Teetering. Almost Balanced.

Sgt. Salvador Rodriguez braces himself as a UH-60 Blackhawk prepares to land less than 20 yards away from him on Camp Liberty, Iraq on June 23, 2009. The leaflets will be dispersed over specific locations in Baghdad in order to capture a known insurgent. Rodriquez is the administrative non commissioned officer for the 315th Tactical Psychological Operations Company from Upland, Calif. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   So far this week, we had asymmetrical balance, symmetrical balance with tiny subjects, and balance with a twist. Today we're trying to balance two disparately sized objects.

   So the thing about helicopters is that when they land on a dirt and rock helipad, dirt and rocks fly everywhere.

Helicopter in a point of interest. check. soldier in two points of interest. 

check. Leading line? Maybe. Balanced? Pretty close.

   Obviously you want to turn away like the soldier in the photo and probably close your eyes. I didn't do either because I wanted to get this shot. Luckily I had a decent sized camera in front of my face, and eye protection so I didn't really get anything in my eyes.

   Next problem, when helicopters land all the force they're generating to stay aloft is pushing you away from it. So I had to brace myself. Part of the reason this angle is a little low is that I my feet were pretty far apart of each other trying to get as solid of a base as possible. Luckily I'm not a small guy, so I had 230 pounds anchoring me too.

   I aimed my camera at my subject knowing he probably wasn't going to move too much and just waited for the helicopter to get in a point of interest. Timing is huge in a situation like this, and knowing what is about to happen is key, but luck is always helpful.

   Between leaning forward and my mass I was able to avoid getting thrown backwards.

   If you're a lighter person, I would recommend getting as low as possible so your center of gravity is low. You could lay down or try to find something to lean back against.

   So, is this balance? It's pretty close. Our soldier is a little bigger than the helicopter, so the balance could have been better, but it's not quite asymmetrical balance either. 

Leading Lines Part V: Night Vision

A UH-60 Blackhawk lands at Camp Liberty, Iraq on December 24, 2008. The Blackhawk and the 315th Tactical PSYOP Co. from Upland, Calif. will disseminate thousands of leaflets over specific areas of Baghdad, Iraq during the 4th Infantry Division's Operation Iron Blizzard. The leaflets are part of a greater effort to arrest and bring to trial suspected and known terrorists operating in Baghdad. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   If you're just joining us, we've covered blending leading lines with the rule of thirds, lines that add to your photo but were not necessarily intended, lines that lead us to our subject, and lines that, well, are the subject.

   Light, is a great leading line. This light emanates from our subject, [the most important part of the photograph] the helicopter, which pulls the viewers eye towards the landing zone; where our subject is heading. The viewers eye may follow the light back up to the helicopter, and might follow the natural line of the helicopter's fuselage back to the light on the helicopters tail.

The helicopter is clearly in a point of interest. The light starts

from a point of interest and  leads us towards another point

of interest. Also good. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   That's pretty much it for this photograph, it's a helicopter landing at night. I would have liked to have been much closer, with a much wider lens. At an 45 degree angle to give it some depth.

As it stands I feel this photo is just plain flat.

   The two things which makes this interesting, in my opinion at least, is that most people don't see helicopters landing too often; so there's the novelty factor. Also I used a night vision adapter which is another novelty.

   Regarding the night vision, it wasn't part of my kit until I arrived in Baghdad. Our team was doing an inventory of our Conex's and the Morovision Astroscope just so happened to pop up along with a Canon 5D. Unfortunately form me the Cannon only came with the body. Since I didn't have any Canon lenses with me the big beautiful full frame of the 5D had to sit in a box while I used my Nikon D200. Oh well.

   For the record, I don't particularly favor Canon or Nikon, they're both great companies and they make great products. I enjoy using both.

   So, with my new found toy my commander asked if I could take photos during night missions. Which is great because I had been spending 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week doing graphics, so any opportunity to go out and shoot was a welcome one. The downside was that my days then increased to 14-16 hours since these night missions obviously happened after normal working hours. Oh well.

Ordinarily I would have liked to have gotten at least a part of the helicopter

in the photo to give the viewer a sense of  actually being there, but I just

couldn't get back far enough in the tight confines of the Blackhawk.
 (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   So, the Astroscope sits in between the camera body and the lens,

which turns even a stubby 5inch 35-70 into an very unwieldy 12 inch beast. 

Which, really was okay, but I found myself wishing I had a full frame body because I was constantly leaning back to adjust for those extra added inches.

This experience is why I dropped the 35-70mm from my list of preferred lenses. It just don't do anything well, certainly not on a camera body with a crop factor which makes it a 55mm to 105mm. Two bodies, one with a wide lens one with a long lens is the way to go in my opinion.

   Of course if I could find a 1.2 lens that had a range of 10mm to 300mm I would just take that, but I don't see that happening any time soon.
 

Pfc. Josephn Quakenboss poses with a UH-60 prior to a leaflet operation on December 24, 2008. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

Part of a UH-60 Blackhawk as it flies over Baghdad, Iraq  during a leaflet operation on December 24, 2008. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)