Manassas

Old Town Manassas - June 3, 2011 /  by Todd Henson

Today we combine photography with just a touch of history. I was recently going through my catalog of old photographs and came across some I don’t believe I’ve posted before of Old Town Manassas, also referred to as Historic Manassas, in Virginia. Given the history of this area I wanted to process the photos to give them an older feel.

Manassas Station

Manassas Station, an historic and active railroad station in Old Town Manassas, Virginia

The opening photo is of Manassas Station, an historic train station built in 1914 by Southern Railway. It was later acquired by the city of Manassas and is still in active use today by Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and Amtrak trains and also houses a tourist information center and a gallery of railroad exhibits.

Railroad Tracks

Facing east and looking down the tracks we see The Candy Factory on the left and the parking garage on the right

Turning east and facing down the railroad tracks we can see the old Candy Factory building on the left and the far more recent parking garage on the right. The garage is used for daily commuters and also for those visiting Old Town Manassas.

The Candy Factory

The Candy Factory, once a producer of tons of candy and now a home to the arts in Old Town Manassas

Turning to the left we see The Candy Factory, built in 1908. It produced tons of candy and shipped it by train all over the eastern US. In 2002 the building became home to the Center for the Arts, now referred to as the ARTfactory. They house local artist galleries and provide classes, performances, and advocacy for the local arts scene. You can see from the old painting on the side of the building that says Manassas Feed & Milling Co that the building was used for other purposes after the candy factory closed and before it became a local artists hub.

Okra’s

A view of the intersection of Center and Battle Street, once home to Okra’s, a fantastic restaurant

Continuing down Battle Street from The Candy Factory we come to the intersection with Center Street. Across the intersection is a lovely building that in 2011 was home to Okra’s, a fantastic Cajun/creole restaurant that had the best gator bites and Cajun deviled eggs in the area. Sadly, they are no more.

A Few Notes on Processing

And just to touch briefly on how I chose to process the images, I used Adobe Lightroom and processed the photos initially as I usually do, then converted them to black & white. I wanted more of a sepia tone than pure black & white so I used the Color Grading feature, formerly called Split Toning, to shift the colors. I pushed the highlights towards yellow, the shadows towards red, and nudged the midtones just slightly towards blue. I adjusted the black & white mix, shifting each color slider to affect how those colors were converted to monochrome. Finally I did a couple things I rarely do, I created a white vignette around the edges that faded into the image, and I tweaked the color calibration values just slightly. All of these settings were mostly the same for each photo except that I tweaked the color calibration values differently based on how they looked on each photo.

Adobe Lightroom settings for B&W and Color Grading

Adobe Lightroom settings for Effects and Calibration

I hope you enjoyed this look at Old Town Manassas in 2011, as well as a little look into how I processed the photos. What did you think of the processing? Would you have done anything differently? Have you ever visited this location? Have you ever eaten at Okra’s? Let me know in the comments below.

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2019 Manassas Airshow /  by Todd Henson

The Bealeton Flying Circus Wingwalkers

It’s been a few years since I attended an airshow, so this year my father and I made our way to the Manassas Regional Airport for the 2019 Manassas Airshow held on Saturday, May 4. This is only my second time at this show, and I certainly hope it’s not my last. I really enjoy these shows.

This year had some of the same performers as the last show we attended, but it also had new ones to add a little variety. And some of the same pilots were flying different aircraft. The weather looked somewhat questionable at first, with the possibility of rain, and some low lying clouds. Thankfully it cleared enough by noon that the aerial performers were given the go-ahead.

Click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

RJ Gritter and his Bellanca Decathalon

RJ Gritter was flying his Bellanca Decathalon, performing some amazing aerobatics, trailing white smoke through most of the show. His plane is painted in red, white and blue.

RJ Gritter pulling up in his Bellanca Decathalon

RJ Gritter flying by in his Bellanca Decathalon

The Flying Circus Wingwalkers

The wingwalkers from the Bealeton Flying Circus always put on an amazing performance. Chuck Tippett flies their Stearman biplane while Joe Bender climbs out on the wings to perform a number of different incredible moves. He flies like superman, stands atop the plane, and this year they also flew the US flag. Beautiful sight.

Look closely to see Joe Bender flying like Superman between the wings of the Stearman biplane, flown by Chuck Tippett, of the Bealeton Flying Circus.

Chuck Tippett and Joe Bender of the Bealeton Flying Circus flying a US flag atop their Stearman biplane.

Art Nalls and his L-29 Albatross

Art Nalls performed this year in his L-29 Albatross, a very maneuverable jet flown by a very capable pilot.

Art Nalls performing a flyby in his L-29 Albatross.

Art Nalls and his L-29 Albatross may look like they are floating above the runway because of the fast shutter speed I used, but he was, in fact, flying by quite fast.

The Bealeton Flying Circus

This year the Bealeton Flying Circus flew four of their biplanes in formation, circling the airport a number of times. They looked amazing as they turned against clouds, the sun highlighting each plane. I’d love to visit Bealeton and see them perform on their home turf.

Four biplanes from the Bealeton Flying Circus flying in formation against the cloudy sky.

The Bealeton Flying Circus Stearman biplans flying in formation.

Lee Leet and his Super Tucano

I love the look of Lee Leet’s Super Tucano, a turboprop aircraft that was a lot of fun to watch.

Lee Leet flying his Super Tucano.

Lee Leet landing his Super Tucano.

Chef Pitts and his Pitts S1S

Chef Pitts performed some absolutely incredible aerobatics in his small red Pitts S1S. This guy was absolutely amazing. There’s no way I could list all the incredible moves he performed. This was one of my favorite parts of the airshow.

Chef Pitts and his amazingly aerobatic Pitts S1S biplane.

Chef Pitts taking his Pitts S1S down for a 1-wheeled landing.

Warrior Flight Team

The Warrior Flight Team was back, flying a pair of Czechoslovakian L-39 jets, piloted by Charlie “V+12” VandenBossche and LCDR Mark “Crunchy” Burgess. Awesome performance.

Charlie “V+12” VandenBossche and LCDR Mark “Crunchy” Burgess of Warrior Flight Team performing a synchronized flyby in their L-39’s.

One of the Warrior Flight Team L-39’s coming in from a distance, trailing smoke.

US Air Force A-10 Demonstration Team

One of the highlights of this years show was the performance by the US Air Force A-10 Demonstration Team. I have always loved the A-10, both the look of it, and the way it moves. It’s such an incredible and capable aircraft, and they did a great job showing off some of its capabilities.

USAF A-10 Thunderbolt performing a flyby.

USAF A-10 Thunderbolt quickly changing orientation. Notice the air being forced over the tops of the wings near the fuselage and trailing from their tips.

P-51 Mustang in the Parade of Planes

At the end of the show was the Parade of Planes, where a large number of aircraft all took to the sky, one at a time, most of which had not performed in the airshow. One of the highlights for me was an absolutely gorgeous shiny silver P-51 Mustang. I just love the look of this aircraft.

P-51 Mustang taking off. The rear tire has already left the runway.

US Marine Super Stallion CH-53 and the Crowds

In addition to the performances, the Manassas Airshow included a nice collection of static displays. The photo here shows some of the crowd walking around the show, along with a US Marine Super Stallion CH-53 helicopter in the background. The tail of the helicopter was open, with folks lining up to walk through it.

Crowds walking around the 2019 Manassas Airshow, with a US Marine Super Stallion CH-53 helicopter in the background.

Final Thoughts

I had a great time at the 2019 Manassas Airshow. These shows always seem to be over far too quickly. I do wonder sometimes if I should try attending one without bringing a camera, so I can just relax and watch the show. But I really enjoy photographing them, so that would be tough to do.

This year I decided to use my 200-400 mm f/4 lens, a large and slightly heavy lens, but one that works really well for these shows. Though it’s a bit heavy, it’s still light enough to hand hold for short bursts as the planes fly by. A lighter lens would be nice, though. In the past I’ve also used and been happy with a 70-200 mm.

I found myself switching back and further between aperture priority mode and shutter priority mode. I used shutter priority for the slower flying propellor-based aircraft so I could capture motion in the propellers. And I used aperture priority for the faster flying jets to get a faster shutter speed. In the future I think I will just stick to shutter priority and adjust the shutter speed as I see fit. I don’t really know why I kept flipping to aperture priority, other than that’s the setting I most often use.

For the fast moving jets I tended to use a much faster shutter speed, for example 1/1000 to 1/3000 of a second. That helped assure I captured sharp images of the jets, though in one case it captured the L-29 Albatross seemingly hovering over the runway, when in fact it was moving very fast. I should have used a slower shutter speed in that case to blur the background as I panned with the jet.

When the propeller aircraft were flying I lowered my shutter speed to between 1/25 to 1/125 of a second. This increased the chances of blurry photographs, but it assured I’d capture movement in the propeller. If you use a fast shutter speed you may freeze the propeller, which looks very strange when the aircraft is in the air. This also helped blur the background as I panned with the planes when they flew low enough to see trees behind the planes.

This year was a great year for the Manassas Airshow. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I very much look forward to attending again in the future. If you’ve never been to an airshow I’d highly recommend you give one a try.

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Capturing Candid Moments at a Festival /  by Todd Henson

A member of Embajadores del Folklore after performing a Morenada dance.

This is the third and final post about XXX Festival Boliviano, the 30th annual Bolivian Festival held at the Prince William County Fairgrounds in Manassas, Virginia, on September 3, 2017. As with the previous posts, be sure to click on any of the photos for a larger view.

Here is an example of a performer looking right at the camera. This performer was with Tinkus Bolivia who performed a Tinkus dance.

Another example of a performer looking right at the camera. In this case I was in a lower position looking up at this performer with Morenada Bolivia USA who had just performed a Morenada dance.

In the first post I shared photographs of several of the dance groups that performed. In the second post I shared many photographs of individual performers. In this post I look at capturing candid moments. These might be interesting moments during a performance, but are more often captured between or after a performance when the performer has relaxed and perhaps taken themselves momentarily out of the persona they portray while dancing.

I love this photograph of two young performers with Tinkus de San Simon USA, who performed a Tinkus dance. One performer is looking down the route they would take towards me, and the other is looking back towards the rest of their group.

In this version I captured a lone young performer from Tinkus de San Simon USA, who had performed a Tinkus dance. She is facing away from me, looking towards the American flag and back towards the rest of her group. I really like the moments captured in these two images.

I like trying to capture these candid moments because I think they help tell the story of the event. They show another layer to the performance and the performers. For example, we see the exhaustion when someone takes the mask off their head, the beads of sweat dripping down their face. And in that moment we can see the effort these performers put into their performance.

In this photo I captured the moment after the performer from Fundacion Socio Cultural Diablada Boliviana removed his mask after their final performance of a Wititi dance. You can see his exhaustion as he lifts his head towards the sun.

And in this photo we see another performer from Fundacion Socio Cultural Diablada Boliviana who had removed their mask after performing a Wititi dance.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I don’t consider myself a people photographer. I rarely photograph people. But I am just as attracted to a stunning portrait or to impactful examples of street photography as I am to photographs of the subjects I most often shoot (nature, wildlife, outdoors). So I really enjoy events like this Festival, where I can practice photographing people in a challenging environment, trying to capture action and movement, but also trying to find and capture those more intimate moments between the dancing, trying to show a little more personality to the performer.

Here a performer from Tinkus Tiataco pauses during the Tinkus dance, raising her hand to her mouth. What was she thinking? What was she feeling?

Here is a moment when a young performer from Salay Bolivia USA pauses, raising her hand to her head, just after her performance of a Salay dance.

This photo captures a moment from a Tinkus dance performed by Tinkus Bolivia. I believe the girl with the whistle is leading her group within the dance. I like her pose and the positioning of the other people with the image.

Here is a small group of performers from Morenada Revelacion Cocanis VA USA just after performing a Morenada dance.

The next time you find yourself at this sort of event, or just out about town with your camera, consider looking for moments you can capture, moments that help tell a story about the subject. And if, like me, you usually shoot nature, consider occasionally photographing something different, such as people, events, or street photography. It’s a great way to learn. And in the end, light is light, and anything you learn about light in one environment can almost always be applied to a different environment.

A performer with Fraternidad Alma Boliviana raises her hand at the end of, or just after, performing a Tinkus dance.

Another performer from Fraternidad Alma Boliviana after performing a Tinkus dance.

I tried to frame this member of Morenada Bolivia USA amongst the colored feathers of other dancers in his group. They had just performed a Morenada dance.

In a moment captured after her dance, sunlight creates colored reflections on her face from the sequins in her outfit. She is a member of Fraternidad Folklorica Cultural Caporales Universitarios San Simon Filial VA, who performed a Caporales dance.

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