Robert Michaud Photography

  Recently, I was fortunate enough to spend an hour and a half with Patty Wagstaff, an hour of which was in the sky. So what was it like? In a word, amazing. But in attempting to describe “the moment”, it was amazing for some reasons you wouldn’t expect. When you think of Patty Wagstaff, you might think of her cockpit videos of thrilling airshow performances, her accomplishments including her three national aerobatics championships, or the fact that one of her planes is in the National Air and Space Museum. Indeed those are among the reasons I contacted Patty, but my personal experience was much more interesting and insightful. My experience was the perfect celebration of flying. Having read her book, I had some insight into what she might be like as a person. She is calm, patient, and friendly. We began with a discussion of what I hoped to get from the flight. She asked specifically what my interest was in aerobatics. My answer was that I was hoping for a memorable moment with a c...

  On several occasions, I have been asked what equipment I use. Here’s my answer. I want to be as efficient as possible when shooting, and for me that means less is more. I am not a gadget freak. 90% of the shots I take are done with the same setup. The above two photos show the extent of that equipment. First, my camera. I shoot with the Nikon D850. Since the essential element of all digital cameras is the sensor, the one in the D850 is noteworthy. It is a full size, 45 megapixel sensor made by Sony and designed specifically for this camera. At 300 DPI, the size of an original raw image is 27 inches, which translates into extremely high quality with lots of cropping flexibility. The quality of color and sharpness, especially on large metal prints is amazing! I'm not going to bore you with the camera's bells and whistles since you can get these from a variety of online resources. I also have found the book  Mastering the Nikon D850 by Darrell Young to be a great resource. htt...