’t last very long, by the time we got over Missouri it was gone. I quickly grabbed my camera and placed it up on the glare shield supported by my bean-bag mount, The Pod and fired away. The ride was smooth, no turbulence or chop to speak of so shooting at 1/15th of a second wasn’t a factor. I shot about 10 frames before the light changed enough to make the scene to dark and unusable.

I love the simplicity of this shot, it’s very peaceful and calming. To me, it seems as if heaven might be on the other side.

Taxiway Lights

admin — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 04:42:34 +0000

Taxiway edge lights sit about 12 inches off the ground and are no more than 10 feet outward from the edge of the full strength pavement. In other words, to get this shot you need to lay down in the grass or dirt and, as luck would have it, it was wet. This was truly one of those sunsets that made me stop and look, it was perfect, so wet or not, I couldn’t let this one go.

I had gotten permission from the tower chief and airport manager to shoot some pictures from the infield grass earlier in the day. I had seen this sunset coming about an hour before it occurred and I wanted to get a good shot of an aircraft silhouette using this as the background. But when I got into position the airfield was dead quiet, nothing was moving, not even the birds. Just as the sun disappeared below the horizon and I was about to “call it” the runway and taxiway lights came on. I noticed the blue against the orange background and thought this would make a better shot than any ordinary silhouette I originally set out to get. As it turned out, it wasn’t such a bad idea. You never know what might happen when your original plan goes all to hell.

Never put the camera away, you just never know when the “moment” might happen.

First Post

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:40:04 +0000

I have never written a blog before, I have never even commented on one, so this is a big step for me. Everyone I know loves airplanes, but I guess that’s to be expected, since I spend most of my day surrounded by them. All my friends are pilots or mechanics, fight attendants, dispatchers and so on; my world is surrounded by the anything and everything aviation.

I started this blog because someone once told me “shoot what you know” so here it is, the airplanes and the people who fly’em and fix’em. I am blessed to have unique access to all different types of airplanes that most people don’t, so with that in mind, I thought I would share with anyone and everyone who was interested.

This is one of my favorites; a four ship of C-130J’s over the coast of Southern California. This is the latest and greatest the Air Force has to offer in the world of Tactical Airlift. It is an amazing airplane, carries more cargo, goes faster and is more efficient than its predecessors.

Nikon D700 / ISO400 / f10 / 1/320th