Musings of an Aviation Photographer

Here we are again, the start of a New Year! With the start of 2013, the world has changed a lot in just this one year that was 2012.  Advancements in the world have been overshadowed with devastation, financial crisis, and tragedy this past year.  It’s been a tough time for many struggling to get ahead in the world as it seems to leave them behind.  New rules, major budget cuts, and the unsustainability of many things we’ve come to expect or take for granted have made huge impacts all over the country.  Many programs have ceased to be because of these troubled times, sadly costing the enjoyment of many.  When we reflect on the previous year, like everyone does around this time, we then realize just how much … [Read More]

Once again we find ourselves at a New Year on the horizon.  With the end of 2011, we look back on all the events that took place. In this rapidly changing world, where technology seems to advance faster than you can purchase it and conflicts seem like everyday news, it’s necessary to take a moments pause to remember how we got here. When it comes to photography, each passing year offers its own challenges, opportunities, and learning experiences. Photography is an evolving medium, even though it has been around for decades. Aside from the every changing technology where in two months an upgrade to the brand new camera you just bought is released, photography as an art form is ever changing. Like fashion, what makes a ‘good photography’ seems to … [Read More]

As the 2010 year ends and we usher in 2011, it’s time for many people around the world to reflect on 2010 and all the many events that have filled those 365 days.  Regrets, fond memories, the best and the worst, all those memories flood the world during this New Year’s Eve.  For myself, it’s a time to look back at all the adventures and fun moments of 2010, and while not forgetting the bad moments, trying to learn from them and see how they can improve in the next year.  Especially for myself, I favor looking at the fun times, the great moments that define the year for me.  As a photographer, some of the best moments were captured on camera, spanning all over the United … [Read More]

The Petty Project started out as an idea to recreate all of the late George Petty’s famous airbrushed Petty Girls from the1940s and 1950s through photography and photoshop.  Using real models in a photography studio, the famous artwork Petty created launching the golden age of Pinups would be recreated in painstaking detail as close as possible to the original.  While most of the times the Petty Girls are in impossible real world poses and their proportions not entirely correct for a normal human being, the use of photoshop would bring these photos closer to how the Petty Girl looks while still keeping the real world natural shape if at all possible.  Finally, using various photoshop tools, the finish photo would be converted to look like the … [Read More]

HDRI.  You either love it or you hate it, if you know what it is.  Probably one of the biggest debates in photography right now gets to the essence of what HDRI is, and if it truly is photography or just an art form. HDRI has it’s pros and cons, each one pretty significant.  Done correctly, you can create some beautiful images with the HDRI process, but you can also create some hideous shots that go well beyond the realm of normal and into grunge art or even worse destroy the concept of the photograph. Walking around the photo showcase at the recent Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, California this past July I noticed that HDRI images are on … [Read More]

For some people, it’s the lure of being one of the first to step into the chilly San Diego exhibit hall in the mid morning, for others it’s the excitement that comes with showing up in a elaborate costume and having others want to take photos with you.  The annual Comic Con International convention that takes place in San Diego each year means a lot of different things for a lot of different people, and each of them have different things they look forward to each year during the Con.  Each of these little traditions are the life force of the otherwise exhausting 5 days of the convention, it’s what keep people going and keep the exhaustion at bay.  For myself, however, it’s something a … [Read More]

The lure of Pinups have lasted through history for over 70 years.  Since the first pinups became popular in the 1920s to they outbreak of their fame in the 1940s, they’ve represented not just fantasies but symbols of an ideal time and the celebration of the female form.  While the pinups of today don’t quite have the same classy clean fun as the art of yesterday, the main idea and love of the playful pinup lives on in various forms.  The Pinup of yesterday was created from the brush on an artist, usually being inspired by real life models for the artist.  Today, the pinup is most often found in photographs in favor over the airbrush or watercolor.  A resurgence of the style has emerged … [Read More]

When many people think of Pin-Up Art from the 1940s and 50s in this day and age, they often will think of Alberto Vargas’s work, which goes from the classic PinUp look to the dawn of the Playboy style art.  However, if you were to ask someone from World War 2 into the early 50s, you’ll find they remember a different type of PinUp: The Petty Girl.  The Petty Girl was not just art for the fancy of men in magazines, but she was a symbol for a homesick GIs at war and a metaphor for the innocence of the times.  The Petty Girl captured the classic PinUp look that has, in my opinion, never been matched since and it’s all due to one … [Read More]