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The Photoshop Blog offers the latest Photoshop news and software updates, Photoshop tips and tutorials, and random thoughts from graphic artist and Photoshop expert Jennifer Apple.
TUESDAY - OCTOBER 04 2005
Getting The Shot - Andrew Marino Tells His Story
Often when I take photos I reassure myself that if I mess up I always have Photoshop to help me out later on. But other times you have to make sure that you get the shot, like when a jet is coming in for an emergency landing and you have one chance to capture the moment. Here is how it happened for Andrew Marino, who made it to LAX in time to get a shot of jetBlue Flight 292 as it touched down:
"I just recently purchased my first DSLR camera. I bought a Nikon D50 with a 18-55mm lens and also a Tokina AF80-400mm F4.5-5.6 telephoto lens. I'm a huge aviation nut and also had wanted to do aviation photography for a long time and had been spending a good amount of time over at LAX taking shots of aircraft landing and taking off. The day this all happened I was at home when I turned on the TV and saw this jetBlue A320 circling over the Pacific. I knew it was going to land somewhere in the LA area and my gut said LAX. At first one might thing Long Beach because its jetBlue's west coast HQ but LGB only has the one runway the airlines can use and for that plane to land there it would mean that runway would be shut down for a while.
"LAX just seemed like a more logical choice. I live in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles, so I am about 15 minutes from LAX. I got my camera ready, packed my bag and waited by the TV to see if they were going to confirm LAX as the landing site. Once they did I hopped in my car and sped off to LAX. I knew they were going to land of runway 25L so Imperial Hill was the place to be. Imperial Hill is in El Segundo and lots of photographers go there to get shots of the action at LAX. It sits up above the airport about 40 feet and is about 3000 feet away from the actual runway. When planes land or take off from 25L you can get a full framed A320 with about 280mm.
"The entire drive to LAX (through rush hour traffic) I was listening to my airport scanner to see if anything changed. I arrived at Imperial Hill to find literally thousands of people lining the hill and standing on cars and trucks. There were 3 or 4 news choppers in the sky overhead and at least 5 or 6 satellite trucks from the news channels there already. I quickly parked the car (rather far away) and sprinted back to the top of the hill. Right as I got there the plane was touching down at the other end of the runway. I pulled out my camera and turned it on and pushed through a few people and as I put the viewfinder to my eye the nose wheels touched down and the sparks began to fly. I shot about 15 pictures in a row and the picture you see today was the third shot I got. It was the best because the sparks were at the most intense at that moment and also because the A320 was closest to me at that point.
"When I decided to go over to LAX to capture the event I didn't think it was going to be a huge event or disaster. I knew that the news would make it out to be more dire than it was, and I suppose that explains why all the people were there, but I thought that in the worst case scenario the gear would collapse and the plane would simply come to rest on its nose. I did think the plane could possibly catch on fire, due to the sparks and fire from the landing gear, and if that happened things could turn bad quickly. I certainly hoped I was not going to capture a horrific crash and I was glad I didn't. But it was funny, the entire time I was rushing over to LAX I was thinking to myself "I've go to get this shot!" I guess the inner wannabe photo journalist took over.
"There were many photographers there, some were just people with little point and shoot cameras and some others where obviously professional photographers. My equipment put me more towards the top end of the people there, but there were certainly more trained and better equipped individuals capturing the event than me.
"When I got home I immediately loaded the files into Photoshop CS2 which I had only begun using a day or two earlier. Needless to say I was not and am still not totally competent on the program so I simply cropped the picture and darkened it slightly and that was it. I uploaded it to airliners.net a few minutes later and it was on the site not more than 2 or 3 minutes after that.
"When I was taking the shots the thing I was trying to remember was to simply stay calm and shoot as many shots as possible. I didn't worry if every picture was framed perfect or if the light was perfect because it was happening so fast that you couldn't worry, and if you did try to make it perfect the event would be over and you would have nothing to show for it. I shot the picture at a focal lens length of 170mm and an F number of 5. Everything else was pretty much auto, since I had no time to set up when it happened. I'd like to think that if this had happened a few weeks later I might have gotten an even better shot, since I'm still learning how to use my camera, but I suppose you can just chalk it up to semi-beginners luck and that's that!"
See a large version of this photo.
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Canon Digital Rebel XT EOS 350D eBook
It's the explanation we've all been awaiting. Digital Secrets and Graphics Management Press have just released DSLR: Canon Digital Rebel XT / EOS 350D eBook. According to reviewers, this camera has features so deep that it is actually 4 different cameras packaged as one.
The eBook meticulously deconstructs the Digital Rebel's mysteries to allow photographers to optimally make use of its technology. Beginning with a comprehensive guide to the camera's myriad features, the eBook goes even further in-depth by providing some useful tips and tricks for users.
Read the full press release.
posted by Jennifer Apple | permalink | send comments
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Adjusting Exposure in Adobe Camera Raw CS3
Photoshop CS3 Tutorial High Dynamic Range
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