Evan and I went up top the Reno Air races Friday and Saturday.  Friday we spent the day in the pits visiting with friends and not taking nearly as many photos as we should have!

On Saturday we ran into our good friend Mark who's been telling us repeatedly for years to to go to his property along the fenceline.  This time we got the directions and headed out.  His property is right up against the airfield and the planes are really close!

For the jets Evan and I set our G10 and GH1 at "P" for program which gave us a shutter speed of 1/1000+ ... which is super for these guys zipping by at over 500mph!

For the propellor planes we went to "S" shutter priority and went for 1/400-1/500 which gave us prop blur and also good sharpness

We made some new friends and had a wonderful time along the fenceline. 

Well, Evan and I went up on Saturday, after his soccer season opening game (they won 4-0!), to the Livermore airport to meet the film crew.  The crew was great and a lot of fun.  The sound guys were from Skywalker Sound and particularly fun. 

Evan and I were asked to shoot all the "behind the scene stuff" like the film and sound guys doing their thing, the pilot breifings, etc.  It was very interesting and I learned a ton of stuff.  Unfortunately the air to air for us never happened as the space was limited and we didn't have parachutes.  (We needed parachutes because the door was removed from the Beechcraft photo plane)

The movie they're shooting is called "A Pilot Story"  http://www.apilotsstory.com  by the way. 

Sunday I went back up, with a parachute borrowed from a friend, hoping to help out and especially to go for an air to air.  In the morning a good friend would be flying his P-51 Mustang but the director claimed the back seat for that flight and a friend of the camera guy took my spot in the photo plane.

I think the director really regretted it........ that's him in the back seat!

iFrame Removed

P-51 Mustang Puke from Nigel Ellis on Vimeo.

In the afternoon the crew was going to fly up to the Reno Air Races and film a Focke Wolfe 190 and a Corsair in air to air.  I was told there was a space for me and I could film in the air to air for that flight!  Woo Hoo!!

So we headed up there to catch these amazing planes flying over the high desert during the golden hour of sunset.

On the way, I shot this

Unfortunately, when we got there, the FW-190 was having "issues" and .... worst of all ... the producer decided he wanted to go up on the photo flight with the Corsair and he bumped me!

I was not happy about this turn of fortune but I did get to visit with some friends at the races while they were out filming.

So all in all it was a very worthwhile weekend considering I learned a ton, had fun, got to see friends and at least got some air to air!

Tim

This whole blog thing is kinda new to me.  I don't actually spend a lot of time reading blogs so now that I'm writing one, I want to read all of yours!

Something else that's really cool is how my school year has worked out.  I work in a local high school supporting special education kids.  It has evolved to where I support them in their elective classes - you know, PE, cooking, art ....  Well this year I'm in two, yes two photography classes!!!  The teacher and I are splitting the class up in that she'll handle the film half of the class and I'll be doing digital photography!  The kids either use our cameras or bring their own.  For editing we'll be using Picasa and some Photoshop.  It's really fun and the kids are really excited.

I just finished a video for one our friends http://www.vimeo.com/14758115

click play then click pause to give it a minute to load.

Tim

OK, here is the first blog post I've ever done - be gentle!

So Evan and I have been going to lots of air shows and having neat adventures.  Many are on his website and some are scattered on this site via pics and videos.

here's Evan before going aerobatic

and aerobatic!

I get to have adventures too....

an air-to-air I shot recently

Lately we've changed things up a bit because I've fallen in love with shooting HD videos.  So now Evan shoots the stills and I do the videos.  What's cool is we're now doing promotional videos for several aerobatic performers. 

http://www.vimeo.com/12217330

http://www.vimeo.com/12145054

Our footage is also being used by several professional filmakers.  One liked what we do so much that Evan and I have been invited to help do the aerial video work for an upcoming feature length movie!  (Can't say more about right now.... )  I think a big selling point for him is that we use a GH1, which is a big deal nowdays!

Evan and I are also the official videographers for a local police academy and we specialize in their EVOC (Emergency Vehicle Operation Course).  The means we get to do the high performance driving course and shoot it too!  I mount a GoPro camera on the cars in various locations like on the hood, bumper, etc., we shoot from inside a car (I made a cool mount for our Panasonic HDC-TM20 that fits between the headrests), and also out on the course.  The instructors use the footage in their curriculum but I can't share any of it however - sorry!

We're also the official videographers for a real live rocket scientist/friend who builds an flies rocket belts...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah93b2ZbBAM

and also for a team developing something that'll hit the airshow market in a big way this spring ... shhhh!

All our good videos are on Vimeo right now because it supports large HD videos.  When I have the time I'll re-edit them to fit here.  You can see them here http://www.vimeo.com/user1834772

This all works out well because I'm really getting into the creative process of filmmaking and Evan really loves shooting stills!  The only issure right now is we have to try to share our 45-200mm and 14-140mm lens between my GH1 and his G10.  We can't wait for the new 100-300mm to come out!

It's absolutely amazing the adventure Panasonic and LiHD has started us on!