My friend Grant Symon sent this article to me. If you own Hassies and are interested in aerials or just the history of photography, check out this article.

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Extremely well-written behind the scenes article detailing the raid on Osama Bin Laden, from the New Yorker. Incredible:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle#ixzz1Tq5niGs7

Excerpt detailing the helicopter crash:

“When the helicopter began getting away from the pilot, he pulled back on the cyclic, which controls the pitch of the rotor blades, only to find the aircraft unresponsive. The high walls of the compound and the warm temperatures had caused the Black Hawk to descend inside its own rotor wash—a hazardous aerodynamic situation known as “settling with power.” In North Carolina, this potential problem had not become apparent, because the chain-link fencing used in rehearsals had allowed air to flow freely. A former helicopter pilot with extensive special-operations experience said of the pilot’s situation, “It’s pretty spooky—I’ve been in it myself. The only way to get out of it is to push the cyclic forward and fly out of this vertical silo you’re dropping through. That solution requires altitude. If you’re settling with power at two thousand feet, you’ve got plenty of time to recover. If you’re settling with power at fifty feet, you’re going to hit the ground.”

The pilot scrapped the plan to fast-rope and focussed on getting the aircraft down. He aimed for an animal pen in the western section of the compound. The SEALs on board braced themselves as the tail rotor swung around, scraping the security wall. The pilot jammed the nose forward to drive it into the dirt and prevent his aircraft from rolling onto its side. Cows, chickens, and rabbits scurried.”

I just spend a week in Nevada shooting for a great client but I can’t talk about the project. I showed some personal aerials of storms and I also spend an extra day for shooting stock for my agencies. That was worthwhile. I just uploaded a pretty large group of selects to one shop and I was pleased with the editing and how they made their decisions on the keepers. Capture One keeps getting better and better – I love the color I am getting from C1 with the D3x files and of course with the Leaf MOS files. The B&W conversion from C1 are excellent. Of course, sometimes I add a wee bit of grain from the Pixel Genius plug-in or add a bit of Tri-X 800 from Exposure but most of the time, I stick with the C1 version.

I spent the weekend with my 98 year old grandmother in West Virginia. She is sharp as can be and a delight to sit back and listen as she tells stories from her youth and when my mother was young.

Her constant companion is Maggie, a mixed Labrador-Boxer who is a bundle of energy who thinks she is a lap dog.

http://www.azpm.org/science/story/2011/5/26/1830-the-view-from-above/

I’ve been thinking about posting a series of short posts about people in the industry I know and admire. First up is Mr. Leaf himself, Yair Shahar. I’ve known Yair for about five years. We first met in New York City when a group of photographer friends got together.

Yair is a straight-ahead Israeli. I like that. A couple of years ago, I was transiting though London from a shoot in Denmark and Yair, Julian Calverely, Paul Freeman, Sun Lee, Julian C-T and myself had lunch at Rules, an old school charming restaurant with their own game farm. The food was incredible. The conversation was good and I dashed off to Heathrow via the Express for a 5:00 PM flight back to the states.

Yair is the go-to guy for Leaf products – in Europe, Israel and for some, in the states. More than once, I’ve emailed him asking for advice on how to get the most out of Capture One with my Leaf Aptus. Yair was patient with explaining the finer points of Lens Cast Corrections and how to solve this unique challenge with my technical field camera.

I’ve been riding my bike quite a bit with another photographer friend in the DC area. Quite a few other photographers/producers/reps who I know are also into biking. Yair is into it big time. I’ve been meaning to write this post about a race in the UK that he was participating in.

Here is a note from Yair about the race.

It is not really a race however if you set a goal then it becomes one….the ride is from Oxford to Cambridge, the two most famous university cities in the world and it goes over 88 (142Km) miles of beautiful English countryside. I did parts of it in the past and there are some steep hills along the first 30-40 miles

I’m updating my blog and FB regularly with some pics and logs from my iPhone GPS app. Looks like I’ll be investing in a proper Garmin that is more reliable…

Here is a link to Yair’s blog. He writes about biking, running, friends, travel and of course, Leaf digital backs.

http://www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/events/view-event.aspx?ps=1001138

Yair’s fundraising page: http://www.justgiving.com/yayapro

The Rugged Maniac

Rugged Maniac Race in Petersburg, Virginia on Saturday May 14th, 2011.

18 folks from the Gladiator Fitness boot camp drove to southern Virginia to run the race. This was fun (even though running is not my strong point).

A intelligent, thoughtful and well written blog. Worthy of repeated visits. The tagline say’s it all.

Life should be an expression of oneself, an outward reflection.

And by doing so, create your own PARADIGM because there are no rules.

They wrote a short piece on my work. Thanks to Theo at Paradigm Case.

The boot camp I attend is run by a former USMC Gunnery Sargent whose real name is Robert Barker but everyone calls Gunny. I can’t imagine calling him Robert.

Gunny asked me to shoot images this morning for his web site and for a presentation. I’m glad I did, because the workout he put everyone through was brutal and so incredibly effective at burning fat and building muscle that recovery can take hours. I had a shoot in downtown DC at 9:00 and was running on 4.5 hours of sleep.

However, Thursday morning I am back into the grind and loving it even though I hate it at times. If you live near Alexandria and want to get the best workout in your life check out the site. Gunny offers three free trial workouts. The web site is: www.gladiatorfitness.net