September Status Report

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The perfect storm is passing.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about an extremely full plate of work combined with a tough long distance travel schedule and some serious back problems. Taken together, this situation caused a “Perfect Storm” in my life.

In response to the folks who have been e-mailing me and tweeting to me on Twitter, I thought I’d give an update.

Travel

The travel is over, at least for now. I’m settled in in my camper in Page, AZ. I have a full hookup and am relatively comfortable. My next door neighbors are two pilots who work for the same company that has been chartering my services since the beginning of August. I’ll be here until the beginning of October, when I fly back to Wickenburg to give some helicopter rides in Congress, AZ. By then, I’ll know whether I’ll be coming back to Page or staying in Wickenburg for the rest of the year.

The Book

The book I’ve been working on since the first week in August is nearly finished. I have one chapter and three appendices to write. I expect to get through most of that today. Then I’ll spend the rest of the week going through the edits and reviewing the proofs.

Back Pain

My back is fully recovered. I don’t understand why or how.

For three weeks, I was on a roller-coaster of pain that ranged from minor aches eased by ibuprofen to literally crippling pain that had me in two clinics and a hospital emergency room. The problem was never diagnosed, but I think it was a herniated disk.

After a two-week wait, I was able to get into a physical therapy program here in Page. While I still can’t understand how they thought they’d resolve the problem without knowing what was causing it, they tried. After my second visit, which involved some kind of machine that sent electric pulses that were supposed to ease the pain, I left feeling nauseous and light-headed, with my blood pressure at 166/110. I didn’t go back.

The pain had begun to ease off before physical therapy started. Because the OTC painkillers — ibuprofen, Tylenol, and Alleve — were starting to mess with my head, I stopped taking them during the day. I was getting used to the pain. It wasn’t crippling anymore.

And then one day last week, the pain just stopped.

What I’m Up to Now

So now I’m finishing up my book and doing some flying. I flew 3.5 hours on Saturday and 3.3 hours on Sunday — that’s more than I usually fly in a whole month in Wickenburg. There’s work here and a nice lake to hang out by when I’m done working. Lots of outdoor activities.

The weather is starting to cool down. I’ve re-started my diet and am sticking to it. When I’m done with this book, I’ll start riding my bike again. I’m also really looking forward to midday excursion to Lower Antelope Canyon.

I think I’d like to move up here, at least for part of the year.

Anyway, I feel as if I’m getting my life back. Can’t wait to jump into a few new projects. Thanks to everyone who shared words of support. I really do appreciate it.

Tips for Flying at Lake Powell: Avoiding the Tour Planes

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The second of a four-part series about flying at Lake Powell.

Lake Powell is a beautiful place and I can argue that it’s best seen from the air. So it should come as no surprise that a number of tour operators provide tours of the lake during daylight hours all year around.

To me, this is a major concern. After all, most of the time I’m flying at the lake, I’m taking photographers around. They’re telling me where to fly and directing my altitude and speed. I’m looking at what they’re shooting and listening to their instructions while I’m looking for other traffic and listening to position calls. At times, things get pretty intense — Airplane over Horseshoe Bendlike the time I was flying orbits around Horseshoe Bend when a line of 9 tour planes flew past “The Shoe” 2,500 feet below me. Sure, there was plenty of separation, but only because I heard them coming and stayed clear. The photo you see here was taken during that flight by photographer Mike Reyfman as the planes flew by, one at a time, below us.

In this part of my Lake Powell article series, I’m going to provide you with a little bit of information about the tour planes — so you know where to expect them and how to keep in touch.

The Tour Operators

There are several tour operators at Lake Powell and most of them are based at Page. The two biggest are American Aviation and Westwind.

American flies small Cessna planes on 30- and 40-minute tours around the lake. They’re a part 91 operator, so they’re limited to tours within 25 statute miles of Page Airport. They have nine or ten planes and do a lot of business with bus tour operators. A bus rolls in based on a prescheduled time, the passengers are checked in, and the pilots take their passengers outside, load them on board, start up, and take off. They follow each other on the tours — in fact, they’re the tour planes I avoided at Horseshoe Bend that day. Their call sign is Lake Powell.

Westwind is a Phoenix-based operator with a location at Page. They also fly Cessnas, although I think they have a few larger planes, like Caravans. (Sorry, but I’m not an airplane person.) They’re a Part 135 operator, so they’re not limited to 25 miles and they can take people to places like Monument Valley. Their call sign is Explorer.

The Tours

The best way to tell you about the tours is to show you the routes on a map. But before I do, I need to make it clear that these routes are not carved in stone as they are at the Grand Canyon. The routes I’ve drawn in here are approximate. Tour planes can be anywhere around here, though. It’s up to the pilots to keep a sharp eye out and listen in on the radio to avoid collisions.

That said, here’s the map:

Tour Routes at Lake Powell

The tours are normally done clockwise, starting on west side before going east and then returning to the west. The solid line represents the tours done by American; the dashed line is the additional route past Rainbow Bridge that’s done by Westwind. Rainbow bridge is about 30 air miles from Page.

American flies at 5500 feet uplake and 5000 feet downlake. Westwind flies 5500 uplake and 6000 feet downlake. Again, that’s not carved in stone. The pilots vary altitude based on conditions; they’ll fly higher or lower if it’s turbulent, for example. The general rule is altitudes ending in 500 (for example, 5500, 6500) uplake and altitudes ending in 000 (for example, 5000, 6000) downlake.

So if you’re between 5000 and 6000 feet in the tour area, you should be keeping a sharp eye out for tour planes.

The Frequencies

There are three frequencies in use at Lake Powell:

  • Page AWOS is 120.625. This automated system provides wind, temperature, dew point, altimeter, and density altitude. It’s important to tune in and get the altimeter setting, since the tour pilots will report altitudes as they fly.
  • Page Unicom is 122.8. All pilots have this tuned in in the Page area.
  • Uplake Unicom is 122.75. The tour pilots switch to this frequency uplake at Romana Mesa and switch from this frequency downlake at Submarine. (More on reporting points in a moment.)

If you’re tooling around the area about 10 miles from the airport uplake and you have two radios you can monitor, I highly recommend monitoring both the Page and Uplake frequencies. Otherwise, switch where the tour pilots do.

If you continue uplake past Navajo Mountain (you can’t miss it) to Monument Valley, keep in mind that the local frequency there is 122.9.

Reporting Points

The tour pilots have regular reporting points, as well as a few irregular ones. It’s a good idea to know where these are. Get your hands on a Lake Powell Map; many of them are right on the map. Others aren’t.

The main reporting points are:

On 122.8:

  • The Dam – Glen Canyon Dam
  • The Shoe – Horseshoe Bend
  • Wahweap – Wahweap Marina
  • Castle Rock
  • Romana Mesa – switching point

On 122.75:

  • Cookie Jar
  • Rock Creek
  • Balanced Rock
  • Dangling Rope
  • The Bridge – Rainbow Bridge
  • Dangling Rope (Westwind may report after Rainbow Bridge)
  • Mouth of Rock Creek
  • Gregory Butte
  • Submarine (switching point)

On 122.8:

  • Tower Butte
  • Navajo Canyon

But Wait, There’s More!

There are also some tour companies that go to Monument Valley. Those planes generally fly higher and fly uplake past Navajo Mountain before turning toward Monument Valley. They come back the same way. Other planes go to Monument Valley directly from the Grand Canyon, so they’ll be far south of the lake. You don’t really have to worry about them unless you fly up that far. Most folks don’t, but as Ill explain in part VI of this series, there’s some really incredible scenery beyond where the tour planes go.

Next Up

In the next part of this series, I’ll tell you about some of the sights you might want to tour in the area and give you some tips for visiting them.

In the meantime, if you have any comments about your experiences at Page airport or with the tour operators there, don’t hesitate to share them. Use the Comments link or form for this post.

Digital vs. Film

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Has the ease of digital photography eroded the craft?

AZ Highways CoverThe September 2008 issue of Arizona Highways magazine proclaims that it is “The Photo Issue.” If you know Arizona Highways, that might seem a weird idea. After all, Arizona Highways features truly extraordinary photos of Arizona in every issue. What makes this issue different?

The main difference is a pair of articles highlighting the work of two professional photographers, George Stocking, who works with digital equipment, and Jack Dykinga, who works with film. There’s also a portfolio of black and white images, many of which appear to have been taken relatively close to where I live in Wickenburg.

My Change from Film to Digital

But it’s the digital vs. film argument that intrigues me. I used film for years and continued to use it for what I considered my “serious” attempts at photography until 2003 or 2004. Back in college, I took a semester-long photography class which introduced me to photographic composition and gave me basic darkroom skills. When Mike and I moved to New Jersey and had a basement, we set up a darkroom. (We still have the enlarger and other equipment in storage.) I had (and still have) two Nikon 35mm SLRs — a matched set of N2002s that can share lenses. I’d put black and white film in one camera and color in the other.

I’ve had a digital camera since the mid 1990s. (Yes, I was the owner of an Apple QuickTake.) As technology improved and prices came down, I upgraded regularly — at least once every two or three years. I bought pocket-sized point-and-shoot models — mostly Canon PowerShots — that I’d carry in my purse and use when I wanted a decent-quality photo when I was out and about.

[At this point, I’d originally written a summary of our experiences with a Pentax 67 for aerial photography. In an effort to shorten up this post, I pulled it out and posted it separately: “Our Foray Into Aerial Photography.”]

Years went by. I realized I was using my pocket-sized digital cameras more than my SLRs. A lot more. In fact, for a while I wasn’t even sure where those SLRs were.

Then we planned a trip to Alaska in June 2007. I wanted to be “serious” about photography. So I bought a new camera, my first digital SLR: a Nikon D80.

I picked the Nikon because it would use the two lenses I already had: a 50mm and a 28-85mm. I brought it all along on the trip and took some photos. They came out okay. I realized that I was just snapping away, as if I were using one of my pocket cameras. I wasn’t thinking about shooting. I was being a tourist and taking tourist photos.

MercuryHere’s an example. This photo, which I call “Mercury,” is one of my favorites from the trip. The light is bad, but I really love the reflection of this boat. When you consider I snapped over 300 images in two weeks on this trip and I saw some amazing things along the way, I find it odd that this should be one of my favorites.

In my defense, we had a relatively tight schedule and limited means of transportation. We covered a huge area in about 2 weeks. It was an area we didn’t know, so I had no ideas of where to go for a photo shoot. The weather was overcast with bad light for a few days. And then there was Mike, who hadn’t come to take pictures. He wanted to see as much as we could. So we didn’t really have the best conditions for photography. It was more like a scouting trip.

But having the camera and knowing its capabilities, prompted me to practice the art of photography. It’s become a serious hobby again.

Jack Dykinga’s Thoughts on Digital Photography

And that brings us back to the Arizona Highways articles.

From the article highlighting Jack Dykinga:

Dykinga thinks the ease of digital photography has contributed to an erosion of the craft. “Just because you can, you do,” he says. “The images are completely disposable. You can keep shooting digital all day, even through the worst light, and although none of it might produce great pictures, it might still be marketable. You can correct it all in Photoshop. That starts compromising your values. Where, if you’re really going after just one or two shots a day, you’re concentrating all your efforts into one thing, like throwing a shot put.”

This is an interesting twist on something I’ve been saying since starting to use my digital SLR. I’ve been arguing that the ease of using a digital camera gives you the power to experiment. Unlike Mr. Dykinga, I’m not a professional. I’ve never sold a photo and don’t expect to. I’m still learning and I expect to continue to learn forever.

When I used film, I’d go out and shoot and come back and get the photos developed — or do it myself in a darkroom. It could be days or weeks between the photo shoot and actually seeing the images. There was a cost involved, too, and the more I shot, the more it cost. These are not good conditions for experimentation.

But when I shoot digital, I can immediately see, in the back of my camera, a tiny version of the image I just shot. I can check exposure at a glance. I can zoom in to check focus. I can turn on automatic exposure bracketing and let the camera make multiple versions of the same image so I can see which exposure works best. I can also snap various images of the same subject from different angles to experiment with framing, focus, and exposure. Because it costs the same to shoot 300 photos as it does to shoot 3, I don’t have to worry about cost.

This is, of course, what Mr. Dykinga is saying. But while he’s talking about professional photographer getting lazy by shooting a bunch of stuff without really thinking about it, I’m shooting a bunch of stuff to learn more about what works so I can think about it.

I do agree with what Mr. Dykinga says. But there’s no way that could convince me to go back to film. I can’t afford it — in time and money — if I want to be a better photographer.

Mr. Dykinga has the ability to go to a place and see the shot before he even unpacks his camera. He’ll spend a lot of time with his complex and somewhat archaic equipment to make a handful of photos. They’ll all be incredible masterpieces of fine art. This comes from a lifetime as a photographer, doing it every day for a living.

Me, well I’m just trying to learn how to increase the quality on a higher percentage of what I shoot. I’m at the point where I won’t take a photo if I know it won’t come out good without a lot of help from Photoshop.

I think what Mr. Dykinga is trying to say is that serious photographers should not get lazy about photography. We should think about every shot and try to make every single one a high quality work of art.

I’d like to do that. I just need more practice to learn how.

A Final Word about Arizona Highways

Arizona Highways is a great magazine about Arizona. It’s published by the Arizona Department of Transportation, and other than ads about Arizona Highways publications, it’s ad-free. It features excellent photography and articles about Arizona history and activities.

If you’re interested in photography or Arizona, I highly recommend subscribing — or at least picking up an issue at the newsstand. It’s only through our support that this fine magazine will continue to be published, as Arizona faces budget shortfalls that threaten its existence. Be sure to check out various books and other publications listed in the magazine and on its Web site.

Our Foray into Aerial Photography

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A side note to my Digital vs. Film blog Post.

[I’d originally written this as part of my post titled “Digital vs. Film,” but pulled it out in an effort to shorten-up that post and keep it more focused on the topic. You might find it interesting if you think you might want to try your hand at commercial aerial photography.]

Pentax 67 CameraI think it was in 2003 that Mike and I decided to try our hands at aerial photography. I bought a book about it (as I usually do, when I want to get a jump start on learning something) and the book said the best kind of camera for this kind of work was a Pentax 67. The camera was huge and heavy and took 126 film, which could not be processed locally. But that didn’t stop me from plunking down $1,500 for a used one. You gotta spend money to make money, right?

The Pentax 67 turned out to be a huge mistake. Although the camera had an internal meter, it did not have automatic exposure. So each exposure had to be set using its meter before snapping an image. Since I was doing the flying, Mike did the photography. He’s set the exposure on the first shot and use the same exposure for the entire shoot. You might think that would work, but it doesn’t. As the helicopter approaches the target from different angles, the sun hits the target differently. Some images were under exposed while others were overexposed. 2/3 of the images were not usable. And because we didn’t know this until nearly a week after the shoot — after the film had come back from the out-of-town processors — we didn’t know until then how bad the results were. We did two reshoots — at my cost — before I decided that camera was not for us. I sold it for $1,000, swallowing a $500 loss after owning it for about a year. Ouch.

I bought a Canon G5 camera. This was a regular digital camera that looked a bit like an SLR. But although it had all kinds of automatic, program, and manual settings, it did not have interchangeable lenses. It did offer 5 megapixel resolution, however, and that was a huge number in those days. We tried our hand at aerial photography with that. The results were better — at least the exposures were good and we could see them immediately — but my photographer was having trouble properly framing the subjects and our clients evidently had different ideas of what their property looked like from the air. I decided to give up on providing photography services. If a client wanted aerial photography, I’d be perfectly happy to do the flying for them, but they’d have to come up with their own photographer.

I’ve since purchased a Nikon D80 with multiple lenses. We’re playing with aerial photography again, but I’m still not interested in taking on any commercial assignments with either Mike or me snapping the pictures.

You can see some of our aerial photography efforts (with more to come) in the Flying M Photos gallery.

Lake Powell Photos win Photo Contest

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Photographer Mike Reyfman takes first place in “Abstracts” category.

Lake Powell Abstract by Mike ReyfmanI’m extremely pleased to spread the news that one of Flying M Air’s best clients, Mike Reyfman, has won an award in the Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards. His series of photos of the sandstone canyons uplake from Rainbow Bridge has taken first place in the “Abstracts” category. Here’s one of Mike’s photos, reproduced with his permission. You can see them all here.

I’d like to add two things here.

First, whenever a photographer who flies with me wins an honor or publishes a photo taken from my helicopter, I feel a great deal of pride. Although I didn’t frame the image and snap the photo, I do feel as if I’m part of the photographer’s “equipment.” My small part in any great photo makes me feel good.

Second, Mike offers photo excursions all over world. Although most of his clientele are from Russia (where Mike is originally from), I’m pretty sure he’ll take anyone who can speak either Russian or English. Lake Powell is only one of the destinations he comes to regularly; he’s also taken groups to Iceland, the Pacific Northwest, New Zealand, and lots of other places I wish I could go. Aerial work is only a small part of some of the trips he offers. You can learn more and see Mike’s gallery of photos from his travels on his Web site.

And thanks, Mike, for letting me know about your award! Congratulations!