Some may have noticed the slight changes that have been made for this blog. From here on out, "Michael with a "K": Passion for Aviation" will now be called ""Wild Card" Aviation Photography." In the eight years since starting up this blog, my passion and overall support for the aviation industry has grown. As previously stated in my page introduction, "The primary purpose of this blog is to showcase the best of my aviation photography."
In early 2012, I started up my Facebook page to serve as the main gallery for all my aviation photos because that was the year I got into planespotting and I started taking many more photos from then on. I initially called this page "Mikel Wynn - Aviation Photography" and later changed it to "Mikel Wynn - "Wild Card" Aviation Photography." I chose to utilize Facebook because many aviation photography-dedicated websites such as Airliners.net only accepted the best of the best and many photos are often rejected by its website screeners and moderators who determine what quality is good for the site's standards. Then in 2014, I created an account on PlaneImages.net when it became available; it was one of the first aviation photography databases that I know of that accepts all photos and has no screeners to determine photo quality. In fact, the moderators of PlaneImages encourages users to be artistic with their photos!
Meanwhile, my blog used the name previously stated above. I initially adopted "Michael with a "K"" as part of the blog name because it was catchy and sort of served as a nickname (given that my name is spelled in such a way) that one of my high school math teachers gave to me so she can remember me. I graduated from high school in 2009 and now that I've been at it as an AvGeek (short for Aviation Geek) for a while now, I felt that "Michael with a "K"" became somewhat old news, stale, and even a little irrelevant to aviation. After some thought, I decided to change the name of this blog to better match with my aviation gallery on Facebook.
Many other aviation photography-dedicated Facebook pages that I follow have catchy and clever names and I wanted to do the same. I chose to implement the words "Wild Card" because it is a reflection of my life and personality. I consider myself a bit of a wild card in my family and among my peers because I don't often conform to cliches, taboos, and even certain norms and styles many are expected to follow. I even consider myself a bit of a black sheep or a social outcast mainly among my peers because not many people I know share the same interests I have in aviation. As a child, I grew up struggling to overcome language barriers between Japanese and English and partly as a result, I often struggled in elementary and middle school because at first, I struggled to think and communicate in English and I grew up with not many close friends, thus feeling like a black sheep or a social outcast. On a more relevant note, I also chose to use "Wild Card" because of what I like to photograph with aviation as my primary subject. In the field of aviation, there are many "wild cards."
One is often in the form of a rare, one of kind aircraft that might be the only one of its kind left in the world from a historical standpoint:
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| An airworthy Bell P-63C Kingcobra on display at the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, Idaho. Only a handful of this World War II-era fighter are left in existence with only about two or three airframes in the world still airworthy. |
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| A North American P-51C Mustang on display at the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, Idaho. While there many P-51s left in existence and in flying-condition, the -C models of this World War II-era fighter are significantly rarer. |
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| The Horsemen Flight Demo Team performing in three North American F-86F Sabre jets at the 2015 Oregon International Air Show in Hillsboro, Oregon. It is a real treat to see one F-86 fly but seeing three fly in formation doing aerobatics choreographed to a beautiful piece of music truly is a privilege! |
Another "wild card" include aircraft with unique, one of a kind or one-time paint schemes and liveries:
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| A Van's RV-9A with a unique sea turtles mural painted on the vertical stabilizer (something that my sister would appreciate!) at Independence State Airport in Independence, Oregon. Van's RV aircraft are truly wild cards because as kit aircraft they come in different variants and the owners of such aircraft get to paint their planes in their own styles. |
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| A Van's RV-12 at McNary Field in Salem, Oregon. This aircraft uses flames painted on the fuselage as a cheatline. Really, the only word that sums up the appearance of this aircraft: Badass! |
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| Icelandair Boeing 757-200 named Hekla Aurora in a northern lights-themed livery departing from Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon on the inaugural flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. This is the only aircraft in Icelandair's small fleet that has a special livery and seeing that they used it for the inaugural flight between Portland and Reykjavik made this opportunity even more special and memorable. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800 in its 'Starliner 75' retro livery departing Portland International Airport. Many major airlines throughout the world has at least one aircraft in their fleet painted in a retro livery in commemoration of their early days or to remember a by-gone era. |
Aviation "wild cards" to me also come in the form of a common aircraft making rare appearances (often as a charter) in places where they're not commonly seen or aircraft/airlines you never heard of before or just don't see on an everyday basis:
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| United Airlines Boeing 747-400 at Eugene Airport in Eugene, Oregon on a military charter. In a city served mainly by small regional jets, catching a mainline jumbo-jet like the 747 at regional airport like the one in Eugene is a rather bizarre, but welcome occurrence. |
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| World Atlantic Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-83 at Eugene Airport on a college sports charter. There are often airlines people never heard of mainly because they're based on the other side of the country or probably because their business model is strictly focused on charters so they're rarely seen in many places. |
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| Fournier RF-5B Sperber motorglider parked on the ramp at Independence State Airport. There are so many aircraft that I've never seen before and even aircraft I've never heard of! |
In 2015, I switched to a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) camera after about three years shooting with a digital "point-and-shoot" compact camera and later on, an ultra-zoom digital camera. Since switching to DSLR, the overall quality of my photos have improved rapidly and I have not gone back to my older cameras since then. As a result, I have continued to seek improvement in my personal photography skills with my DSLR camera as it came with new set of unique challenges. With these challenges came the continued desire to seek out the "wild cards" of aviation and photographing them. When opportunities to see rare or unique aircraft whether it be of historical reasons or something appealing, I desire to get the most unique angle and best quality images (based on my own standards!) that my skills allow when engaged in aviation photography, hence my grown passion for such a field.
That being said, I thank those of you who have been following along in my aviation expeditions. Whether you are long-time followers or just stumbled across this amateur work of mine, your interest and shared passion in the field of aviation exemplifies just how tight-knit the aviation community is. And I certainly hope you'll appreciate and enjoy the next big aviation photography highlight of mine. Until I get that opportunity, blues skies, and tail winds to you!
Regards,
Mikel Wynn (a.k.a. Michael with a "K")
"Wild Card" Aviation Photography
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