P-51c Lope’s Hope captured by Z 9 / Z70-200f2.8II
It was a classic example of, just show up! That’s what I did, and on the afternoon of the third day of just showing up, I was in the air with “Lope’s Hope.” A gorgeous P-51c, I had long wanted to get in the skies with it in romantic light over a big body of water. As it turned out, it was 15:00 on a bald sky afternoon in Minot, ND, that I got my first airtime with it. It was part of a bigger flight photo mission and was the first plane to join up in the formation. Because of that, I got a little time with just it. The one thing you cannot see in the still is the 30knt rough air we were flying in. Bernie later told folks it appeared I lost my camera as I was bounced around, literally, in the cabin of the A36. As it turned out, I got a black eye from the shoot as the camera got slammed against my eye twice by the turbulence. I shot at 1/80, a faster than normal, because of the rough air, and still ended up deleting nearly 50% of the images because of the rough air. In the past, Sharon and I have a saying when bucking rough air which we now have a new definition for, ride ’em cowboy!