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Sheppard AFB Past and Future
December 26, 2006I have always had a child's fascination with airplanes. Ever since I was a kid and watched the B-52 bombers cruise over our house in Fort Worth.
That's why I'm always excited whenever I get to go to Sheppard AFB, because it usually has something to do with airplanes.
Here's a pair of shots from last year. They are always going to be favorites.
Sheppard AFB fire trucks spray a double arc of water to commemerate the final flight of the AT-38B training aircraft Friday morning as it taxis on the tarmac. After 29 years of service the AT-38B is being phased out to make room for the more advanced T-38C. (Jason Palmer/Times Record News)
This is a classic case of me trying to get something a bit different than the rest of the pack.
You see these types of aircraft retirements or pilot retirements a lot. The fire trucks on either side spray these huge arcs of water over the plane.
Sheppard AFB had all of the media wrangled in an area where you were looking right down the tarmac at the plane as it was coming towards you. It wasn't a good angle.
Actually, I thought it couldn't have been much worse of an angle if we tried.
But the rest of the media contingent was happy to be there....all of them but me. Channel 3, 6, 7, the Sheppard Senator and a few other photographers were just going to stand in that spot and all shoot the same thing and get the same shots.
That just wasn't good enough for me. So I asked the guys in charge if I could go stand by the fire trucks on the tarmac, out of the way of everybody else's shot, and get something different.
They didn't mind...but they didn't understand why I wanted to go either.
I got the shot....got a little wet in the process...but I came away with a unique angle on history while everybody else settled for the status quo.
The first of a trio of new F-22A/Raptor figthers taxis along the runway at Sheppard Air Force base for the first time on a scheduled fuel stop Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006. Sheppard will be the F-22 maintenance base starting in January 2008. The aircraft, from the 43rd Fighter Squadron at Tyndall AFB in Florida, are the first operational F-22A squadron in the world. (Jason Palmer/Times Record News)
Like I said earlier...I love planes.
There isn't a cooler plane in the air right now than the brand new F-22A Raptor. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts.
I was giddy like a school kid when I got the phone call from the base inviting me out to see three of them land and refuel at Sheppard.
Thinking that they may keep us a long distance off...I grabbed the 400mm f2.8 lens and the 1.4x teleconverter just in case. Nobody would be able to reach out and grab those planes like I would with that lens.
Of course...as we're out there, it starts to rain. Big rain drops...the kind that hurt. I was praying in my head that the weather holds off long enough for them to land and me to get a killer photograph.
Amazingly...they took us within about 200 yards of where they were going to turn while they taxied. It was perfect. One plane started the turn back when another came into the frame.
I could not have planned a more perfect shot if I tried. Everything about this is perfect to me.
As soon as we were done shooting (and I was basically done after this shot) I called my dad at home and gushed about how cool of an experience I just had.
Stuff like this is exactly why I love being a photojournalist.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
