Heli Expo 2008

Well, I made it! Four days of nothing but photography at one of the largest helicopter conventions ever, the Helicopter Association International's Heli Expo 2008. I was there not only for myself but also as one of two photographers covering the event for Vertical magazine (http://www.verticalmag.com/). Even though helicopters are probably the funnest thing--ever--to photograph, it was still slightly stressful as I had to shoot a variety of stuff, get names and info for captions and have it uploaded to the website before the end of the day.

The day before the official start of the convention was just some press conferences--nothing too special going on there so I'm not even bothering with posting photos from that. Day one of the convention (Sunday) was the start of the craziness. It all began with Sikorsky unveiling their new X2 technology demonstrator. Basically it's a real snazzy looking copter with two sets of rotorblades, one on top of the other, to counter torque and then it has a propeller to push it to velocities never-before seen in a helicopter. Just a few minutes after the Sikorsky fun, Eurocopter decided to let the industry have it with their new EC-175 medium twin helicopter, complete with grungy oil workers. I must admit the French know how to create a sleek looking craft.

Now on day two and three, nothing too special happened except for, perhaps, a few business deals. I just roamed the convention hall shooting anything that looked interesting. However, on the last day I was given the assignment (ok, I pretty much asked for it) to go flying with Honeywell in their LTS101-converted early model AS-350. They were showing off their new Observer system to one of Vertical's contributing editors and it was my job to provide the visuals. Check it out:

The Superstitions

Maybe I'll try to write about my desert pics later. I'm a bit sick at the moment and don't feel like typing but enjoy the show. :)

La Tour de Mesa - 2 February 2008

I've been wanting to take some photographs around Mesa for a while and I finally had some time to do it. These first few images were taken in downtown Mesa, the first one at Center & Main and the next few not too far down the road. I really had some fun at the Mesa Arts Center as there was a bunch of dumb little things that were fun to shoot--things like the cactus planted in a bunch of broken glass. Then I saw an interesting photo-to-be-made when I noticed desperate advertising for Ron Paul. I'm sure he's a nice guy but I'm not too impressed with his followers' methods of promotion. After enjoying a bit of downtown scenery I took-off to a couple other places that needed to be shot. Down below you'll see I photographed an old abandoned shack where someone once lived many years ago, as well as the upside-down palm tree and even a haunted house! Just kidding about the haunted house but check it out anyway. :)

My First Wedding!

Yes, I'm a polygraphous man and I plan to have a lot more weddings in the future. Honestly, not a whole lot to report on this one except that it wasn't as bad (scary) as I was expecting. The daylight was a bit harsh and I wasn't really prepared with an assistant to hold a reflector or anything so I just did the best I could with my trusty SB-600 loaded with Lithium AA's (expensive little SOG's!). Also, because of the difficult lighting I opted to go a little modern with a wide lens and a polarizer to get that dramatic look.

For the reception shots, I'm fortunate I had the D300 at my disposal for the low light shots. The auto-ISO chooser often selected ISO3200 which basically saved my butt. Thank goodness for auto-ISO!!! It allows me to concentrate making photographs instead of changing settings on the camera. Anyway, there really isn't much else to report on so without further adieu I present to you my work.

Got lucky this weekend...

This last Saturday I intended to do one thing or another that had absolutely nothing to do with hiking Squaw Peak but when all of my other plans fell through, I had no other choice. After work (I picked up a shift which ended at 1530 hours local time) I changed clothes and headed to the mountain. I brought my new and amazing Nikon D300 along for this trip because I knew there would be something worth photographing--whether it be a sunset or ....a sunset. Actually, I hung my camera around my neck and turned on the interval timer which snapped pics of my trip up the hill, automatically, every 5 seconds.

Once I reached the top I took a break, sat down, and enjoyed the scenery. Shortly after making it up there off in the distance I heard a helicopter. Ok, this isn't too unheard of...helicopters fly by there all the time. This one was the Phoenix Police Department "Firebird" unit and they just happened to swing by to see what's happening at the top of Squaw Peak. They eventually saw me waving at them with one hand and holding my beautiful Nikon D300 with the lovely MB-D10 vertical grip in the other and decided they wanted their portrait taken. We did several poses as they were very cooperative. Hopefully they'll like these proofs as much as I do. I think they will...

...and by the way, I never did get any good sunset shots.