Patriots: The Legacy Continues

How does one photograph an airplane to make it interesting? It has to be in the context that the plane finds itself in. For example, a misty morning with trail streamers following the airplane’s wings as it ascends or descends. Or, it may be a lightening burst near the plane or around the plane with other ominous clouds and rain.

But on a clear day an ordinary plane landing or takeoff is uninspiring as far as a photographic moment.

The current photo was taken on a beautiful day in the first week of February at Green State Airport in Warwick, RI (officially listed as in Providence), with actually balmy weather. So, while the atmospheric conditions were perfect for a photograph at 2 PM that day, there was no visual drama to capture the human eye.

Except, if one searches out the human story behind this plane landing. Which just happens to be a most historic moment in the history of sports. Namely, the capturing of a 6th Lombardi Trophy by the New England Patriots in the LIII Super Bowl of 2019.

The photo of the Patriots plane landing at Green State Airport was the homecoming of the 2018-19 Patriots Team landing after capturing the Lombardi Trophy after overcoming all odds in doing so. I will let History tally the greatness of this accomplishment.

All I wanted to accomplish in taking this photograph was capturing that moment of arrival. The use of multiple planes was style imposition to elicit the anticipation of welcoming home a Champion.

The photo was taken with a Canon 5DS for the six planes in the current posting. Each plane photo had manual settings of f/11.0, 1/640″, with ISOs of 200 or 250, using a Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ multiple settings of 400mm, 312mm, post processing with DxO Photolab 2, Adobe Camera Raw 2019, Viveza 2, DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Patriots: The Enduring Legacy

It’s been an unusual occurrence, or should I say, it’s been an unusual series of occurrences to witness the continuing success of the New England Patriots over the last two decades. Not only have they succeeded in winning their Division, but also the American Football Championship multiple times (which amounts to being in the Super Bowl every other year for the last 18 years), as well as winning the Super Bowl five times.

They are at it again this year, despite all odds with reports of aging players, discord within the team, and rising levels of skilled players on other teams.

I’ve always found following the Patriots to be a self-rewarding adventure simply because, I believe, they are reality-based and sincere, meaning they do not engage in the hype of today’s media advertising, but are concerned with the basics of football, i.e., understanding and preparing for the other teams strengths and weakness, and then having players who will work to establish teamwork.

All of the above is simply a prelude to this: I often attend the Patriots Summer Training Camp. It’s a wonderful opportunity to engage the players because they are so close to the fans on the practice field and because one gets to experience the raw force of talent and skill (i.e., anyone can succeed at this time, an un-drafted rookie or a third round draft player, or whatever).

This last year has been a most trying year for Patriots fans, since at many points during the season, it had appeared the team was in decline and not with the potential force of other years. However, they have managed to reach the Super Bowl once again. Quite Unbelievably!

The posted photo is from Training Camp in the Summer of 2018, with Bill Belichick, Ernie Adams (Director of Football Research), Dante Scarnecchia (Offensive Line Coach),  Tom Brady, and Josh McDaniels (Offensive Coordinator). The shot was taken with a Canon 5Ds, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 160mm, f/10, 1/250″, ISO 320, post processed with DxO Optics Pro 11, Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop CC, using a Gradient Map, and Nik Color Efex Pro/

Doing My Job

The Blog Post title is a take on Coach Bill Belichick’s oft used phrase “Do Your Job.” It was chosen to emphasize the challenge I have been trying to meet of “scouting” and being prepared to shoot photographs so as to make them something of which I could be proud.

The New England Patriot’s Football team had chosen Theodore F. Green Airport in Warwick, RI to be the airport where their airplane is stored and from which the team takes off for away games in the NFL. As the gods had ordained, I live only five minutes away from Green Airport, so I said it’s only fitting to try to capture a photograph of the team’s plane taking off.

Besides actually having a photo of the Patriot’s Plane as a fan, I thought that trying to take a photo of a plane taking off would help develop my photo and camera skills. This it actually did, for I had to figure out when the team’s pane would take off, find a vantage point to shoot without being stopped for security reasons, and finally try to get the most advantageous angle to shoot the photo. Actually choosing the camera settings was the easy part of the process.

There was a Warwick City Athletic Park adjacent to the airport so I could shoot without fear of police or security. The problem was that there was a wire fence surrounding the airport so my angle of shooting was drastically impeded, at least from capturing the plane lifting off. The next best angle was to capture the plane immediately airborne, which I did. [Notice the partially retracted landing gear (done 1-3 seconds after leaving the tarmac).]

The final hurdle to capturing the shot was that I was facing into the setting sun on a late fall day. The Patriot’s were choosing to leave for the away games in the late afternoon (c.3:30 and 4:30 PM). So, for a portion of my shots I was capturing a backlit plane. As the plane proceeded upward the background setting sun became less of a problem.

The current shot was the second time I visited Green Airport to record the Patriot’s Plane taking off. The first time was a disaster. Not only did I not realize that I would be shooting into the sun (at least part ways), but I ran out of CF card memory space. The above posted photo was taken with a Canon 5 DS, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 185mm, f/9.0, 1/400″, ISO 200, using DxO Optics Pro 11, Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop CC (2018), a gradient map, and Color Efex Pro.