Out and about...

[Rich Rohrich]

Santa clearly LOVES you Kav :)

 

[whenfoxforks-ruled]

Very nice indeed Kav! Waiting for the new pics, secret Santa gives you a gift, and you share it with us! Outstanding! Merry Christmas Kav, and do stay safe, and keep the pics coming! Bob

 

[Kav]

Finally got some film back. I'm going through them to figure out what I want to get prints of. But a few I already got done just to see what they look like.


Taken with Kodak Porta 400, and no light meter. 4x5 contact print, It looks so much better in person though:

 

[Okiewan]

That is SO FREAKING cool Kav!!
Excellent shots man, you got the eye. You'd capture good stuff with an InstaMatic.

 

[Kav]

Thanks,

Hell, I'd give a InstaMatic a go. But in leu of that, how about a Holga lens on a nikon D7000?

Rescue Me:

Chaining down helos is a bad idea...

Smoke Pit:

Product Placement:

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Really nice stuff Kav. You are making me want to actually put some Tri-X in my old cameras :)

 

[Kav]

I'm stoked to hear it! Love to see what you come up with. I seem to have been giving lots of people the urge to shoot film again. Although I've taken about 22,000 digi-photos and only about 120 film photos.

Here's a much more detailed photo of the film one above. The colors suck because I do not have access to a scanner. So I have to go to medical, talk to the x-ray tech to use the light box for checking x-rays. Then I take a photo of the negative, and do the best I can to reverse it. I do this only to proof shoots:

I wonder how the shot I took with the Speed Graphic is going to come out? The look on their faces when the flash bulb went off was priceless...

 

[Rich Rohrich]

These guys look young enough to not even KNOW what a flash bulb looks like. :)

 

[Kav]

It's been burned into their brains now, I assure you.

 

[Kav]

I'm proud to say I got a mention in the Vivian Maier blog:
Click me

Pretty pumped about that!


So the mission of the CH-53E is troop transport and heavy lift. We do a lot of the formar, and little of the latter here. Today we did the latter. :D

Getting lined up:

See that guy with the poll? his job is to use that to ground us. Otherwise when they try to hook the load up they are going to get zapped. All of those blades whipping around in the dry sandy air makes for a hell of a lot of static electricity:

Getting hooked up:

 

[Kav]

Easy pick:

Watching to make sure the load plays nice, otherwise we'd have to drop it:

And we're out of here:

 

[Kav]

One of our Marines reenlisted today at Lake Assal, I'm not going to post the photos of the reenlistment until after he gets his copy of them to share with his family, but I'd be happy to share these from today:

4 more years for this guy:

A bit of a hike to get to the water:

Riddin' in the back:

Leavin' out the back:

I couldn't figure out why with a fill flash this was so washed out. After I got back I realized I should have done spot metering for the center of the frame. That would have helped to get this to look right. I would still have used the flash to fill in the shadows.

 

[Kav]

The guys joking around before the flight:

 

[Rich Rohrich]

That's some of your best stuff to date Kav! Keep 'em coming.

A couple of quick flash tips to keep in mind :

- The flash exposure is totally controlled by the aperture you set

- For a given f stop there is a specific flash to subject distance that needs to be maintained for a "correct" flash portion of the exposure before the inverse square law steps in.

For example if the correct flash exposure at f8 = 5 feet from flash to subject then moving the flash 10 feet away (2 times the distance ^ 2 = 4) will only allow 1/4 of the flash to hit the subject . Fun with physics.


- The ambient light exposure is controlled by the shutter speed and won't really impact the flash portion of the exposure.

- If you have enough flash power you can set the shutter speed -3 or more stops under the correct no flash exposure and pretty much kill the influence of the ambient light and let the flash be the main light source.

- The wider the lens is open and the higher the ISO the greater the "effective" range of the flash. The inverse square law physics will always be there but you can extend the reach of the flash by playing the physics you can control (aperture and ISO)


As I think about it this is all stuff you probably already know:whoa:

 

[High Lord Gomer]

Great pics, Kav! Congratulations on being recognized.

I really like the one of the vehicle in the air and the rotors frozen in shadow.

 

[Kav]

That's some of your best stuff to date Kav! Keep 'em coming.

A couple of quick flash tips to keep in mind :

- The flash exposure is totally controlled by the aperture you set

- For a given f stop there is a specific flash to subject distance that needs to be maintained for a "correct" flash portion of the exposure before the inverse square law steps in.

For example if the correct flash exposure at f8 = 5 feet from flash to subject then moving the flash 10 feet away (2 times the distance ^ 2 = 4) will only allow 1/4 of the flash to hit the subject . Fun with physics.


- The ambient light exposure is controlled by the shutter speed and won't really impact the flash portion of the exposure.

- If you have enough flash power you can set the shutter speed -3 or more stops under the correct no flash exposure and pretty much kill the influence of the ambient light and let the flash be the main light source.

- The wider the lens is open and the higher the ISO the greater the "effective" range of the flash. The inverse square law physics will always be there but you can extend the reach of the flash by playing the physics you can control (aperture and ISO)

As I think about it this is all stuff you probably already know:whoa:

Rich,

Thanks for all the info, I did not know that about WA lenses. I have a Nikon 14-24mm lens loaned out to me from the base for the next week, so I'll play around with that a bit. It is tricky trying to get the inside and outside of the helo to both be exposed properly. And considering I only have the on camera flash to work with that makes things really fun. But at least with shooting a RAW file I can get the outside and a large part of what I'm trying to show on the inside exposed the way I want, and then can do some slight digital dodging and burning to make the most of what I have.

Gomer,

Thanks, this flight worked out pretty good. I had a lot of keepers.

And look what came in the mail today... (evil maniacal laughter in the background)

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Locked and loaded film style :yeehaw:

Kav - Let me see if I can't scrounge you up a decent flash unit.

What Nikon DLSR body are you shooting with?

 

[Kav]

Rich,

Thanks for the offer. That is very kind of you. I'm shooting with a Nikon D7000 (the D3100 is now the backup body.)

I'm looking forward to giving developing a go. But I'm going to send one more batch of film out to be done by a pro. It has some photos that I do not want to spend my time trying to learn with. Also the 125PX will need to be done back in the states anyways. But after that it's game on. Plus I need to learn to use the press kits. I may be spending a week or two in Thailand or Cambodia and was asked to bring the film cameras. So I'd like to be able to develop the negatives on site. I just wish I could process C-6 films like this.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Kav - Email me a good shipping address to richard.rohrich @ gmail.com and I'll see what I can come up with.

 

[Kav]

Will do!

 

[Kav]

Here's a little video of working with externals.

Picking up:
<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="640" height="360" src="http://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/1648835331_njQW8t5?width=640&height=360"></iframe>


And dropping off:
<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="640" height="360" src="http://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/1646687042_hDgPqSL?width=640&height=360"></iframe>

 

[Kav]

After we did the externals in the day time we get to do them at night...

Hand held with a 50mm F1.4 shot wide open:

And with the Night Vision Adaptor

Getting set up:

 

[Kav]

The same Hummer from before:

The ground crew:

 

[Kav]

I've been pretty bent the last few days. So I got to thinking what was pissing me off so bad. I couldn't come up with a good reason. The more I thought about it the more I felt I needed an attitude change. So after thinking about it I came up with this as my motto for 2012:

I know not what this new year will bring, but I know this: I will make it the best year ever. No matter where in the world I am I vow to have a good time. No matter who tries to keep me down I will rise above. I will visit a new country this year. I will make new friends. I will be a better friend to my current friends. I will hold on the parts of my past that matter and leave all the things that do not behind. I have a chance to truly start fresh and I'd be a fool not to.

After thinking that I've felt just loads better.


And of course, more photos! After shooting the night time externals I found out today that my camera sensor was covered in crap. FML... I have loads of worthless photos to prove it. I was able to get most of it cleaned out so here are some of the better ones.

Today I knocked out my open water SCUBA qual, and of course we had to sail up the cost:

Shot at 14mm


The coast:

My guys heading off on a training mission:

And knowing what boat I was on, they stopped on by for a quick air show on the way back to base:

 

[Kav]

Now this shot I really like, I normally do not like having blurry photos, but for me this one works:

And back into the port.

The waving crane:

#8

Going home for the day: