11 years ago, at the end of Mustache March. I was going for my very best Robin Olds impression. I was also nearing the end of my year as the Black Cat Assistant Director of Operations in Korea. It was a damn long year with lots of surprises by Kim Jong Il to make sure we never had a holiday to rest.
The old Dear Leader may have prevented fun but he couldn't stop mustache growth (much to my wife's dismay). Here's to all my Black Cats and all deployed folks sticking their neck out during these trying times. Cheers.
#extremerossphotography #thepilotnetwork #aviationphotography #u2dragonlady #usairforce #u2driver @airandspacemuseum #extreme #extremeross #lockheed #stratosphere #avgeek #instaviation #planesofinstagram #aviation_lovers #aviationdaily #u2spyplane @theaviationist #instaaviationphotography #aviationlovers #niceview #niceviews #planespotter @eaa @aviationweek
1 month ago
🌍🌩️ Soaring over 70,000 feet always gives a different perspective on the world. I had watched this cumulonimbus build from a small, puffy white cloud, to the monster that overshadowed this whole island. Heating throughout the day gives it energy to grow until it hits the tropopause and spreads out into the signature anvil shape. The prevailing winds then stretch that out.
Flying the U-2 into the stratosphere required some understanding of how winds, weather, and temperature were affected by these layers of the atmosphere, and how they changed depending where on the Earth you are flying. And while I could certainly clear this storm by 20,000 feet or more, doing so might not always be the most prudent thing. You always have to be on the lookout for high altitude turbulence and think "Would I want to eject and fall right into that?"
Head over to ExtremeRoss.com for more pictures and stories
#extremerossphotography #thepilotnetwork #aviationphotography #u2dragonlady #usairforce #u2driver @airandspacemuseum #extreme #extremeross #lockheed #stratosphere #avgeek #instaviation #planesofinstagram #aviation_lovers #aviationdaily #u2spyplane @theaviationist #instaaviationphotography #aviationlovers #niceview #niceviews #planespotter @eaa @aviationweek
2 months ago
✈️🌟🌌 I thought it was time that I threw something new in here. As most of you have probably realized by now, I don't fly the U-2 anymore. I have a ton of U-2 stuff from 14 years with the old girl but I still like to take pictures. I haven't shot a ton of stuff from the 737 that I fly now but I'm trying to get back into it.
This is Venus rising just ahead of the sun on a moonless red-eye flight from Maui to San Francisco. The bright green on the right is the position light on the right wing tip of a 737 MAX 9. Position lights tell others what direction we're going as green is always on right and red is on the left wing tip.
For those who always ask about the camera and lens, I've been playing around with shooting pictures with a camera I bought mainly for it's video capabilities. When I thought I was going to be furloughed during COVID, I started a photo and video business and bought a Sony A7Siii with Sony GM 24 mm f1.4 and 85 mm f1.8 lens. The main selling point with that camera is that it is remarkable in low light but it's not known for its picture taking capability because it is only 12 megapixels (remember at one point that was a lot). I decided to try some compositing where I take several photos and stitch them together. With the light gathering capability of the sensor, it is ideal in a situation like an aircraft where you have to gather as much light as you can in as short a time as possible. I'm still learning how to shoot with it but it is a whole lot easier not having to wear a space suit.
For those just here for cool U-2 shots and stories, fear not. I'll still concentrate most of the content on that but I'll be mixing in some fresh stuff as well. Thanks for everyone who supports ExtremeRoss.
#milkywaychasers #milkyway #nightsky #aerialphotography @nightphotography @airandspacemuseum #extremeross @united #737max
2 months ago
I'm saddened by the events unfolding in the Ukraine today. For most of my 20 years flying in the military, I flew into or over conflicts. Even as a Gucci Lear Jet pilot in Germany, I found myself sitting on the ramp at Skopje airport in a flak jacket watching a fully armed Hind attack helicopter take off a hundred feet away, to go bomb rebels just 5 miles away.
Much of my time in the U-2 was spent gathering intel over various conflicts. Sometimes, there isn't a friendly within the glide range of the jet. If I had had to eject at this location, my life would have probably ended in some gruesome propaganda video streamed live on the internet for all to see.
But you accept that, know the risks, and trust in yourself and the entire team that helps put you in that spot. Because there are some a_holes out there that just want to make life bad for others. I was proud to have made life hopefully better in some small ways. It's an ongoing struggle we may win or lose at, but it has to continue. I'm proud to see the Ukrainians fight back and to see so many Russians speak out against this. There's definitely one a_hole who needs to go.
(Incidentally, right after I took this picture, and as I was contemplating how crappy it would be to be forced out, I ran into some high altitude turbulence that suddenly knocked the autopilot off, and may have loosened my GI tract a bit. Camera down, hands grasping at the yoke, while I wrestled it back under control. Fortunately no broken metal and no gruesome demise for me that day.)
#extremerossphotography #thepilotnetwork #aviationphotography #u2dragonlady #usairforce #u2driver @airandspacemuseum #extreme #extremeross #lockheed #stratosphere #avgeek #instaviation #planesofinstagram #aviation_lovers #aviationdaily #u2spyplane @theaviationist #instaaviationphotography #aviationlovers #niceview #niceviews #planespotter @eaa @aviationweek
3 months ago
🌠🌌 Flight Into the Aurora: Part 6 (The End)
Again I hoped to be more punctual but at least it is finally here. The conclusion to the Aurora saga. I hope to have this all up on ExtremeRoss.com soon as one story.
It started with a sliver of light on the horizon that started to grow. Those that have read my other stuff know I love the sunset and sunrise. It creates such awesome colors and shapes in the sky. I had a GoPro set up to capture the sun rising over the horizon. Sun up, now all that was left was to finish my trek across the North Atlantic, and head down the British Isles. Almost 12 hours into the flight, and it was time to clean up all my crap and tidy up the cockpit for landing.
After parking the jet in a small snow flurry, I was still giddy with excitement about the aurora and what I hoped I had captured on my camera (I'm also wet since my urine collection device had failed-you forgot about that didn't you). @beauboyflyer had the honor and misfortune of cleaning it up all the crap I had dropped under the seat (he did awesome and found everything too)
I had taken over 1600 photos. I knew this was an experience that would stay with me. I had less than a year before retirement and there wasn't going to be redo. Is a photographer ever truly happy with everything they did? Of course not. With every edit, I would critique myself. "I should have tried this ISO" or "I wish I had been just a little more careful about camera shake". Losing the screw on that camera mount is still painful to me. But it still brings a smile to my face every time I go back to look the pictures. To see how the time lapse pictures look strung together. The pictures went viral and CBS News even did a segment on the national news about them (full story about that and the proverbial sh_tstorm that followed will be in the book). There was a sort of magic being in that spot in time and I feel that I at least brought part of that back with me, not only for me to enjoy again, but for everyone else as well. When you see one of these photos, you can now say "Hey that was Extreme Ross, and he was covered in pee when he took that". Thanks for reading.
6 months ago
🌠🌌 Flight Into the Aurora: Part 5
The aurora was behind me. I could look out and see it sweeping well south of me and coming up behind the jet. I had not even given a thought of trying to get a shot of me and the aurora in a selfie until this moment (seems silly now)
Selfies were always a little tricky with my Nikon D750 and big ole space suit. The LCD screen doesn't flip around so I often had to set it for self timer, and take a series of photos while I hold it out turned around in front of me and make a duck face (unseen under the visor). I usually rely on using autofocus and a narrow aperture during the day for these shots. Of all the practice shots I had trained with, I never did selfies at night.
So this was something I was going to have to make up, through trial and error. There wasn't enough light to use auto focus. I had to dial it in through many bad shots, all the while I'm moving further from the aurora. The thing is that I had been using a wide aperture to capture as much light in as short a time as possible (to keep blurring from shaking to a minimum). With a wide aperture, basically just one thing could be in focus, me or the aurora. That's not a problem when you're just shooting the aurora. Now I'm trying to get me and the aurora together.
I kept playing with the aperture and shutter speed and reviewing the results on the tiny LCD screen. I found what looked to be good settings but it required a long exposure with as little movement as possible. About 1 out of 20 photos came out ok.
During my first edit after getting home, I decided to try to combine some into panoramic images. The first image in the video is the result of that first edit. That photo went viral in 2018 and made it's way across the internet and onto the CBS News. The last image in the video is the remastered version, with about 50 hours more work put into the compositing and sharpening. Both can be found at ExtremeRoss.com
The next post will be my last in the Aurora saga. I'll finish with some closing images, videos, and words for what this whole experience has meant for me. Stay tuned (hopefully I'll get it done soon)
8 months ago
🌠🌌 Flight into the Aurora: Part 4
(I lied and said I would put these out more frequently. My post-Air Force job flying complaining people around the country really had an uptick in activity in July)
So the sky seems like it is literally exploding around me. The first aurora sighting was like a grey haze in the distance. It showed up green only in the pictures. Now it's vivid green and pink, and some blue to the naked eye. And it was all around me. And it was changing...fast. I had always had in my head that the ribbons and columns of the aurora would look like a gently blowing curtain. This was more like how a flag whips around in a storm. Some of my early photos used a little too long of an exposure where the aurora became a big blur.
I was making a lot of real time changes to all of my photo plans. Create plan, study plan, execute plan, realize plan sucks, come up with new plan. That's what was going on inside my mostly darkened cockpit. Thank goodness the air was smooth and George (autopilot) was doing a fantastic job of flying the plane. One area that I was worried a little about for these night photos was that there would be a quarter moon high in the sky. I thought it might overpower the sky. What it did was provide about the perfect amount of illumination for the snow and ice covered landscape below. Better lucky than good because I didn't plan that.
I actually sat the camera down during part of this to just stare out and take it all in. It was a surreal experience that I wasn't really prepared for. And then I did the most natural thing to do in a situation like that. I sent a text to my wife "THIS IS AMAZING!". (so we had one of those Garmin Reach I think that allowed remote monitoring of my flight but also could send texts over satellite...probably an expensive text and she was in bed.) I picked back up my camera and kept snapping away. I even did some handheld timelapse you see in this video.
Moving through the main ring of the aurora, the lights now flowing behind the jet, I had a sudden thought. Something I hadn't even thought of in the plan. What if I turn the camera on me and get a selfie with the aurora. Hmmm
9 months ago
🌠🌌 Flight Into the Aurora: Part 3
(I promise I'm going to try to get these out more frequently..maybe)
So I am finally on my way, on a 12 hour hop through the arctic circle, cameras and equipment ready, and I'm going to be sitting in my own pee the whole time. Somehow, my UCD (urinary collection device) had gotten disconnected during all the suit troubleshooting. When it works, it's great. Just sit back and let it go (you do have to get over that awkward mental block that keeps you from peeing your pants). When you discover that it's not going to work, there's not a lot you can do once in the air. And starting a 12 hour flight, I definitely went through the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance that this is how it will be. So when you see all the pretty pictures, just know there's a guy in a spacesuit, covered in pee, that created that.
So moving on, despite not knowing if I would even see any good lights, I still had a pretty meticulous plan to capture as much timelapse of the lights as I could. I had a video end product in mind and had already mapped out how to create it. One of the first shots was an 8 second clip showing me approaching the northern lights, shot out the left window. I knew from the angle of my track that I would first see it out the left side. For an 8 second timelapse, I would need a minimum of 192 photos, with a shot about every 3 seconds. I had brought a special mount that I borrowed to steady the camera. I had it all setup. Then...I decided I would attempt some selfie photos and turned the camera toward me. Then...I saw what I thought might be the aurora and turned the camera back out the window. That's when the bolt holding the camera to the mount came out and fell into the inaccessible black hole below my seat. My camera crashed down and fortunately didn't break. I tried to set it back on the mount plate without any attachment and this is the result. 194 photos, slowed down a bit in Final Cut. It's also the only timelapse of its kind I attempted on the flight. My plan had to change. Now I was going to be handheld. And good thing, because the aurora was about to go crazy.
11 months ago
🌠🌌 Flight Into the Aurora: Part 2
Getting off the ground proved to be my first challenge with my flight through the northern lights. I showed up with my family, did my preflight planning and went to get dressed in the pressure suit. Full disclosure: I hated the process of getting in the pressure suit more than any aspect of the job. The leak tests can make you hot and I still had a tinge of claustrophobia when first getting in.
Normally, if everything works, the time from start to finished and ready to go to the jet is about 10 minutes. This day, there kept being an indication of a leak and I spent almost 2 hours continuously being pressurized, taking the helmet off, having new controllers and regulators installed (fun fact: the suit controller sits in the right abdomen area and when it's changed with you already in the suit, the technician has to reach through your suit from behind, around your fat rolls, and grab the internal mechanism)
They couldn't find the leak. I was approaching the point that I wouldn't have the duty day to complete the mission. I would have given up long before had this been a normal flight. Then one of the suit technicians leaned his head down to my wrist and pointed. A tiny piece of suit fabric had been caught in the glove lock. It was taken off, reset, and I was suddenly good to go.
I got to the jet, was strapped in and the final suit tests were done by a space suit supervisor. There's a test where they pressurize the suit and test if there's good airflow through your UCD (urinary collection device-thing you pee through and it collects in a tank under the seat). There's usually not great airflow anyways and this day seemed lower than normal. Ahh screw it, not going to mess around with it. There's a storm moving in and I have to get into the air in the next 15 minutes or I'd have to wait another day. It was windy and the rain was coming down when I lined up on the runway (picture credit to the wife). Finally in the air and on the way as darkness quickly took over. I'm sure that little UCD issue won't be a big deal. The time comes for that first all important relief...and...nope not going to work.
11 months ago
A salute to my brothers who have paid the ultimate price to make the world a better place. Knowing that you are entering a line of business where you will likely lose friends doesn't make it any easier when it happens. And I feel fortunate to have made it through 20 years in the AF with a relatively short list.
This was the first operational mission flown after my friend, Steve "Shooter" Eadie died in a training accident near Beale AFB, Sept 20th, 2016. Members of the 1st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron created the best nose art I have ever seen and sent the mission pilot on his way with a full squadron salute. The aircraft here is lined up on the runway, pins pulled, and ready to fly.
#extremerossphotography #extremeross #extreme #memorial #memorialday #salute
12 months ago
🌠🌌Flight Into the Aurora: Part 1
In my last post, I teased that I would tell the story of my flight through the Northern Lights. I thought some rarely seen shots of me suiting up would be a good way to start. But I want to go back further than that. This flight, for me, had really been brewing for over 2 years.
One of the common phrases I get when people see my work is how fortunate I am or how lucky. And I am, no doubt about it. But as the Roman philosopher Seneca first stated, luck is preparation meeting opportunity. This was not a random flight where I somehow found myself suddenly in the middle of the northern lights.
I knew that we flew this flight on occasion and I had never had a chance to do it. It's a flight U-2 pilots might do once or possible a couple times in a career. It had never worked out for me to do it. I had only heard other pilots describe flying amongst the aurora. One had said that there was no way to film it, that it would take a poet to really nail down the essence of the experience. I was determined to be the one who could finally capture it.
I had dabbled in night photography before, and tried some in the U-2. No matter how steady you keep the camera, you're still in a shaking metal can moving nearly 500 mph through air. Good night photography relies on tripods and long steady exposures, something not practical in the U-2. I bought a new camera in 2016 with the expressed purpose that it would be the camera that would capture the northern lights from a U-2. (Nikon D750) I bought a fast wide angle lens to allow the most light in the shortest amount of time (Tamron 16-28 mm, f2.8). At the time I didn't know how, when, or if I would ever get the chance.
The northern lights don't happen by accident or chance in random locations. It's a natural phenomenon that occurs pretty regularly in a ring around the magnetic pole. I knew the flight path of this flight went directly through that ring. Due to the need for real darkness, I knew I would only have a good chance from about November through February. Years of prep met opportunity and I suited up with my family watching in February 2018.
12 months ago
This is a video I did 3 years ago after I flew a U-2 through the northern lights and managed to capture it with my camera. The widescreen version is on my Extreme Ross YouTube channel. I decided to throw this version on Facebook because I’m going to start a series where I talk about that flight, and the prep that went into it. Look for that soon.
The music is by high school friend and composer Bill Withem. Check him out on SoundCloud.com
#extremerossphotography #extreme #extremeross #auroraborealis #northernlights #nightphotography #timelapsevideo #pilotpics #wonderearth
1 year ago