Photographer Interview: Justin Pyle by FC Staff

Technical Sergeant Justin Pyle has one of the most coveted jobs for photographers in the US Air Force – he’s the senior photographer for the service’s Air Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds. Recently, he took the time to speak to Fence Check about his position.

To start, can you tell us how you come to be a military photographer?

I started out doing High School yearbook in Springfield, Oregon. I had an incredible photography teacher, an ex-Navy photographer who’d been in Vietnam. He gave me a Pentax K1000, all manual with no battery, taught me the Sunny 16 rule, and told me that once I came back with a good roll of photos, he’d teach me to use a handheld light meter.

I got my first professional photo job at age 15. My stepfather was a whitewater guide in the Sierras, and I started getting paid by the rafting companies to take pictures of the rafters. Then I started photographing for a heavy metal music magazine published by a friend’s mother. I was getting paid to photograph bands I’d have gone to see anyway. But metal was feast and famine. I was starting a family and needed something a little more constant, so at 21 I enlisted in the Air Force.

I got to keep photography as my trade, and I was able to bypass technical school by passing a photography knowledge test in basic training. My first assignment was a remote tour in Kunsan, an F-16 base in Korea. I worked for two Buck Sergeants. Neither of them wanted to fly, so I got to start flying right away.

Through portfolio work, the Air Force picks six people a year for an advanced photo program. I was selected for the program and attended one year at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Photography. Afterwards, I was identified as a Photojournalist. The Air Force has around 400 photographers but only around 40 photojournalists.

I went from there to the First Combat Camera Squadron at Charleston AFB, South Carolina. I spent a lot of time on the road, including Bosnia and Germany. After about 18 months, I got a call from the Thunderbirds. I was on the team from 1997 until 2000. I went back to Korea after that, then to Germany.

I was lucky enough to return to the Thunderbirds in 2005. The team wanted a photographer with flying experience, and I have over 300 hours of backseat time in F-16s. I’m one of very few enlisted personnel, and the only photographer, to have done two tours with the Thunderbirds, to have worn the patch twice. I’m almost done, though; I’ll be leaving by December.

How do the Thunderbirds select photographers? Is there competition for the job as there is for other team positions?

Photographers apply for the Thunderbirds by putting in a portfolio. The team also looks at your performance reports and letters of recommendation. You may do an interview depending on position. The basic requirements are the same as for other enlisted personnel on the team.

Please give a brief "job description" for your current position with the Thunderbirds.

This time, I’m the Art Director. I have two designers and one other photographer who work for me. We’re a design team – we put together all the Thunderbirds’ media products, like the media kit for airshows and autograph photos. We’re easily as good as, if not better than, many commercial production houses.

We do all the portrait work, public relations photography, "grip and grins," and such for the team. The team photographs every show, with both still and video, for our media products and also for flight safety. Aerial photography is maybe 20% of our job. The flying part is the great part, what everybody sees, but it’s not as much as we’d like.

What photographic equipment do you use?

I shoot with the Nikon D2Xs predominantly. I have a Hasselblad 503CW, but I tend to use it only for aerial photography when I’m not pulling too many Gs. Even then, the Hasselblad doesn’t come out much any more because digital has gotten so good.

I shoot with a Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8 when doing aerial photos of the team over monuments. I don’t need a lot of focal length – the aircraft is my zoom! A longer lens will show up the curvature and distortion in the canopy.

I’ve flown in all positions in the formation. For that I’ll use a 17-55mm f/2.8 or a 14mm aspherical, because I want to see what the pilot sees. The biggest problem when shooting monuments is reflections in the canopy, but with the 14mm I want those reflections so the pilot is visible.

I shoot all manual because I’m dealing with varying light. The jets can go from the sun to the shade during a maneuver, the background can go from light to dark, and there can be intermittent clouds. Knowing the Sunny 16 rule and understanding exposure have been the most valuable tools for me. I’m directing seven jets – six in the formation for perspective and mine for position – and pulling Gs while trying not to bump into the stick or throttle. Exposure and focus have to be second nature. I can’t rely on auto-exposure. In the debrief, if I just flew seven jets across the Statue of Liberty at 1000 feet, telling the pilots "the camera didn’t see it right," is not going to stand up as an excuse!

All the camera equipment that will be carried in the cockpit must be cleared electronics-wise to fly. It has to go through emissions testing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to make sure it won’t interfere with the aircraft’s systems. We have a list of approved equipment, and that’s all we can take up with us.

Do you attend every performance by the team?

There are two photographers on the team, me and SSgt Kristi Machado. There is always one of us at every show. We split the year – when the schedule comes out in January, we decide what trips we’d each like to make, deconflicting with family birthdays, anniversaries, or vacation time and picking what we’d especially like to do.

Who decides what you’re to shoot? How much opportunity are you given for self-assignment?

I work for the Public Affairs Officer, Capt Elizabeth Kreft. SSgt Machado and I go over the schedule and brainstorm on what we would like then submit it to our Public Affairs Officer. Then Capt Kreft and I sit down and work on logistics. We decide which ideas will work best and take those to the Commander for approval. I have a lot of creative control.

How many photos do you take at a typical performance?

At a typical weekend airshow, between leaving Thursday and coming home on Monday, I’ll take about 600 images. That includes flying people in the media, PR appearances, meeting Make-a-Wish Foundation kids, enlistment and re-enlistment ceremonies, and the shows.

Not more? Some enthusiasts take thousands of shots each day at airshows, so 600 doesn’t sound like much.

Especially during the performance, I go out to take specific shots. Getting the photos is about timing, not about taking lots of pictures. I’ve tried shooting on "continuous high" advance mode, and if I do that I don’t get the exact image I want. I’ll miss the hit.

Photography isn’t about taking lots of photos. It’s about finding the right framing or something to put in the foreground or background that will make the shot different, that will make somebody say "I’ve never seen that before!" You should know ahead of time what shot you’re going to take. You should see the photo in your head. You should be able to say, "I’m choosing to use this lens for this reason. I’m choosing this exposure setting for this reason. I’m using this lighting, this light angle for this reason."

People get "teched out," and they don’t realize it’s not the equipment that makes a photograph. The camera is just a tool, like a screwdriver.

Are you responsible for image selection and post processing as well as shooting?

Yes. We do all our own post-processing and prepress. Stuff that goes into production is sent to Lockheed Martin for printing. Lockheed gives us lots of product, since we’re using their jets. Not all of it is paid for by the Air Force.

Can you tell us a bit more about the aerial photography aspect of your job?

Most of the air-to-air photography we do is of the team overflying monuments or landmarks. Each year, we look at the show schedule to identify where the team will fly and what we can do en route. Based on what monuments they’ll be flying near, we’ll identify about twenty photos we’d like to try. We’ll get about a dozen approved. Due to weather or other commitments, about half will come through.

We just did a shoot in April over Disney World. We were flying from Punta Gorda in Florida to Sun-N-Fun. We had about 15 minutes over the airspace. I got the team over Cinderella’s castle, which was the distinctive feature we wanted. We were already in the area, and being en route we weren’t using extra gas.

There are a lot of variables that I don’t get to choose, like the time of day or the weather. There are lots of photos I’d like to do, like the team over Mount Rushmore, but we don’t always get the opportunity. In Mount Rushmore’s case, it’s a small feature and the jets can’t get close enough because it’s too fragile.

I have to explain to the pilots that they have to get up close to small things but have to back up for big things so it looks right. A couple of years ago, I did a photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge. I had to get through to the pilots that I wanted them almost over Alcatraz to fit the Golden Gate in behind them.

Who have been your aviation and photographic inspirations?

Most of my influences are photojournalists. My biggest influences have been Mary Ellen Mark and Sebastião Salgado. I don’t look at a lot of aviation photography. I’ll spend a whole day at Borders looking at photo books, though.

I tell young photographers that photography is not about the subject. You can take any photo – wildlife, for instance – and you can learn from how the photographer used light and composition. Or in official team portraits, you’re still trying to show personality.

What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of your position? The most rewarding?

The biggest challenge is making the Thunderbirds look new every year. The team has been flying for 55 years. They’ve flown the F-16 since 1983. I have to take what are basically the same airshow and the same uniforms and make them look new again. How do you make a guy who’s been coming to our shows for twenty years say, "Wow!"?

Reinventing the wheel like that every year is my personal demon. My goal is always to impress other photographers with what I produce. If I can do that, the general public will like it.

Probably the most rewarding aspect has less to do with photography and more to do with impact – not just of my photos but of the whole team. When we go to schools or veteran’s hospitals, you can see the effect on people. As much as getting to fly in the jet and all that is professionally rewarding, getting to see how people appreciate what the Thunderbirds represent and what we do is far more personally rewarding.

Can you describe one or two of your favorite photos of the team, and what makes them special to you?

I did a portrait last year of Maj Malachowski, the team’s first female pilot. She struggled with the attention she received. She’d ask, "Why do I have to be [described as] a female pilot, not just as a good pilot?" I create a montage of three shots to capture her feelings. There’s a shot of her in a Thunderbirds flight suit, one of her in a regular pilot’s flight suit, and in the center there’s a photo of her in civilian clothes.

What have you found to be the biggest difference between your current job and your previous postings?

I get immediate gratification – I get to see my photos used right away. I get to see a kid’s face light up when he’s given a photograph of the team. A lot of military photographers never get that. Their photos are sent to the Pentagon and get used in briefings. They never see their photos again.

Another thing that’s different about this job is that this isn’t photojournalism. This is commercial advertising. I’m making pretty white planes look good. I’m photographing a product. When shooting on the ground, if I don’t get the shot I want I know I’m going to get another chance next week.

I’m enlisted, but I get to tell seven pilots what to do. Not many people in the Air Force get that privilege!

After this posting, what do you hope to do next in your photographic career?

I hope to finish my career at Fort Meade in Maryland, instructing intermediate photojournalism. That’s what it’s looking like I’ll do when I leave the team.

I realize I’m very fortunate to be with the Thunderbirds. I’m on the road 140 days a year, but I see my kids every week. Other military photographers don’t get that. I’ve been in Africa for months, and Iraq, and Afghanistan, so I understand how lucky I am.

Photography really is my passion. It’s my art, and it’s what I’ll do for the rest of my life. I’ve been doing it since I was 15 and I’m still getting paid for it. I’m lucky – I know very few people get to say that.

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