Now You’ve Seen What I Do For a Living

A 17 year old pilot-in-training takes my life in his hands

It was a lot colder than when we left and as a result my mind was more concerned with the lack of feeling

that I was developing on my finger tips when he said something to me that I found so profoundly simple that it was elegant; “Now you’ve seen what I do for a living” Justin, the flight instructor out of Galt Airport located in Greenwood Illinois, said to me as I got out of his car.

I had just spent the last hour and a half crammed in the back of an old Cessna photographing Justin instruct his protégé on a landing technique called Soft Field Landing. It’s typically used for landing in grass and dirt air fields where brakes are useless. We took off and landed probably 6 or 7 times. I was confident that I was safe though, especially after he informed his student that this is a technique that they would have been practicing anyways, but that it was a necessity today due to the ice on the runway. Talk about comforting.

The technique requires the pilot to come in as slow as possible and, essentially, stall onto the runway so as to avoid requiring any use of the brakes. This may be hard to imagine but the plane comes in at about 70mph with its nose towards the ground then at the last possible moment the pilot pulls up on his controls and the nose flicks into the air. This causes a nearly instant loss of speed and the plane essentially falls on the runway. It’s fun, especially when a 17 year old student who has been flying for only 3 months is at the helm.

This is Justin’s job. He gets into planes, about 6 days a week, and offers his knowledge of flying (which is based on 11 years of experience) to enthusiastic pilots-to-be. I use to think that the people who give driving tests were thrill seekers, but Justin takes takes it to a whole new level. And yet this is his job. It is as romantic as John Travolta’s character in Look Who’s Talking Now. And as he reminded me that I had just gotten a glimpse into his world, I was a bit envious. What an exciting job! And that’s when it hit me; he had just gotten a glimpse of mine.

Today I was photographing the thrill and excitement of flying and landing–roughly at times–a private aircraft. That was today. Last night I was a part of a nail biting finish of a basketball game. Last week I got the adrenalin rush of getting to the fire before it was too late. I have been at the center of the roar of 70,000 screaming fans following a touchdown and on a boat in the Iowa River at 5am to photograph a crew team. I have been at political debates and blaring concerts. I have witnessed the destruction of natural disasters and the happiness of marriage.

The lens of my camera has captured so many different jobs that, in a sense, I have lived all of them. And that is the beauty of photography. No matter whom I’m working for or shooting for, I am always experiencing the world through my camera. That is part of the excitement of being a photographer and the quicker that is embraced, the quicker your photography can be taken to a new level.

I am of the belief that you cannot photograph a subject without completely embracing it, completely being in tune with the scene. Yet there is an important balance to be had. Justin offered to fly the plane to capture whatever I wanted; I have had athletes pose for me; I have had guitarists epically stand above my camera. All of these would have made great pictures, but none of them would have been great photographs. I think it is important as a photographer, and paramount as a photojournalist, to not become a part of the photograph. You must be engrained in the scene, yet completely and totally ignored by those subjects in it. That is my job.

Tags: diverse work, fun, job, photography, Photojournalism

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Photography Tips, Photojournalism, Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.