Open Series

Spanish Soldiers

This image was taken during a Spanish Air Force Academy exercise in the Sierra Espuna. It was three days of intense field training for the cadets, and a chance for 5 Argentinean officers and me to observe and lend our experience when we could. Oh, and to eat like we’ve never eaten in our lives (the Spanish Military does travel on it’s stomach!). In this image, the cadets are taking a bit of a breather between repelling classes.

Lots of grain and lots of mood here. This is also one of my favorite images to practice different colorization techniques on. I entered this photo in the annual Beale Air Force Base photography competition in 1997. It took 1st place at Beale, got forwarded to Air Combat Command (ACC) where it took 1st place again, and then took it also took 1st place in the B&W “Human Interest” category at the US Air Force competition.

Camera was a 35 mm SLR, Kodak TMAX film that was later drum scanned and printed on fine art paper using an Epson 9600 with a Piezography ink set. This is a beautifully rendered print and is signed.