Jake Peterson’s Blog

Well i know i said that i was done blogging about the planes at the Air races but last week was kind of a doozy for me. I ended up getting sick, i caught the bug floating around campus on Wednesday probably in part to the lack of sleep i was getting, but that’s another story. Well the bug made me want to sleep even more so naturally i didn’t get out shooting over the weekend like i normally do and that actually bums me out cuz it’s really the only time i have to go out shooting. Unless it’s a slow week, which they aren’t from now on, i really don’t have time to shoot. That also bums me out. Starting to sound like im depressed, good thing im too tired to be.

Anyways, for one of the projects i was working on for one of my classes i used some of my shots from the races. For the project i had to turn them into Black & Whites which isn’t a big deal but it dawned on me that i hadn’t blogged any converted shots and i needed a blog so, there ya go. These are just some simple Black & Whites of the Blue Angels one morning as they were going through their routine of getting cleaned, folded and pressed.

Images captured with D3, 70-300 AF-Svr, on Lexar UDMA Digital

It’s finally that time when I’ve run out of steam on these events. I have more images but i think I’ve shown enough. Besides it’s time for me to get back to shooting the one thing I’m actually good at, wildlife. I’m hoping to get out this weekend and find some critters to play with, that is of course if this bug i caught, that seems to be moving around campus, goes away.  Before i do that i thought i would show that last class that i liked at the races more than most of the others, the T6′s. The thing i like the most is the fact that they stack up onto each far better than any of the others class’s. Unlimited will stack occasionally but these guys seem to go many laps stacked.

The straight pattern to their wings and the sleekness of the fuselage make the plane look great in a composition. It reality only the paint job makes them different, at least in the sky that is.

It ends the same way it starts, one guy in front and one guy at the end. That’s about how all things work. The week was a blast, and although I’m still playing catch up for my tardiness, i wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Can’t hardly wait till next year, and that’s say something.

Images Captured with D3, 500f4, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Well I’m slowly coming to the end of my recap from the races, it has been a few days of planes well beyond the races themselves but i thought it was fun. Funny enough I’ve found time to make this many posts considering the school work i needed to get done. Tomorrow will be the last day but for now here’s one more for the kiddies. My favorite group is the Unlimited. Don’t ask me which ones are the bronze, silver and gold cuz i frankly don’t have them all memorized. I like them all. The T6′s are up after the unlimited in my book. I like the prop planes because of the challenge they provide. Getting the propeller blurred and the plane sharp isn’t easy. Getting a full 360 blurr and the plane sharp is even harder. This was the only shot i managed to that with.

This is that P51 you see in the above shot, just wihtout a plane on top of it. As you can see i didn’t get the full blurr this time. But four blurrs is second best in my book.

This is another P51, there is in fact a lot of P51′s in the air races. Many different paint jobs and variations exist, this one i seem to like more than some of the others.

Then there is this guy. It seemed like he was out there solely to show the viewers a good time, because his time wasn’t so hot. This is the Grumman FM-2 Wildcat. A seemingly slow plane that seemed to pose rather decently. Wasn’t the prettiest of planes out there but it turned a few heads nonetheless. As you can probably tell I’m a bit more winded down from the beginning of this week, my text just ain’t as long. There’s one more day of exciting air displays before i go back to blogging about Montana, as i said T6′s are #2 in my book.

Images captured with D3, 500f4, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Wednesdays are always a tough day during the average week. There is so much that needs to be done. Its not like Mondays that just suck because you know the weekend is over and work begins again. Wednesdays are the days when half the work is over but you still have another half to go. This thought is in my head as i write this, ya see i was up most of the night get work done, playing catch up for my taking off last week. I’m not complaining cuz my professors have been very nice, giving me a few breaks. But its still work. In light of that i thought it would be good to have a nice mellow day of blogging. These shots were taken Saturday morning before Scott and I went out onto Home Pylon.

This was the day with the best clouds out of the whole week. They were just great, nice simple fluffy clouds. The light bounced around in them creating just outstanding skies. It was so good that i didn’t have any work in post to do. It helps of course setting the camera’s white balance to cloudy, it made the skies warmer and more colorful. Now you can do the same thing in post but that’s just more time wasted. As you can see i tended to like these F15′s, the Blue Angels just had too many people around them.

As we were heading back in to get ready for the morning rush, Brent and I stayed out a little longer. The day before Kevin and I were in the right spot to catch a couple planes come down the runway to get some runs in before things began. Well with that knowledge i knew i wanted to be in position in case they did that again. They did. This here T6 known as Big Red came out first and the light was hitting it just right. Slowly the light wrapped around its wings, down the fuselage and disappeared by the tail. It was one of those mornings.

As good as the T6 was, the P51 D Mustang known as Ridge Runner III was that much better. It slowly came down the runway, the light just shinning brilliantly off its silver fuselage. That red tip nose just glowing like Rudolph’s, it was a sign that it would be a good morning.

The planes never actually took off as it turned out. They went down towards the end of the runway and stopped right before where the Blue Angels were parked. This is the T6. The propeller was spinning so fast that it’s hard to make out but it’s there. I wish the clouds had stuck here but unfortunately they had slowly moved off and the light was no longer making them look spectacular. With this last moment caught, i headed back to the Media Center shaking with excitement for the things to come later that day.

Images Captured with D3, 70-300 AF-S vr, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

I said i would get back to the Blue Angels so here it is. These were the shots i took during one of their practice runs. It was actually pretty impressive to see the tight formations they were able to do without crashing into one another. These are the F/A-18 Hornets, and they just rip, capable of speeds over 1200 mph. They are by far a sight to see.

The smoke they produce was somewhat of a mystery until a good friend Kevin Dobler explained that it was actually an oil that was heated an released on command by the leader. Well it didn’t take long for them to start showing off their impressive formation skills. They began with simple flyby patterns and gradually moved up to more advanced ones.

The paint job was one of my favorite parts. Simple and yet stood out very well against the sky and clouds. The yellow striping just brought it all together. I know obvious right, Blue Angels being blue but hey its an important detail.

They did a couple flybys like this with the landing gear down. It seemed a little odd when they did this one. Almost like they wanted to look as if they were landing on top of each other. Definitely well coordinated, the formation was well done.

This was the last image that really stood out to me. I liked the pattern and proximity of the planes. Another well performed formation. Couldn’t understand why only one jet released smoke and not all of them, i guess it means something that i don’t know about. Unfortunately i don’t really feel too chatty at the moment. Lack of sleep is making me a bit loopy so ill just leave it at this. The Blue Angels were impressive if not a lot rusty at first. But rusty or not they are doing something that most people couldn’t which makes it amazing.

Images captured with D3, 70-300 AF-S vr, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

The races are over for me, words i really don’t like saying. They ended on Sunday but i  had so much fun that i thought i would continue to share my excitement by blogging more planes this week. I’m going to take a little break from the Blue Angel shots that i said i was going to post and blog about Saturday’s fun. Don’t worry more shots of those awesome blue jets will surface later. I had the rare opportunity Saturday to go to an area that not many people get to go to, on top of the home pylon, where the vantage is seeing the planes as they come right at you.  We are actually looking down at the planes as they are coming at us. Now i say we because Scott Diussa and Mark Johnston were the guys that got me out there, along of course with all those at Nikon making it possible for us to be there. I’ll take this moment to thank all those involved with the races making it possible for the rest of us to come be apart of them, including my folks, they are by far one of the coolest events that I’ve had the privilege of going too. Now i wasn’t trying to be patriotic but one of the first images that popped out was the flag. It was windy and blowing just beautifully.

Going out to the races i had one thought in my mind, to get one shot that i can consider to being a wow shot. The home pylon gave me that shot. Now i love the P40′s and i wish i had gotten a great shot of them like Scott did, but i’m not complaining cuz i got the F4U-4 Corsair shot. It was coming around the pylon just barely entered the shoot coming at us. This was the only click i got of it during that lap that was in focus but it makes up for the rest. I showed it to Scott after the lap ended, who loves Corsair’s and he was instantly in love with it. I don’t blame him they are a very cool romantic aircraft. Of course when i went back to the media center and was looking at it, i couldn’t decide whether or not a certain cloud was distracting, so i was kinda running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to decide and the guys were being very nice and putting up with my nonsense. I finally decided to take it out, just was too much of a linear white line that i didn’t like being drawn too. Phew glad that was over with, on to other things.

The unlimited which are the planes we are currently seeing, are broken into 3 classes, bronze, silver and gold. Well each class is really cool but these are my favorite. On top of the pylon we are looking straight onto the course. Well i knew that the planes go by fast when at the other pylons but fast is totally different once on top of the pylon. This P40 is about to go past the pylon and you can see how much the stands and spectators blur when it does. Needless to say it’s even harder getting a sharp shot that close. It’s like here it comes….there it went.

We were up there for 3 races: sport, unlimited and T6. I like the T6′s, they have a great look to them and are relatively similar in speed so that they stack up a lot of the time. If memory serves it was around 10:30 when the T6′s went up and was also the point of this nice heavy cloud bank. One giant greyish mass that actually made very nice flat light but killed the sky. Except for that one spot you can see in the Corsair.

The T6′s as i said have a great shape to them, they fill horizontal frames just beautifully. I particularly liked this blue one. It stood out to me.

This one i also liked. Even though it is just white and has no real color to it, the decals and sponsor marks, give it a great look that i just love. It popped very nicely from the background which made it a great subject.

As i said they stack up nicely with each other. Scott out shot me with this one he got his stack up T6 shot that is just killer. At the end of the T6′s we had to get down, the C17 was going up and we weren’t aloud up there during jets. It was truly an amazing experience that i won’t forget. I got many nice shots but i didn’t get every shot that i wanted which is great, it means i have more to work on later. Two of the most important things I’ve learned this past week were save the buffer for the best opportunity and plane shots look better bigger. Thanks again Scott and Mark. My apologies to anyone whose eyes, ears and brains hurt after reading this post, i am definitely way too tired to be typing.

Images captured with D3, 24-70 for the flag, 70-300AF-Svr planes, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

My apologies for not getting more blogs up this past week. Just too wasn’t quick enough nor awake enough. Good news is i will be continuing showing images of the races throughout the week cuz frankly its the only current images i have. Well the Blue Angels were the show piece for the Air Races and us photo guys got to go out and shoot the planes and pilots. I didn’t get any pilot shots i particularly like but i did get a couple plane shots. I like these kind of shots, they have a unique perspective on the planes that i find interesting. These jets do have osme character to them hopefully these express that character.

Now for those of u that remember Dad had a shot similar to these ones which is probably where i go the idea for them. But hey if you’re going to borrow an idea why not from the best. The five jets were parked on the ramps as we did this shoot, they all had this wonderful profile to them. These are only a hint at the shots i got of the angels and since my flight is about ready to board, u’ll just have to wait for the rest.

Images captured with D3, 70-300 AF-S vr, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

It’s day two of the Air Races here in Reno and they are shaping up to be very exciting. 4 F14′s came in the night before and were resting on the ramp in the morning. Along with them were the Blue Angels but since i had already showed them i thought i would go to these guys. Plus there is no telling how long these guys will be around. The light was great, there were a couple clouds and the right amount of light to make them pop. I got down low and shot up into the sky trying to eliminate that pesky ground. It seems to be the favorite approach out here with static planes. You can go to Dad’s, Scott’s or Bill’s blog to see more spectacular static plane shots.

I was working with the F14 when Bill walked past me rather quickly. I asked him why and he said there is a A10 down the way. I said what and he replyed an A10 Worthog, one of my favorite planes. I followed him down the ramp and there it was parked in a little fenced off area, waiting to be photographed. Well the background sucks, just filled with cars and buildings and junk, far more stuff than i wanted to deal with in post. I therefore stuck to close up shots and it appears that the rest f the guys did the same. It turned out to be a rather cooperative subject, just wish it was out on the ramp.

Images captured with D3, 70-300AF-S vr, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

This past June i had the privilege of going to the Pylon Racing Seminar which are some of the practice runs for aircraft that plan to be in the Reno Air Races in September. Well here it is September and I’m back at the air races. I gotta tell you i haven’t had this much fun in some time. The people are great and the aircraft are just awesome. Take for instance the Blue Angels, they will be here for the weekend and I’m glad to say that i will have more time to shoot them; but these shots were taken Wednesday morning while they were doing engine checks.

The angles, the lines and the shapes just make those beautiful planes. They are F/A-18 Hornet and are magnificent. The group includes this big guy above called Fat Albert. Fat Albert does some aerial maneuvers with the F18′s but a more limited basis. It was at the end of the runway past the F18′s and the guy inside had just put out the American Flag. I thought this would be the best way to start the races, great light on a gorgeous subject. Right now I’m dead tired and my eyes are blurry, most have been a good day. I will be blogging a lot more during the rest of the week and through the weekend, so don’t worry more will come along with better stories.

Images captured with D3, 70-300 AF-S vr, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Labor Day weekend and what smart idea do i have but to go into Yellowstone to try and find some critters. Yea not one of my best ideas, needless to say there was a lot of people that day traveling through the park. As far as critters went, i saw almost none. There was one very small herd of Bison in the valley and a few Pronghorn hanging around in the valley as well. Otherwise it was quiet, minus the people. This wasn’t entirely a bad thing because there was a thunder storm moving through that day and i thought i would chase it.

I hadn’t used my lightning trigger before so i busted it out and started searching for the lightning…. Yea easier said than done. I didn’t get any shots with the lightning, which sucked cuz i was seeing a lot. I think the critters gave the weather the heads up that i was coming through because every time i stopped and set up in a spot, the lightning stopped. That’s my luck. Well at least the clouds cooperated. Like this one section where the god beams started coming through in Lamar Valley. Now i have been done that valley a lot and i had never seen that strong of beams before. They didn’t last long but then they never do.

I was heading out of the park, just before Blacktail Ponds i looked back to see this. This massive wave like wall cloud opposing this ominous cloud. It was kinda unique the two coming togethor. Almost like the light and dark side fighting each other, everything mirrors that intensity. To be honest i didn’t really know how to finish, guess i’ll ponder that for a while. It wasn’t the images i was expecting to get but it was a rather fun day. Maybe i’ll find some critters this weekend.

Images captured with D2Hs, 17-55, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film