Night magic

The Tiger Moth is one of eight Golden Age of Aviation featured guests this evening as pilots Dave King, Clay Hammond, and others coaxed the sometimes recalcitrant engines to life. They are directed by train-and-streetcar enthusiast, retired airline pilot, and former wildlife photographer Tom Pawlesh—an LED-light-carrying blur of activity who volunteered his night aircraft photo expertise as a fundraising activity for the living aviation museum.

The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is a “living history” aviation museum in the rolling hills of central New York adjacent to the Hudson River. The old school museum brings a variety of antique World War I and Golden Age aircraft to life during weekend airshows from June through October and features acts with pilots in period-correct attire flying wood-and-fabric biplanes, triplanes, and other pioneer aircraft. It has been educating and entertaining pilots and their families for 60 years. The night photo shoot was originally scheduled as a fundraiser in October before longtime patron, pilot, and volunteer Brian Coughlin died in an aircraft crash at the airfield the day of the intended photo session. Museum director Tara Grieb said the decision to reschedule the night photography opportunity for a select small group of photographers has helped staff and volunteers struggle through their grief to honor Coughlin’s legacy.

Photographers wearing bobbing headlamps or holding flashlights fanned out in front of the aircraft as the classics were cranked one by one. Pawlesh juggled a six-pack of LED lights on stands and danced from aircraft to aircraft to dramatically illuminate them against a pitch-black background.

The scene is surreal for anyone who has attended an airshow, fly-in, or aviation gathering because those events typically occur in the daytime. The night aviation landscape is peculiar and mentally jarring—which makes for dramatic photography.

After the pilots called “clear prop!” and volunteers repositioned fire extinguishers out of the frame, the fuselages, wings, cowlings, struts, and flying wires came alive in the solid darkness against a green grass backdrop.

Camera shutters clicked furiously as the group documented a Sopwith Camel, a Sopwith Pup, a Fleet Model 1, a Curtiss JN–4H Jenny, a Stinson SM–1 Detroiter, and a New Standard D–25. The semicircle of aviation paparazzi was positioned 10 to 15 yards in front of each aircraft as engines roared to life, adhering to a pre-sunset safety briefing.

Spinning props cut distinctive blurs accentuated by slow-shutter-speed photo settings of several seconds to capture the moving propeller arcs. “If you don’t come back with several hundred images of each aircraft, you’re not shooting enough photos,” coached Pawlesh, who brandished an older Nikon digital camera and inexpensive “kit” lens. “And don’t forget to bracket your exposures to make sure you capture at least one winner!”

Pawlesh began his fascination with photography and with flying as a teenager. His father gifted Pawlesh a camera at age 14 and began a lifelong love affair with photography. When he was 18, Pawlesh turned to his other passion—aviation—and began a flying career that spanned nearly four decades as an airline pilot accumulating thousands of flight hours. But he never put his cameras down, often taking them on journeys in Boeing and Airbus airliners to document far-flung destinations. After retiring, Pawlesh investigated night aviation photography after studying O. Winston Link, an art photographer who specialized in dramatic night images of steam locomotives during the 1950s.

As the night wound down photographers turned their attention to the star of the show—a Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis replica. Its fuselage, cowling, and wings glittered brightly against the dark background while an unexpected rainbow pop of color highlighted the propeller arc—a surreal moment captured in time of a bygone era.

oldrhinebeck.org

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