Proficiency In AP

[ForeFlight]

CAP (at least our wing)  seems to be getting fewer and fewer missions and our focus now seems to be mostly aerial photography when we do get one. A problem we are having in our wing is keeping the APs proficient in both photographing and processing.  Many of the pictures that come back are not acceptable to the customer for various reasons and many of the APs have forgotten how to process and upload the photos.  Are any of you using dedicated processors?  Are any of you experiencing this problem as well?

FF

[xyzzy]

I'm not sure how close this issue is to ForeFlight's concern, by my squadron's GPS units are so old that we don't have any equipment to update the firmware. One of them is unable to determine the correct time (off a few decades) due to the GPS rollover.

[Holding Pattern]

We recently just did an AP class in our area: One item our SET suggested doing was having your APs take photos from a moving vehicle as a passenger while you drive down a freeway.

If you have a wavy highway nearby with a speed limit of 50mph or greater, that might work better as well.

Another item of importance that I don't think gets stressed enough in this org with the exception of our pilots is the importance of checklists. If you have a declared pattern of behavior for your work and you have a written checklist for it that your APs religiously refer to, your performance will improve.

[RiverAux]

This has been a problem for at least 15 years.  Development of the AP qual itself was, I imagine, meant to help address the issue.  However, being out of that game for a while, from what I've heard there have been issues keeping up with changing technology of both taking and downloading  the photos, especially in wings with few aerial damage missions.  Seems like there will be a big mission every so often and everyone gets fairly good, but then skills degrade over time when there aren't any others. 

Only fix is regular training.  The good thing is that as Holding Pattern points out you don't need air sorties to practice a lot of it.
-- Training on downloading and processing can be done with photos taken previously and left on the card. 

[Fubar]

As long as CAP maintains a checkbox philosophy instead of meeting performance objectives, we'll continue to see marginal results. That's not just training either, sortie debriefs essentially boil down to did the plane come back, there's no real evaluation of quality of work performed on the sortie.

Constantly changing technology does present a challenge, but when the photo composition is poor in the airplane then you're wasting everyone's time  regardless.

[etodd]

As has been said, you do not need an airplane or sorties. And as another said, "checkbox mentality".

I'll be the hard nose and say it:

How many non-pilots, who are not interested in learning photography, sign up for AP anyway, just so they can be aircrew and fly? Probably too many.

No, you do not have to be all artistic in doing CAP AP.  But being able to keep a subject centered and horizon level sure helps. As a commercial photographer the AP Task Guide drives me nuts. YES, I know its written for the lowest common denominator and they don't want to make it difficult, but some things need to be changed.

Way to much emphasis on just putting the camera in AUTO settings. That guarantees that most of your images will be soft and blurred due to the camera picking too slow a shutter speed. I always run ISO 400, shutter priority at 1/1000 and let the camera choose the F/stop.  If its needs more light in the histogram, raise the ISO a bit until its good. A little grain in a sharp photo sure beats a blurred image any time.

Take the camera kit/laptop home after a meeting and practice shooting and using the FEMA uploader. There is a practice mission for these uploads. Next meeting give it to another AP to take home practice. No excuse for not practicing and being very proficient at all times. None.

Constantly changing technology does present a challenge .....

We are using cameras whose menus and settings are basically the same from over 15 years ago when the Nikon D70 came out.

[Holding Pattern]

Way to much emphasis on just putting the camera in AUTO settings.

FWIW, my wing strongly pushed NOT using AUTO in the last AP class I was in.

[Eclipse]

Way to much emphasis on just putting the camera in AUTO settings. That guarantees that most of your images will be soft and blurred due to the camera picking too slow a shutter speed. I always run ISO 400, shutter priority at 1/1000 and let the camera choose the F/stop.  If its needs more light in the histogram, raise the ISO a bit until its good. A little grain in a sharp photo sure beats a blurred image any time.

We are using cameras whose menus and settings are basically the same from over 15 years ago when the Nikon D70 came out.

Yes, primarily because the photo need and mission hasn't changed for 15 years when CAP was taking photos with 1.2Mp cameras
that had floppy disks in them.

In 99.9% of the cases, the photo is needed to ascertain water levels, damage levels, whether a building / bridge / whatever
is actually still there, not for a calendar shoot.

You also probably don't realize that those words you used up there are basically gibberish to the majority of members
who are shooting portrait mode selfies and think those are "just fine".

Auto is all you need.  The #1 thing that we need to teach members is to let the lenses settle while it's auto-ifyin'.
That's why the photos come out soft or blurry.

Take the camera kit/laptop home after a meeting and practice shooting and using the FEMA uploader. There is a practice mission for these uploads. Next meeting give it to another AP to take home practice. No excuse for not practicing and being very proficient at all times. None.

There's one or two camera kits in the entire wing(s), and they are not available for members to be taking home
and playing with.   It's bad enough as it is the things are missing for missions when PAOs and others "borrow"
them for non-mission use.

Photos of model buildings from a slow moving vehicle (like math? work out the scale and actual speed) great idea.
Play with the uploader, great but nor necessarily an AP job (yeah, yeah).  Many larger missions have PSC or similar doing that
after they have been reviewed.

But randomly having members take the kits home?  No.

[etodd]

Auto is all you need.

We can agree to disagree on that one. Give me a trainee and I can have them understand all I'm talking about in less than an hour. Its not a big deal, but can  insure 95% of their images will be sharp enough "to see that water level'.

There's one or two camera kits in the entire wing(s),

Wow! OK. Hmmm. Guess it varies by Wing. Our Wing does so much AP disaster work, that nearly every squadron (at least the ones with a plane)  DO have camera gear.

Another inconsistency between Wings ... which then affects regular proficiency training.

But I guess as long as the ones doing the most AP have enough gear and train enough...    My wing doesn't do nearly as much GSAR as western states for example.  They excel over us in that area.

[deepblue1947]

Are any of the wings using "dedicated" processors?  I am a qualified AP and I know after a long mission, to come back when you are hot and exhausted, it is a chore to go somewhere and spend another hour or two processing pictures and then uploading them to the customer.  I have always believed that the person who takes the pictures should be the one who processes them however, many times that may not be practical.  When our wing went to Texas for hurricane Harvey, at the end of the day, we took the cards out of the camera and they were flown to Austin where a team of people processed them.  We are in the process of training some Cadets to process but they are not always available.  Cadets do a better job of processing than the seniors do.   

DB

[Eclipse]

Are any of the wings using "dedicated" processors?

Mine has off and on.  In some cases its a matter of who is there and what the mission is.

You don't have to be aircrew to upload photos, and maybe there are more sorties to fly, etc.

[PHall]

My wing doesn't do nearly as much GSAR as western states for example.  They excel over us in that area.

Don't stereotype there etodd. We do very little actual GSAR here in California. The sheriff of each county, all 58 of them, has the primary responsibility for all Search and Rescue activities in their county. And they tend to use their own teams instead of calling us.
But we do do a bit of UDF work though. We have more expertise in that then they do and they realize that.
Other states out here in the west are different. Some are more restrictive and some are less restrictive.

[etodd]

You don't have to be aircrew to upload photos, and maybe there are more sorties to fly, etc.

Thats us at most of ours.  Land, drop off a card, and be ready to go shoot some more.

If the photographer is in front of a computer, time is being wasted. The AP should be in the air.

[xyzzy]

@etodd, I'm not an AP, but I have a lot of experience with film photography and darkroom work. Can you recommend something online to figure out how I would look at a histogram and use it to decide what change to make to the "film" speed? Or anything to help choose the best "film" speed on a digital camera.

Also, do you know where to order a 100 m X 100 m 18% gray card?

For a while we haven't had many missions involving AP but just recently we've been doing a bunch for the state forestry department. For exercises, I have installed the latest upload software and helped with some uploads in my role as squadron IT officer.

[etodd]

@etodd, I'm not an AP, but I have a lot of experience with film photography and darkroom work. Can you recommend something online to figure out how I would look at a histogram and use it to decide what change to make to the "film" speed? Or anything to help choose the best "film" speed on a digital camera.

The web has hundreds of videos and explanations for histogram. here is just the first one that popped up:

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/tips-and-techniques/using-the-histogram-to-check-exposure-for-video.html

Also, do you know where to order a 100 m X 100 m 18% gray card?

Haven't used one in years, but plenty of places to buy one:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/grey-cards/ci/37559

[xyzzy]

Also, do you know where to order a 100 m X 100 m 18% gray card?

Haven't used one in years, but plenty of places to buy one:

The m in my not-so-serious question is the symbol for metre. I'll check out the histogram site.

[NC Hokie]

Are any of the wings using "dedicated" processors?  I am a qualified AP and I know after a long mission, to come back when you are hot and exhausted, it is a chore to go somewhere and spend another hour or two processing pictures and then uploading them to the customer.  I have always believed that the person who takes the pictures should be the one who processes them however, many times that may not be practical.  When our wing went to Texas for hurricane Harvey, at the end of the day, we took the cards out of the camera and they were flown to Austin where a team of people processed them.  We are in the process of training some Cadets to process but they are not always available.  Cadets do a better job of processing than the seniors do.   

DB

I can't speak for my wing but my squadron did this after Hurricane Florence last year and are working to make sure we can do it again this year if needed.  The aircrews greatly appreciated the ability to grab some food and a little rest while somebody else processed their photographs, and our members that could not serve in other areas appreciated the ability to help out in what amounted to an all-hands-on-deck scenario.