Remaking the past

This past fall, I went to see a major air show which happens every year close to where I live in Upstate New York. However, after I got there, rather than photographing the planes that were flying overhead, I began photographing more of what was happening on the ground.

Each year, at least at the air show I attended, there are groups of people who reenact WWII. Well not the entire war, but at least a small recollection of the event. These guys and dress up as WWII soldiers. Complete with all authentic uniforms, boots, holsters, hats, tents and other paraphernalia, they act out their roles based on the type of soldier they are playing. Some choose to be regular soldiers and others were dressed as officers.

There was a guy who had a tent set up that was full of cameras used during the war while another had a WWII era Jeep. Most of the people I ran into were dressed as German soldiers, Russian soldiers and of course, American soldiers. I also saw a WWII pinup girl dressed in 1940s clothing.

I thought it would be fun to shoot some HDR and produce a few images that looked like they might have been taken in WWII. I talked with them about their characters as well as their props. In each case, I asked them if I could take their picture and afterwards, I asked them to sign model releases.

I shot them all as HDR sequences, which I processed in Photomatix Pro and finished in Photoshop.

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