Hoot Gibson, there is a pilot who flys a heck of a great race line. At Reno in 2005 he was penalized for flying too low!! Every year he steps in as the race pilot for owner Mike Keenum, in Riff Raff. Last year they qualified with their highest speed yet at 431.812.
Hoot was joking about that incident last evening. The rule, as I'm sure you know, is that the pilot's helmet can not be on a plane lower than the top of the pylon, which is 30 feet in the air. Hoot said he prefers the undisturbed air at thirty feet for his circuits and doesn't understand at all why someone would want to fly up there in that rough air with all those planes. What a character, I'm glad he's a friend, I'd hate to have him on my "Six"!
Just chillin' until my flight out tomorrow, as I headed out for breakfast a bunch of catamarans caught my eye on the intercoastal. What is it about this photography thing that is so addictive?
I stopped by The Alabama today on my way to the airport. Impressive war machine! I couldn't help drawing the contrast between then and today's technology. There's no doubt that they were a great generation of courageous men and women and we will forever be in their debt.
I couldn't agree with you more! Where is that museum? This photo turned out ok considering I had to take it through a window. I flew this aircraft years ago, had to put down after trouble with the left engine; it seized up only a few miles from the alternate airport we were going to.
That's a great shot of the museum, but man it sucks seeing an F-14 on a pole!!!
I only wish I knew what the heck I was doing back when I was shooting film. All I have is a bunch of dark F-14 blobs from airshows.
I know what you mean. These new fighters are technologically unbelievable, but they just don't have the raw sex appeal of the fighters of yesteryear. Talk about making you feel old, i was at Nellis shooting a couple of years ago and as I drove in and looked up, I realized there was a 117 on a pole in front of me, ugh!
Sorry about whatever has happened to the first half of our images. Fred told me he would get it fixed a couple of weeks ago, but it must have been more complex than anticipated.
It would be great if Fred could get the photos back up for all of us to oogle over again! I'm missing some of the earlier ones...
I just purchased a (used) Canon 5D a couple of weeks ago. Trying to get used to it but right out of the box, I had a 60-location aerial photo shoot around the JAX area right after I got the camera. Good thing it was close to identical in operation to my 20D that it didn't take too long to get used to. Still...shooting 60 locations over three days for nearly 12 hours of flying was "almost" a lot like work Notice I didn't say it was work though...
I hope to exercise it a lot on Saturday at the Tyndall AFB open house. I "get" to go in early to help set up the CAP booth there so it will be interesting to see if I can get any "exclusive" shots before the public is invited in. I only hope I can capture some shots that are worthy of being displayed here. The Blue Angles will be the featured act this year.
I'm hoping to get out to Luke AFB (Phoenix, AZ) on Saturday for the airshow. I would expect to use the 70-200/2.8VR plus the 1.7x TC to get roughly 120-340/4.8 usable, and the CPL filter of course.
Can anyone offer a few hints on airshow shooting, for those of us less experienced? Equipment, locations, angles, settings, metering (one of my biggest challenges still), whatever... anything and everything is welcome that may help me learn how to make my photos one step better.
Shoot RAW, take lots of memory cards, put the camera in continuous shooting mode (I use bursts of 3 at a time) For prop driven aircraft flying by, don't use a shutter so fast it will 'freeze' the props or it will look like the engines have stopped. Depending on the focal length, it's tricky to find the right one. With your combo you mentioned I'd recommend 1/320 or a little higher..... use the panning mode in your VR. Hopefully your hand held panning is smooth (mine needs work). Be cautious about using a CP, this photo required a bit of extra work just because I had it on. I spoke with Paul Bowen (www.airtoair.net) and he doesn't use on at all, and look at his shots!
If you ever get the chance, go see the Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola. I was lucky enough to be there November 10th celebrating my 60th birthday and the 231st for the Marines.
Rodolfo Paiz wrote:
I'm hoping to get out to Luke AFB (Phoenix, AZ) on Saturday for the airshow. I would expect to use the 70-200/2.8VR plus the 1.7x TC to get roughly 120-340/4.8 usable, and the CPL filter of course.
Can anyone offer a few hints on airshow shooting, for those of us less experienced? Equipment, locations, angles, settings, metering (one of my biggest challenges still), whatever... anything and everything is welcome that may help me learn how to make my photos one step better.
Thanks for any input!
A little late for the Sunday show. but here is a some pretty good advise.
Notice I didn't say it was work though...