DAN BAILEY PHOTO SPRING 2013 JOURNAL
In this issue: Tearsheets Greetings! Personal Project: Alaska Mountain Aerials New Work Looking Ahead
Greetings! Greetings from Alaska! I hope that your spring has been going well! Here in Alaska, we re still waiting for the warm weather to arrive. That said, we ve already got sunsets past the 10:00PM mark, so at least we know that summer is on its way! I began the winter editing and finishing the final layout on my 5th ebook, Behind The Action - Creating Adventure Imagery, Step by Step. It s a manual that shows how I create 12 specific adventure and outdoor images. Essentially, I let the reader look over my shoulder as I scout the the location, gauge the light, choose my equipment, come up with an approach and execute the final image. Behind the Action was co-published by the Australian based photography website Light Stalking, and so far it s gotten great reviews. Although I wrote it as a teaching tool for my students and followers, it s also a great way to see just how I work and react to difficult photography situations. If you re a prospective client who is looking for someone to help shoot your next project, and you re curious to see how I work, contact me and I ll send you a free copy of the book. They re good enough for publishable work, and in fact a top Alaska client recently used a little camera shot as a 4 x 6 dura-trans lobby display. A number of the shots in this edition of the journal were shot with the compacts- see if you can guess which ones they are! Recent client this quarter include Runners World, AOPA Pilot, Flight Training Magazine, Honeywell/Bendix King, The Alaska Railroad Corporation, The Alaska Native Tribal Heath Consortium, Fujifilm and Photoflex. Enjoy this edition of the Dan Bailey Photo Quarterly Journal, and have a great spring. -Dan Bailey, It was a great winter for photography. I began the season shooting fat tire snow biking, and ended it with a week-long backcountry ski trip in the Kenai Mountains of Southcentral Alaska. I ve been making heavy use of the brand new Nikon 70-200mm f/4g VR lens, which I call the outdoor, adventure photographers s dream lens. Not only is it lighter and more compact than my older f/2.8 version, it s got better optics as well. I ve also become a fan of the newest generation of compact cameras. I ve been using a couple of little cameras, for over a year now, and I love the portability and the fun factor that they offer. I use them in conjunction with my DSLR, even when shooting pro work. In my mind, being in the moment in great light counts for more than gear anyway, and there s a style of imagery that really lends itself to the compacts.
Personal Project Alaska Mountain Aerials When I moved to Alaska in the fall of 1998, I couldn t keep my eyes out of the sky. It wasn t so much the incessant buzz of all those little airplanes that drove me mad, it was that I HAD to get up there myself. I saw this as the opportunity to awaken my lifelong dream of flying. Two months later, I had signed up for my first lesson, and six months after that, I took my FAA checkride with a legendary Alaska pilot who had over 40,000 hours in his logbook, and became a pilot myself. However, renting hourly airplane time wasn t enough to satisfy my thirst for aviation adventure, so two years ago, I bought a little yellow Cessna 120, which I promptly put on 26-inch tundra tires. I use it explore those areas of Alaska that don t have roads: gravel bars, mountain strips- pretty much most of the state. I ve also fallen in love with aerial photography. I love to look at the world from different vantage points, which is one of the things that drives me to climb, hike and ski. There s nothing like getting out there by yourself and seeing the landscape from a unique and solitary perspective. Photographing from the open window of a 66-year old airplane has opened up a whole new world for me. I often find myself glancing up at the late afternoon skies, wondering what kind of alpenglow will splash onto the Chugach Mountains when the sun goes down. If the weather look promising, I ll head over to Merrill Field, and take to the sky. I can go from my house to the air in just over 30 min. During the winter, preflight takes longer, because I have to preheat the engine with an MSR stove and a 4 section of aluminum stovepipe. I usually pick out a specific area to explore, and then once I m up, I go looking for the most dramatic and rugged mountain and glacier scenery that I can find. If I m shooting from up high, I have no problem taking pictures out of the window while I m flying, but if I want to shoot low to the ground, or capture a particular formation from up close, I ll take along another pilot friend so that he can fly while I shoot. It s just safer that way. Here is a selection of Alaska aerials, most of which were shot during the past year. I hope that I ve been able to translate the adventure and rugged majesty of these scenes.
New Work
Looking Ahead The weekend of May 10-12, I ll be flying down to the Valdez Air Show and Bush Pilot Fly-In. I may even enter the short takeoff and landing competition. I ve gotten pretty good with my little Cessna! The Valdez Fly-in has always brought me great imagery, including the Flight Training cover that s displayed in this issue. If nothing else, taking a weekend trip and sleeping under the wing of my airplane should be lots of fun. As soon as I get back from Valdez, I m headed over to Europe with my bike for two weeks. My plan is to start in southern Germany, ride through Austria, and cross over the Alps into Italy. I ve picked out a route the climbs through the Ötzal valley to the 8,117 Timmelsjoch Pass. We ll see how the weather and my legs cooperate. When I get back from Europe, summer will be in full swing here in Alaska, which will be the beginning of a three month binge of bush flying and playing in the mountains, shooting things like hiking, trail running, mountain biking, salmon fishing, all under our nearly 24-hours of daylight. At this point, my summer still has a number of open blocks, so if you ve got a project that you d like me to help you compete, please don t hesitate to call on me; I d love to discuss your photo needs and see how I can help create some exciting and dynamic imagery for you! Please visit my website and check out my blog and Facebook page to keep updated on new imagery each week. Contact me! email Website Blog Facebook Twitter Tumblr All photos Dan Bailey. Feel free to share this journal but please contact me for any image licensing and usage.