HEAVY HORSE
A CH-53E Super Stallion assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) en route to a firing range in southern California during Weapons and Tactics Instructor course 2-23.
I have got to say that shooting photos out of the back of a CH-53 is one of the most difficult things I've ever done with a camera. The exhaust from the three engines creates thick curtains of unrelenting blurriness, with only a few small gaps to shoot through from the ramp. With a heavy crosswind like we were dealing with on this portion of the flight, those gaps in the 'curtains' shifted, requiring constant scanning of the entire scene in the viewfinder to ensure the subject wasn't obscured by exhaust, and some improvised yoga-like contortions to get a non-blurry field of view. The crosswind also created enough extra movement that it required shooting at a high shutter speed, which is why the rotors look nearly frozen here at 1/320.
HEAVY HORSE
A CH-53E Super Stallion assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) en route to a firing range in southern California during Weapons and Tactics Instructor course 2-23.
I have got to say that shooting photos out of the back of a CH-53 is one of the most difficult things I've ever done with a camera. The exhaust from the three engines creates thick curtains of unrelenting blurriness, with only a few small gaps to shoot through from the ramp. With a heavy crosswind like we were dealing with on this portion of the flight, those gaps in the 'curtains' shifted, requiring constant scanning of the entire scene in the viewfinder to ensure the subject wasn't obscured by exhaust, and some improvised yoga-like contortions to get a non-blurry field of view. The crosswind also created enough extra movement that it required shooting at a high shutter speed, which is why the rotors look nearly frozen here at 1/320.