I came with a plan in mind. I called in advance and worked on planning the shot out. Depending on where the jet was parked I was going to set this light here, softbox and gel it, put the fill panel there, place the pilot about here with the jet behind him and queue the dramatic sunset with the storm on the hills in frame. Great photo.

For good measure, and the B-shot, I was trying to round up a fish-eye lens so I could get up close and personal with the business end of the jet fighter.

I showed up and the pilot was tired from the flight and had left for dinner already — scrap the portrait. If I had known in advance I was taking the photo I might have been able to procure the fisheye lens but on short notice I wasn’t able to get a hold of one — scrap the B shot. I’m left with this very large, very inanimate object to photograph and with all of my available light quickly disappearing … along with the day’s warmth.

I’ve never gone to shoot something and had everything go according to the little plan in my head, but if I hadn’t had somewhat of an idea going in I’d really be in trouble.

I decided I’d still go wide angle with the lens I do have, my 24-120mm VR, and use for almost everything. I took a few shots eye level of the jet at the sunset angle, the front, and into the sun to get the silhouette.  The silhouette shots were nice, but the airport building and hangars didn’t exactly leave me with the best background. The shots of the front worked – some storm action on the peaks lit pretty neat with the low sunset. The shots with the sun to my back were nice but lacking that punch I wanted. I decided to get low and lay down a few feet from the plane, which cut my shadow dramatically, and took some shots.

At this point it was getting pretty cold, which inspired me to play with a very cold white balance. The sun was low and the light was very rich and on the warm side of the colors, however the clouds were dark and the sky was starting to turn.  To balance out the very warm light on the plane I turned down the color temperature on the white balance so that the jet, and the warm sunlight, was closer to what we see in mid-day. When you take the colder blues in the photo and shoot with the colder white balance setting you get an even deeper and colder blue background. You can do the same thing with your flash, but I’ll cover that some time down the road.

The photos came out much more interesting than if I had kept everything automatic, taken a few shots and left. Though my first choice would have been the pilot portrait, I still came away with a usable photo.