Steve Hinton Jr. interview

[BuckyD]

Re: Steve Hinton Jr. interview

Thanks guys! Steve was so great to make time to answer all my questions. He really deserves the credit though because he did all the typing!

We wanted to go see him at Shafter but couldn't make it down there so it was his idea to do it with e-mail.

BuckyD - thanks so much for saying such nice things. I appreciate it. Now I just need to be a good photographer like you!!

Evan

Thanks, Evan for YOUR 'atta-boy' for this ole' aviation 'lens-lugger'. I just revisted your wonderful website once again for another re-read of the Hinton Jr. interview & gotta tell ya there's some really excellent photography throughout. Some great composition work & nice selections for the interview piece.

Your portfolio of interview subjects is impressive & immensely-enjoyable reading (-w/so much variety!). Keep up the fine job you're doing as a photo-journalist, young man.

Sincerely-

Don 'Bucky' Dawson

[evanflys]

Re: Steve Hinton Jr. interview

Thanks BuckyD! My dad helps me a lot so we're kind of a team. I'm pretty color blind (kinda like Steve Jr.) so my dad does the photo editing, and driving me all around, and buying me corn dogs at airshows, and..... But I make up the questions and do the interviews.

Have you checked out my audio clips pages? I think they're really cool!

We just got a better camera - a Panasonic GH1 plus a 45-200 lens - so hopefully we'll get more shots like yours! My dad gets the hand me down old one!
One thing that helps is that we both take a bazillion shots at the races and airshows. That way we should get a few good ones!

It's funny you mention it but I'm just finishing up two new interviews and tomorrow we're off to try to get an extra cool one!

Happy Holidays!

Evan

[BuckyD]

Re: Steve Hinton Jr. interview

Hi Evan-

You & your dad make a GREAT team & an inspiring one at that- a wonderful role model for all parents w/kids to get involved in collaborations, no matter what the common interests are. It's also obvious to note that you two guys are really lucky & blessed to have such a great working relationship going for yourselves - each w/individual talents that are complimentary. (Great symbiosis going on there f/business & being family makes it even better!)

You know what? I'm red-green color 'challenged' also! Found out when I went into military service & it was a shock to me being an artist since I was a young kid. Had to sign alot of waivers to acknowledge that couldn't go for most of the specialist ratings that require good color vision. Like the color tests, it's the subtle muted shades of those two colors that fool ya, not the intense examples that do look red & green as they're supposed to. When I did the Pearl Harbor painting, and other WW2 camo aircraft subjects, working from scale models & photos, I had to have alot of 'consulting help' when mixing up my palette of colors to paint with (usually my wife Linda or fellow local artist friends). In the military, I was told that red-green color blind guys made great aerial spotters for chopper recon work in Viet Nam - being that 'we' could discern objects hidden by jungle camouflage better than people w/'normal' color vision. (Assume that to be true, but sure glad I didn't have to find out first hand, as I ended up being a Coasty).

Well, you already know the 'key' formula for taking great pictures- "Take LOTS of them"! But at the same time, it really helps to learn basic photography fundamentals, which are still all very valid in the new digital photo world going on. I learned alot from my friend & photo guru mentor- Neal Nurmi, who explained most 35mm photography rules of thumb in simple easy to understand language, which allowed me to 'hit the ground running' when I first started taking 35mm photos about 1976-77. My basic film cameras were a pair of Canon AE-1 SLRs until Phoenix1995 Air Races, when I added my first auto-focus camera- a Canon EOS-1N-RS. Didn't go digital until Reno '07, when I made a big investment by buying a Canon EOS-1D MKIII, and this Reno is the first time I shot no film at all. When I first got started, for the first couple years I hand-noted film speed/aperture setting for all my pictures in a pocket notebook. It was painstaking, but I got to know what I did right & especially- 'wrong', w/settings & techniques for my photos & got to know the individual characteristics & capabilities for each color & B&W film used. Then working in the darkroom lab, developing my own B&W film and making hundreds of finish prints was also a great help in learning about photography.

Today, its' a whole new ballgame w/the digital photo world we live in & film is a dinosaur, w/so much technology at hand to learn & use. Again, photographic principles still apply & it serves a photographer well to employ that knowledge in taking great pictures, rather than relying totally on automated/programmed camera function as- 'sophisticated point-&-shoot' (which can lead to some occasional serious picture-taking disappointments). The more control you have over the camera via knowledge & experience- the more creative & versatile you can be as a photographer (film or digital). There's no subsitute for time spent taking pictures!!!

As for the 'digital darkroom' software/hardware technology in processing your own digital images- the possibilities are seemingly endless, but so much to learn as the technology evolves faster than we can learn it (-'Mindboggling' for the old school guys & fun & exciting for the younger generation!) Photographers now need to be their own photo lab techs for routine photo processing. Like anything, lots of 'time vampires' to juggle with.

Congrats on the new photo camera! (What a cool dad to take the old 'hand-me-down' camera equipment - usually it's the other way around.)

Now, I'm gonna go have some real fun, & check out your website's 'audio clips' & your new Will Whiteside interview. Thanks, Evan!!!

DBD