Today’s Photo from Ted Grussing Photography: gear down and locked

By Ted Grussing

… a USAF Hercules C-130 flew the pattern and came in and did an aborted landing at the Sedona airport this morning. The pilot gave us advance notice that he would be coming in and aborting the landing and give us a beautiful view of this work horse that has been serving the US military since 1954. There are many variants of the plane and for a full history of it you can check it out further at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-130_Hercules . It was an amazing sight and thanks to the pilot for a heads up so that I could get the camera out of the car and get out on the flight line to get this shot.We get a lot of military traffic in and out of here including the Osprey and many more.

I was thinking jet when I heard what was coming in so I had a high shutter speed and nearly froze the blades of the propellers on the ship. If you are shooting planes in flight that have propellers if is a good idea to shoot the plane at a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second or less … 1/125th is an ideal speed, but the slower speeds require good tracking ability of the photographer lest the entire ship be in a blurred state. Photos of propeller driven aircraft with a a sharp and frozen propeller makes one wonder if the propeller is turning and it just doesn’t look right … will it fall out of the sky? I won’t have this worry when I shoot a Citation that is heading back to the mid-west tomorrow morning … no propellers and a very high speed is called for. I love to get the shots with the red rocks behind the plane and in this shot you can see the exhaust from the engines is blurring our the detail in the rocks just behind the wings.

A new week underway and methinks it shall be a very good one … keep breathing, smile and enjoy the day in which you are here.

Cheers

Ted

Will future generations understand

The turmoil of these days, the strain and stress,

The dawns despair, the night’s uneasiness,

The greed of itching palms throughout the land?

Will they conceive the fires fanatics fanned,

Of time the universal wastefulness,

The strange philosophies the mobs confess

That every throat cry out some new demand?

— Max Ehrmann

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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com

In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.

Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.

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