Challenges in My Photography

Taking these pictures was not easy. I had to fly the trike, pull out the camera, frame it and take the shot and stow my camera. Not easy but not that big of a deal. Back in 94, I was using a point-and-shoot 35mm film camera. Pull it out, turn it on and point it in the direction and depress the shutter release button.

These were not easy. The day was strong and filled with bumpy air. I had a place to stow the camera and I was in the back seat, I was not flying. I did have to be careful with not smacking myself with the camera on a bump or surge. Again, this is a point and shoot camera.

Difficult shot, flying a hang glider in rough air, pull out the stuffed camera being careful not to drop it, take the picture and stuff the camera back into the pocket.

I set the camera up on the keel behind me, upside down and set it to take a picture every two minutes. A roll of 36 and I would get an hour of flying pictures. I had to be careful not to weight the glider too heavy aft. It changes the trim of the glider with too much weight in one direction. Fortunately my cameras did not weigh much and I kept them close to center on the keel so I did not have to counterweight to keep trim.

Super difficult shot. I'm being towed up by that truck down on the road. This is 1/8" kevlar line rated for about a thousand pounds and keeping the glider pointed in the right direction was paramount to not "locking out" or having the angle of the glider pull down and to the side if I got off center. But I got the shot, stuffed the camera back in my harness.

Actually, not too bad, the camera is pretty close to the center of gravity so I did not have to counterweight. I set the timer to take a picture every three minutes. The roll of 36 ran out, I was up a long time. The ultralight towed me up to 10,000' above ground level or almost 12,000' high. I was on tow for 45 minutes or so and flew for quite a while after gliding into the city and landing in a field next to my house.

These are early in flight, camera pointed back at me pictures. Again, I chose a lightweight camera but even this little bit of weight put a turn in the glider. I was constantly having to fight the turn so when I was thermalling up, I just used that turn in the thermal, instead of fighting the turn, I went with it. I didn't have any infrared or bluetooth shutter releases back then so I used a bulb that had a long tube. Squeeze the bulb, it pushed air through the tube and actuated a piston that pressed on the shutter release button. I had to fabricate the bracket in order to set the camera up.

I was asked to take a few pictures by these cardiovascular surgeons during valve replacement surgery. I used a Pentax K-1000 and a 50mm f2 lens, it was my wife's camera. No flash, it was light enough however, it was a little uncomfortable as I was still working and had a lot of responsibilities. The pictures turned out ok. The slides where much better.