Falcon Field (MSC, KFFZ, FFZ)

[Jeff D. Welker]

Early morning Gulfstream goodness...

[Jeff D. Welker]

CHARLIE DON'T SURF

[Tower Guy]

Beautiful clarity and detail on both of these shots Jeff. Your doing that Sony proud.

[Jeff D. Welker]

During the work week you can often find me driving through Falcon Field before sunrise. While most of the time it is a peaceful way to get my morning started, sometimes I find an interesting visitor. Such was the case this morning. A Douglas A-26C Invader ("Sexy Sue") was on the ramp next to the new administration building. While the nose art my be a little too "racy" for kids, it is a wonderfully restored and maintained airframe.

[Joe Copalman]

HOMEGROWN HELO

[Joe Copalman]

NANCHANG DE LA NOCHE

I had the opportunity to assist Doug Glover during this weekend's 3G Aviation Media air-to-air workshop at Falcon Field.  While I was the workshop's gopher and was often out running around fetching lunch or picking up white gaffer's tape or getting more water and ice, or backing up Jay with the behind-the-scenes when he was in a brief or on a flight, I did have some opportunities to get some 'me' shots.  This one was a collaboration with one of the students, who didn't have a lot of night photography or light painting experience, but had the vision of doing a light-painting shot with the CJ illuminated with white light and the foreground lit up with blue.  Quite a few compromises here, mostly with regard to framing.  I would have loves to go for a lower angle, but needed to use the fuselage to mask most of the lights in the background. 

[Jay Beckman]

Was this the very last one you did?  I think you nailed the balance pretty well.

[Joe Copalman]

Thanks, this was the last one, right after I switched the white balance back to auto from tungsten.  The blue gel I was using is pretty thick, so I really had to bomb the hell out of the foreground with it to even compete with the amber cast from the sodium lights all around.  This was just over a minute-long exposure, I'd say a good 45 seconds of that was just lighting up the foreground.  Still a bit of work in LR to lighten up the fuselage slightly and get the color right (eyedropper on the skull did the trick, AWB wasn't too far off). 

[Joe Copalman]

Had the day off and saw some helos in the pattern after dropping my son off at school this morning, so thought I'd swing by and shoot whatever was flying.  Not a bad haul for twenty minutes of fence time. 

FUTURE COP

This 530F is headed to the Fresno Sheriff's Office soon.  Snuck up on me while I was shooting an H-19 hulk, hence the not-quite-propsicle-but-gettin'-there rotors.

THEN AND NOW

The haze this morning provided some cool atmospherics.

GOING GRAY

The MD540A armed scout demonstrator flew today, and in a paint scheme I've never seen it in before.  Looks pretty sharp if you ask me.

DIZZY DEVIL

I'm not a full-disc guy, but this bird made so many turnouts right in front of me that it would have been stupid not to go for one.  I got a few, but the number of shutter actuations I had to murder to get them was pretty staggering. 

THE SUNDANCE KID

Pretty sure this is MD's company bird used to train clients and such how to fly their new helicopters, as I've shot it numerous times over the years.  It always seems to be autorotating when I catch it. 

[tajmahal250]

[/url]Snakebite by Thomas Backus, on Flickr[/img]

[jczankl]

Sun Set Falcon Field by JC Zankl, on Flickr

[AerialSphere]

Did some air to air for MD Helicopters a while back. While there the Air Rescue Systems 902 stopped in for some maintenance. It's a stunningly beautiful aircraft. Function and Form!

[Joe Copalman]

25/22

Mr. Germain bringing the SNJ back to home plate.

[Tower Guy]

Beautiful shot Joe, nice to have the airport in the frame.

[Jeff D. Welker]