Rangefinder Magazine
Features, August 2001

Flying High With Jose Ramos by Lou Jacobs
How to Become a Freelance Favorite of the U.S. Navy

Jose Ramos is a multi-talented professional who enjoys a possibly unique career as a freelance favorite of the U.S. Navy. Jose has become a valued specialist in photographing impressive military aircraft in flight, often at supersonic speeds when G-forces tend to yank the camera out of his hands. It all began with model airplanes.

Above: Lt. Rey “Thumb” Molina leads Lt. Victor “Candle” Roman back to the USS Abraham Lincoln after a mission during fleet exercises. Such shots are possible only with a 16mm full-frame fisheye. Molina is only one and a half feet from my N8008s mounted to the antiglare panel of his F/A-18.

When he was 11 years old and living in Knoxville, TN, Jose remembers taking pictures “of everything” with a Kodak 126 camera. “In high school I took art classes in drawing and painting and hoped to make my living as an artist,” he says, “but I didn’t really get into photography until my senior year, when I took a class. I liked it so much I signed up for advanced photography, and that time I figured that working as a photographer would be a pretty cool way to make a living.

“Even then I really wanted to be an aviation photographer, and I was strongly influenced by C.J. “Heater” Heatley who did a mid-80s coffee table book called The Cutting Edge featuring his aerial photography. George Hall who specialized in military aviation pictures also inspired me and I can’t forget Katsuhiko Tokunaga who is a master of lighting and a legend in military aviation circles. More recently, I’ve gotten reacquainted with the work of Edward Steichen and his naval aviation photography unit during World War II.”

After high school Jose moved to Key West, FL with his brother and sister-in-law, where he began building scale model aircraft. “As a hobby it’s a great teacher of patience,” he recalls. For authenticity while building a Navy A-4E Skyhawk jet, he called the nearby Naval Air Station for permission to visit and take pictures to use as reference. The squadron invited him for a tour and approved picture-taking. “Getting access to the flight line isn’t easy,” he says, “but because we lived on base (his brother was a civilian government employee) I was accepted. Their public information people asked me to come back and show them pictures of my tour, and they liked some enough to have enlargements made for their walls which was very encouraging.

	Another of my favorite images shows Lt.Cdr. Mike “King” Arthur who stands our S-3B Viking on its left wing tip as we pass overhead the USS Abraham Lincoln. I used a Nikkor 16mm fisheye and an N-90s with an SB-25 flash to help illuminate the aircraft’s interior.

“I soon had an on-going invitation to the base, where I became a fixture with VF-45, a fighter squadron whose sole mission was training other fleet fighter squadrons in combat techniques. Eventually I was invited to visit other Navy squadrons at Oceana, VA and Cecil Field, FL where I was given access to fine picture opportunities such as ground crews loading practice weapons and aircrew preparations. I shot the real side of military aviation, not the ‘look at me, I’m a fighter pilot’ posed stuff. However, I didn’t think the work was good enough to be published and I didn’t try. I loved aviation and the flying community, feelings that stemmed from my dad’s experiences with the Cuban Air Force in the days before Castro. He used to tell me how much fun it was flying trainers like T-6 Texans and AT-33s, and I kept dreaming I’d get my chance someday.”

With that ambition, Jose began studying photography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, “A great class,” he says, but they didn’t offer a photography major and Jose eventually got an AA degree in liberal arts in Florida where he also took more photo courses.

Finally, experience lead to more confidence, and Jose began submitting pictures to magazines including The Hook, a quarterly devoted to aircraft carrier crews and their work. The magazine was delighted with his work and as Jose tells it, “They sponsored me on trips to naval air stations and aircraft carriers as kind of an unpaid correspondent. I was enjoying myself and getting valuable images and contacts. On one trip I shot a story on a modification of an F-14 Tomcat, which included laser-guided bomb capability. I asked World Air Power Journal if they’d be interested (they had already published a few of my images) and was told to write an article with the F-14 pictures. It was a first rate quarterly published in England, all color without advertising. I told them I wasn’t a writer, but they said I knew the material, they’d help me, and I should take a crack at it.

“When I submitted the article, they wanted it expanded from 800 to 2600 words. They used only a few pictures, but I had a break getting the first newsstand piece on the new modification system. (Actually, Aviation Week did the first article, but it’s available by subscription only.) As a result of that story, Captain John Leenhouts, commander of all East Coast F/A-18 squadrons, who had been watching my progress, said it was time they got me flying. A request to Washington was approved, after which I had to get ready for hell.”

Right: The Navy’s newest fighter, the F/A-18E Super Hornet is seen taking on fuel from the left station of a KC-130 Hercules aerial tanker as our aircraft, an F/A-18D Hornet, refuels simultaneously from the right station. The Super Hornet was undergoing flight test from NAS Patuxant River, MD.

Jose explained, “The Navy will not put anyone into the back seat of a fighter aircraft until they get the same training given to naval aviators in physiology and water survival. I took a two-day course at Jacksonville Naval Air Station. The first day started with lectures about the effects of high altitude and it was rather intimidating. Then I spent time In an altitude chamber, a large sealed room where the air pressure is reduced to simulate high altitude. Oxygen levels are reduced to familiarize trainees with hypoxia, which is altitude sickness, fatal in military aircraft because of the disorientation it causes. Day two was spent in full flight gear in a swimming pool where, among other tests, I had to swim 100 yards and evacuate a sinking helicopter blindfolded. Fail any test as a civilian and you never get another chance. The tests are tough and dangerous, but having to eject from a jet and trying to survive without that training would be suicide.

“My first flight was in an F-14 at NAS Key West—fitting, I thought, for that’s where I got started doing research for my model A-4.” Jose explains that photography from a military fighter is quite challenging, because as the chase plane flies at a safe distance adjacent to the target aircraft, you’re strapped into an ejection seat trying to concentrate through the viewfinder while wearing a helmet and oxygen mask. His first flight wasn’t very productive, as he’d been warned, but his pictures got better as he oriented himself to what he calls an “unnatural” situation,” and adds, “You tend to turn a bit green sometimes. When you don’t do it daily, it takes extra concentration. I’ve been lucky enough to be accepted as kind of an associate member of a very elite community.”

Jose has been going on assignment with the Navy about four times a year, but the frequency is increasing. He usually creates his own assignments and gets leads from a want-list offered by the magazines or from his own research. The magazines sometimes send out notice of their current projects to potential contributors,” he says. “When I find potential photo opportunities, I ask an editor to write me a letter of intent, then I contact the proper PR office. The Navy will only take you aboard a plane or ship with the expectation of good coverage. I own everything I shoot and a magazine pays a usage fee per image and a set fee per thousand words for articles, though some magazines figure payment a little differently.”

	“Fox three!” This radio call is made by the crew of the F-14B Tomcat as an AIM-54 Phoenix missile is fired. The image was shot from another F-14B. Missile exercises are very rare to shoot and always a challenge. Taken with an F100 and a 35–135mm lens at about 85mm. From a sequence of 6–8 frames, this was the only image that ncluded the missile.

Jose uses Nikons, presently N90s, but hopes to upgrade to F100s soon. His Nikon lenses range from 16mm to 300mm, and for air-to-air shots he usually carries 16mm, 50mm and 80mm lenses. He uses Fuji films exclusively.
Before becoming an air-photo ace, Jose worked at a camera shop and did some freelance convention coverage. One day the head photographer at SeaWorld, who knew Jose through his brother Pedro (who had left government service to work as an animal care specialist at the oceanarium), told him there was a position open. Jose says, “I applied, submitted a portfolio and after an interview I was invited back to ‘shoot the park’ on three rolls of slide film. I had to pick the best 20 shots and submit them and I got the job.”

That was in 1998 and Jose states, “It was great work. I was the junior member of a great team and we basically did all their diverse still photography, from promotional pictures to documentation. I’m scuba-certified though I’m still learning the art of underwater photography, which is as difficult if not more so than aviation coverage. I used Nikonos III and V cameras, and had an underwater housing for the Nikon N-90.”

When asked how he and the SeaWorld team photograph the animals through huge Plexiglass viewing windows, Jose explains, “We used a large sheet of black mat board with a hole cut in it to snugly fit the lens we used. We got very close to the glass, and there were no reflections. However, we shot a lot more often topside, always trying to catch the thrill of the trainers and animals performing. As you can imagine, a motor drive helps a lot.”

Jose also covered the rescue of injured manatees for release to the local press, AP and Reuters wire services. “I learned a lot,” Jose states, “especially from Steve Szerdy, the photo department manager who was a newspaper photographer previously.”

In mid-2000 Jose decided to leave SeaWorld and enroll at the University of South Florida where he has become a junior majoring in journalism. He explains, “To develop into a really marketable photojournalist I feel I need to expand my writing skills to match my ability with a camera. I want to continue covering military aviation topics, but I’d like to diversify to include U.S. Air Force, and some international subjects. The markets are there and I’m preparing to get into as many of them as possible.”

Roman 202, an F/A-18 Hornet is seen returning to NAS Oceana, VA after air combat practice. I received my introduction to air combat in the F/A-18 on a flight of an hour and fifteen minutes of violent maneuvers, most exceeding six times the force of gravity. It was a harrowing initiation.

Jose Ramos has a temporary, flexible, non-photographic daytime job that supports him while he refines his education or has shooting jobs, and he is always available for Naval air opportunities. He told me, “I recently spent two weeks on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman as guest of Capt. ‘Brick’ Nelson, its airwing commander. It was an exhilarating experience flying from the deck of a carrier in S-3 Vikings and F-14 Tomcats. My two-week stint was a dream come true.” He is currently working on a magazine piece about the SH-60 Seahawk helicopter, and anticipates going on new assignments. He figures he’ll be using his high-flying word and picture packages to satisfy class assignments as well, since a limited number of journalistic photographers qualify for aerial work and have the Navy’s blessing.

Jose Ramos can be reached by e-mail at: snapshots45@aol.com.Lou Jacobs Jr. is the author of 23 how-to photography books, the latest of which, The Big Picture, was recently published. He has taught at UCLA and Brooks Institute of Photography and enjoys shooting stock on his travels in the U.S. and abroad.