For years and years, I’ve been after just one photo, a yellow plane parked in snow on a moonlit night. In my mind, I have it all set, all the tools in place, the perfect background. And that’s where the photo remains despite many attempts to make it all happen. It’s one of those ideas that I have at the top of my Idea File waiting for the right moment. What’re the issues making it happen? The #1 issue is the snow itself. These two photos of “The Beast” and the Waco GXE you can see there is snow, kinda, and that’s the problem. There’s not enough snow to make the photo. Next, the one time we had snow we had overcast skies for three nights so, no moonlight. Why do I want that moonlight? Well with the moonlight and the snow, there’s plenty of light to make the shot. But with overcast, no moon and so, no light.
The other obstacle is finding the right plane/plane owner who wants to push their aircraft in the cold of night to make the photo. While I do have three who have put up with my crazy idea so far, I feel really lucky to have those three. Lots and lots of aircraft owners in the winter don’t fly much because of the temps and the gray skies. Now those in warmer areas still fly, but this doesn’t have any snow. It’s just one of those things we plan into our schedule as the seasons roll by. It’s just one of many of our seasonal challenges.
