Yuma Test Center’s Photo Optical Imaging shop goes to great lengths and heights to capture still images of items under test.
The team of 10 photographers is the official eyes of a test.
“That’s what we are there for, to document it,” remarked Senior Photographer Sean Mazza who has been snapping photos for 17 years for Yuma Test Center at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG).
Mazza has witnessed and documented several historic tests. In 2010, he snapped away as members of the 418th Flight Test Squadron set a record for the heaviest single payload ever extracted out of a C-17A T-1 during flight over YPG.
“I was here for the Guinness Book of World Records airdrop for the C-17.”
That record has since been surpassed. He also worked on the Facebook Aquila program test flight in 2017 and NASA airdrop tests saying, “The most memorable was a jumbo dart that NASA was dropping, it looked like a giant rocket. They were testing the parachutes. When it landed, it stuck nose into the ground and it stayed there until they recovered it. That was cool.”
Photo Optical Imaging Supervisor Cora Kennedy explained the shop’s mission is to capture it all.
“We capture imagery of testing, whether it be rounds by rounds for the M&W Division, targets, airdrops, aviation, ammunition, or Electronic Warfare. Whatever they need optically, our team captures that.”
That means the stills add up, yet the numbers vary per test. Mazza said, “It can vary from maybe 100, 200 all the way up to two or three thousand.” He added, “For airdrops, for one day, it can be hundreds to a thousand, because they want to capture the payloads extraction from the aircraft all the way down to the ground.”
Getting the perfect shot does take work. Photographers must pay attention to cues such as countdowns and have the experience to know where to be.
Mazza remarked, “After working on a program for a couple of days you’ll get into that cadence.”
While most stills captured are handheld, the team uses creative methods to capture that perfect shot. Sometimes that might be a monopod or tripod or mounts on aircraft allowing the photographers to capture the much necessary test data and sometimes by chance a beautiful scenic shot.
Kennedy remarks Mazza is known for those shots. “He’s got the moon in the background as the aircraft is coming over the drop zone.”
When dealing with aircraft, photographers capture video in addition to stills. Kennedy explained “They instrument the aircraft with video equipment, they record on an integrated telemetry system, and we mount Go-pros on payloads, with the help of the EM lab. They 3-D print a lot of our mounts. They are awesome.”
They mount tail cameras to cargo drops.
“When there’s cargo coming out of an aircraft overhead, chances are that the cameras are on the tail and we have that capability,” explained Mazza.
Kennedy goes on to explain, “It gives them a longer view because the camera is inside when they close the ramps. That tail cam will allow them to capture the test event a little bit longer as they are leaving the drop zone.”
On the ground, the optics team also utilizes a remote triggering method where the camera is mounted inside a protective enclosure on a tripod.
“It captures the round coming in and going through the target. By extracting high-resolution stills from that video, we are able to offer our customers a high-quality image of that impact where we normally would not be able to,” explained Kennedy. The protective enclosure also protects the camera from fragmentation during impact.
Just like most things in the U.S. Army, the Photo Optics Imaging shop is looking into the future and modernizing its equipment. Kennedy explained why the team decided to move away from DSLR cameras and into mirrorless cameras.
“Nikon is no longer making the DSLR lens so it kind of forced our hands a little bit to look at mirrorless cameras. Thinking long term, we decided to go mirrorless, that way in five years when DSLR is no longer being made, we will still be able to support.”
They took the plunge to stay ahead of the curve and are now getting accustomed to the new cameras and capabilities.
“We purchased Z-6s and Z-8s, small-bodied cameras which are better for everyday usage. They are not as bulky. They have the same capabilities, but they have increased shutter speed ISO capabilities which is different, and at first was a minor learning curve for our veteran photographers but something they overcame quickly.”
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