It's kinda weird to see the strong OOF backgrounds because the subjects are much much closer to the lens. The more-than-expected background blur hints at the small scale of the aircraft.
Thanks Tentacle,
I checked out those shots at the NJ event. They're great, and I know what you meant about the DOF on the small subjects. I use a 300 2.8 to shoot em and the 2.8 really isolates well. Love this thread.
jbear2000 wrote:
Spent the day yesterday at the North Georgia Air Show in Rome with a couple guys from the Atlanta /Miranda photo group.
Shot everything except the statics with the 300 2.8 hand held. I ain't popeye thats for sure! Mostly got sunburned. As I get them ready - I'll post two or three here and direct everyone to my smugmug site for the rest. http://jonberryphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/3487573
It was good fun and helps to look forward to GML. C&C is welcome!/quote]
Hi jbear, nice work. Turned out to be a very nice war birds show. Came home sunburned also, but had a great time.
Nice work! Those long lenses will wear you out. I don't use my 600/4 nearly as much since I got the 500, but my arm was still falling off every afternoon at AirVenture. The venue for GML continues to build, there isn't going to be much dead air at this event!
Yeah - my face is peeling off from staring up all day!
Those are real nice - I wasn't happy with my Japanese planes - yours are so much better - and that #54 is sharp! Very cool!
I just got my Mark III on Monday - two days too late for this show - one thing about it - it ain't slow! Not like the 20D was anyway. Now if I can just figure out all these knobs and buttons...
Boy that's the truth! The custom functions menu alone would scare a NASA engineer! Can you send me the steps you go through for your transparent copyright overlay. I have one but it has a semi-transparent white band across it and I can't get that to go away.
Magnificent work everyone, especially Jim. I'd like to add my thanks to Jim for starting this thread last year. With any luck, my wife will get over me staying up until 3 am reading this thread. Yeah right she will!
I agree with others, a coffee table book is in order from Jim, you have an amazing collection of a lifetime of work.
I have an aviation background myself, starting out as an A&P after HS. (My dad was a mechanic on B-29's in the AF) Worked for a couple years at a small cargo company with Beech18's, a year at Gulfstream working on Turbo Commanders at the factory. Then 25 years in air traffic control at Cleveland ARTCC. (Happily retired from that! Great job, incredibly bad management, but that's another story.) Now I do youth sports photography whenver I feel like it. So you can imagine I was eating this up, two of my favorite things all put together.
I'm planning to be at GML on Friday next week, so if there is going to be any get together, I'd love to participate.
Here's a few from the Cleveland Airshow this year.
1 Something for our Canadian friends. I am sooo observant sometimes, I never noticed the moon in the shot until I got home!
I just followed the step by step instructions on the smugmug page for that. It was quick and easy. They add it as you load images to their site - but it can be done manually once you make the file. Here is the link: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1690196
Thanks for your kind words, it's guys like you that make this venture so fun and rewarding. Great shots! Keep 'em coming. I'm getting to Columbus late morning on Thursday and, as usual, plan to hit the ground running. I decided to stay at the Courtyard across town (I shoot for Marriott) because they just finished it and it has those great new beds and pillows that comfort old airshow weary bones. I'll shoot until dark Thursday, begin pre-dawn each day and finish around dusk the balance of the show. I'll have my "JW" t-shirts on, holler at me if you see me.
I believe the white band is because you didn't save your watermark image with a transparent background. Looks like you're just fading a solid white background with the smugmug fader.
When you create the new image in photoshop, select "Background contents: Transparent". Then when you save the image, choose "Save for web", select PNG-24 in the preset box, and make sure the Transparency box is checked. Works like a charm (I recently started my own smugmug account due to my kids' sports pics http://sczphoto.smugmug.com)
First of all, let me thank you for the great thread and even better photos! It has been a pleasure to follow this thread for last 6 moths or so since I found it. Like many of us, I had to browse through the first 140 or so pages on one sit. So, thanks to Jim for starting the thread and also to everyone else who also have been posting some great photos here!
For the watermark or such. I think the easiest way to make a watermark is simply to make your copyright text on a new layer and then adjust the opacity to the desired level. Then just resize the photo to the wanted forum size and save as jpg. Very easy and quick.
Of course you can also include your logo or such and play around with the layer blend modes to get different results. Here I used 50% opacity and "Overlay" blend mode for the layer in PSP (old 7.12 version). Works pretty well on too...
Or you can always get creative and play around with some different tools to get some cool(?) effects. Like on this one, I made the text on new layer, made a selection of the text, swapped on to the photo-layer itself and then played around with the "outer beavel"-tool to get some shadows and highlights on the edges of the text.
We were discussing the smugmug setup where it will add a watermark to your *displayed* images you upload. With smugmug, you upload a non-watermaked hi-res jpg, which can then be ordered as a print at whatever size the customer likes. For browsing, the site will display your images *with* a watermark, if you tell it to.
Might as well go for broke here. Mr. Wilson was kind enough to answer a couple of questions for me in return for posting some of my shots and while I'm a little disappointed with the keeper pile, a deal is a deal.
I went to the Great State of Maine Air show at Brunswick NAS this past Sunday to see the Blue Angels. This is the first air show I've been to since I was a kid and the first one I've ever tried to photograph. Everyone who has posted beautiful images in this thread deserves a pat on the back as it's a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I normally shoot motorcycles and that's far easier.
I think my biggest problem was with exposure. For most of the day it was sunny, no clouds and the relatively small size of the aircraft was being over powered by the bright sky. Oh well, live and learn.
Man if these are disappointing to you, you're a bigger perfectionist than I am! Great work, I better get ready to move over. Your motorcycle skills transferred nicely to this new photographic venue. Let's see some more.
JW
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Sep 21, 2007 at 09:43 PM GMT
Not bad for first time out at an airshow that is not photographer friendly. Back lit from about late morning till sunset. Just the way the runway and ramps are set up. They put on a great show, but as for photography it is tough.
I was there Friday for the bird strike on the F-15. With the way this season has gone, they did a heck of a job getting the plane on the ground with no further damage.
On your prop shots, just watch the shutter speed. For this show and lighting you did well. Keep at it.
This is a crop of the F-15 landing after the bird strike. Look just under the canopy and inside the air intake.
Looks like the bird forgot he was a Duck and didn't!
Man - the previous couple of pages have some great shots. Just when I think I'm starting to get the hang of it - you guys come in and blow me away. Great stuff!
Man if these are disappointing to you, you're a bigger perfectionist than I am! Great work, I better get ready to move over. Your motorcycle skills transferred nicely to this new photographic venue. Let's see some more.
JW
Edited by JWilsonphoto on Sep 21, 2007 at 09:43 PM GMT
Thanks Jim! I'll see what I can rustle up but I think these were the best out of the group.
Thanks! Yeah, all of the planes on Sunday had scarecrow dolls on board courtesy of the CO to keep the birds away from the aircraft during the flight demos. I have a photo of the F15 pilot waving it around while he was taxiing out.
I guess that bird destroyed the engine and did some massive damage. They were flying a different F15 according to the announcer.
Mostly got sunburned. As I get them ready - I'll post two or three here and direct everyone to my smugmug site for the rest. 
