The only noise I could hear in my space suit was my own deep breaths, much a kin to the sound of Darth Vader. A faint and distant roar reminded me that behind me was a single engine, whose thrust was the only thing keeping my pilot and I aloft at the edge of space. With Huggy’s seat 18 inches below me, I was the highest person in the whole world cruising along above 70,000 feet at just below the speed of sound. And in doing so, I had just become the first Indian to fly in U-2 Dragon Lady and became the fourth highest flying person of Indo-American decent (following Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla (who died aboard the space shuttle Columbia) and Sunita Williams).

In the next few weeks, I will be blogging on my incredible adventure with the men and women of Beale A.F.B. and their incredible mission flying the U-2 Dragon Lady. While this is an amazingly unique airplane, one that has been reinvented over the past 55 years, it is merely a finely crafted hunk of steel. One that soars to the sky thanks to a crew of hundreds of anonymous Airmen, ranging from the pilots, to maintainers, life support, physiological support, intelligence analysts, egress trainers, fire fighters, air traffic controllers, public affairs, to countless other members of Team Beale.

In addition to images, thanks to Walter Colby Productions, we will be sharing a rare peek into what it takes to send someone to the edge of space. From a checkup with the flight doc, to egress and parachute training, to an explosive decompression in a hyperbaric chamber, we will show what it takes to strap on the suit and become the highest person in the world. But until then, here is a teaser of this incredible flight aboard an amazing airplane.

I have always admired car photography and loved the look of the images on car magazine covers.  Low angles, motion blur, sleek, fast, sexy. So I figured I’d give it a try. And afterall, I had the perfect model sitting right in my driveway: Nadia, my 2006 Pontiac Solstice.

Let me first say, try this at your own risk. And please be cautious where you do your photography in case something should go wrong. Safety should always be the #1 priority.

And the first step to any photography project is to research, research, research. After looking at numerous sites, it became clear that a professional camera rig was quite expensive. But conceptually, the setup was simple: a pole with a camera on it, a wireless trigger to fire the camera, and something to secure the pole to the car. And after a little more searching, I came across this example on Flickr. It was exactly what I was searching for. So off to the local hardware store I went.

I picked up the following items:

1 x 6 foot Painters Pole, extendable to 12 feet ($20)

2 x Dual 200lbs Suction Cups with handles ($10 each)

1 package of zip ties ($10)

And on eBay I picked up a Phottix® Cleon – Wire/Wireless Remote C8 ($30 shipped from Hong Kong)

I already had a Bogen Super Clamp ($30) and a simple ball head ($10)

So once I had all my items, I assembled them and hit the road…hoping my Canon 20D (my old backup camera) and 10-22 mm lens wouldn’t literally hit it.

Well, the first attempt was less then successful, but showed potential. I put the camera in Shutter Priority mode and just drove around and snapping away. This was the best that I got. The second shot has the pole removed in Photoshop.

I realized that even when I drove faster then 5 mph, the camera would start shaking up and down, and thus give a blurry image. The slow speed was meant to keep the car in focus and use motion blur to blur the background. But that was just not happening. I also decided to find a way to reduce the weight and go back to the hardware store in search of a painters pole that wouldn’t flex as much with a 3 lb camera on it.

So I found another pole ($30) and some hardware: a 2″ long 1/4″ thread bolt (the same threading that would screw into the bottom of your camera or that is found on your tripod), and some washers. The flat washers for the gap between the ball head and the pole and the starred washers are for additional grip of the bolt and the pole.

The bolt would allow me to secure the ball head directly to the pole and eliminate the need & weight of the Super Clamp.

I also picked up four 6″ pipe clamps ($1.5 each) to secure the pole to the suction cups and 6 ‘ pipe insulation ($5) to cover the pole and ensure Nadia doesn’t get scratched up.

And here’s the full pole, not extended.

And then I sat and waited for a clear and sunny day. Contrary to popular believe, it’s not always sunny in California…especially in winter. But it finally happened yesterday. 68 F and a beautiful day to drop the top and take some shots.

I set the camera to aperture priority mode @ f/22 (this gave me the longest possible shutter speed at the proper exposure) and started driving around really slowly. I noticed that if I had the pole extended too far out, it caused more camera shake, so I kept it as short as possible. And to further minimize shaking, drive slow, have a newly paved and smooth road, and shift as smoothly as possible.

For the shot below, I mounted the suction cups on the hood of the car. Sprinkled a little water for a secure seal and they were not going anywhere. I took the car up to 20 mph and the pole stayed solid. The camera shook quite a bit, but still stayed on. Granted I wouldn’t recommend going that fast. One pot hole and say good by to your camera.

f/22, 1/5 sec @ 100 ISO…10mm…5 mph.

While I ended up with only a dozen sharp shots out of 500 (the camera was on continuous shooting mode as I drove), this is much better then my first attempt. I do think that a more sturdy pole would give me a higher success rate, but this will do for now.

Here’s another shot with the pole secured to the trunk. f/22, 0.6 sec @ 100 ISO..10mm..10mph

I hope this inspires you to get out there and try something new and different.

Hello everyone.  Warm weather and blue skies can only mean one thing; it’s airshow season once again.  And here in the Bay Area, the first major airshow of the year is Vertical Challenge at the Hiller Aviation Museum.  The largest all helicopter airshow in the United States bring some serious rotor power with it each year.  This years headline act was the Red Bull BO-105 CBS helicopter, flown by the incredible Chuck Aaron.  The only FAA licensed person to perform acrobatics in a helicopter, Chuck wows the crowds with his loops, rolls, and Cuban 8′s in an amazing display of precision and control.  And I had a chance to be one of the small handful of people to actually go inverted in a helicopter, and survive!

Today’s post is the first in a new series of entries entitled “Behind The Camera”, which will break down the anatomy of a particular shot.  This shot just happened to land on the cover of the upcoming issue of In Flight USA.

Here is an excerpt from the article of the same title.

In Flight USA Associate editor, Sagar Pathak, got a chance to do something only a small handful of people in the world have gotten to do: fly upside down in a helicopter! Red Bull gave Pathak and opportunity at this years Vertical Challenge 2008 Airshow, the largest helicopter airshow in the United States, to go for the ride of a lifetime in their Eurocopter BO-105 CBS. Pilot Chuck Aaron holds the distinction as the only pilot licensed in the United States to fly aerobatics in a helicopter, and took Pathak over the Santa Cruz Mountains for some loops and rolls Red Bull style! With the helicopter pulling positive 3.1 Gs and negative 1.0 Gs, it made capturing a dynamic image that much more of a challenge. The cover shot was taken with a Canon 40D with an EF-S 10-22mm f/2.5-4.5 lens at 10mm (giving you a 107 degree field of view) and a 550EX external flash. In order to capture the perfect exposure, a flash fill technique was employed. The camera was put in Manual mode with an exposure of 1/250 sec at f/10 to properly expose for scenery outside of the helicopter. The external flash then provided the necessary illumination to light up Chuck and the cockpit, thus properly balancing the inside and outside exposure. Now do that while looping and rolling; factor in the G forces (at 3.1 Gs, your 3 pound camera becomes a very heavy 9.3 pounds) and centripetal forces pulling the 9 pound camera away from your body, and you have a challenging shot. But with hours of doing acrobatics while taking pictures in his logbook, Pathak was able to pull off this amazing cover shot.

For the rest of the images from Vertical Challenge 2008, click here:

http://www.horizontalrain.com/VC08.shtml