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Showing posts 26 - 45 of 45, (reverse)
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 08/04/2007 10:09:49 PM · #26
Originally posted by MrEd:
I heard someone mention in another thread, but not here....a spotter helps. He/she can yell out where the planes are coming from.


I mention that on a previous thread. A spotter definitely helps as the time it takes you to see the plane, then put your eyes to the viewfinder you may possibly miss a shot.

I happened to be next to a husband/wife team and the wife would spot and a couple of us around them would listen and it would help us also.
 08/05/2007 12:44:22 AM · #27
Originally posted by faidoi:
Originally posted by MrEd:
I heard someone mention in another thread, but not here....a spotter helps. He/she can yell out where the planes are coming from.


I mention that on a previous thread. A spotter definitely helps as the time it takes you to see the plane, then put your eyes to the viewfinder you may possibly miss a shot.

I happened to be next to a husband/wife team and the wife would spot and a couple of us around them would listen and it would help us also.


Awesome idea, I'm also taking my wife with me so I mite get her to help with that :)

this is the reason I love this site so much, such a wealth of knowledge and the willingness of people to share it :)

-dave
 08/05/2007 01:51:42 AM · #28
I hope you have learned your lessons well, Grasshopper. Now bring us back some fantastic photos!
 08/05/2007 01:52:50 AM · #29
"There's traffic in the sky
and it doesn't seem to be getting much better
There's kids playing games on the pavement
Drawing waves on the pavement
mm hm
Shadows of the planes on the pavement
mm hm
It's enough to make me cry"
-jack johnson
 08/05/2007 04:38:34 AM · #30
Mike J suggested that you turn the IS off....I disagree. That's what it's for from my experience I always have it on.
When I manage to lock onto the aircraft they are usually pin sharp.
 08/05/2007 04:53:23 AM · #31
Originally posted by Caeclyd:
Mike J suggested that you turn the IS off....I disagree. That's what it's for from my experience I always have it on.
When I manage to lock onto the aircraft they are usually pin sharp.

I've been wondering about that myself. I haven't been to an air show since I got my 70-200 with IS though. I read that you should set the stabilizer to mode 2 for horizontal panning because it prevents the stabilizer from getting confused and causing blurred images.
 08/05/2007 08:44:17 AM · #32
Originally posted by Mick:
Originally posted by Caeclyd:
Mike J suggested that you turn the IS off....I disagree. That's what it's for from my experience I always have it on.
When I manage to lock onto the aircraft they are usually pin sharp.

I've been wondering about that myself. I haven't been to an air show since I got my 70-200 with IS though. I read that you should set the stabilizer to mode 2 for horizontal panning because it prevents the stabilizer from getting confused and causing blurred images.


Well I mite try shooting some with and some without IS mode2 and see how it goes...

-dave
 08/05/2007 12:13:37 PM · #33
You don't have to take my word for it, by all means try it for yourself. But I wasn't talking about level panning as a plan moves across in front of you... I said twisting and turning. Every airshow I've gone too, the jets like to come in from behind, from both sides, in front as well as any direction that can catch people by surprise. There have been times when I've swinging my 100-400 360 degrees vertically and horizontally as the jets (the Blue Angles and Thunderbirds are prime examples of this) do their passes. Then you have the acrobatic groups that are up and over and around and I've been turning every which way you can think of to follow their movement. That does have a good chance of confusing your IS as it tries to stabalize between all the movements. Think about how a IS works and you will realize why this is true. But for straight panning, it might help... but if your shutter speed is up around 1/250th or faster, you aren't going to need it anyway and IS does use up battery power and I would assume delays focus a fraction of a second as it kicks in.

So it was only a suggestion. It's the same cost to use or ignore. ;D

Mike
 08/05/2007 01:08:56 PM · #34
The Oregon International Air Show starts Friday, August 10th at 7:30 PM at Hillsboro Airport. The shows on Saturday and Sunday start at 10:00 AM.

* U.S. Navy Blue Angels
* The U.S. Navy Blue Angels C-130 Fat Albert
* U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Jump Team
* Sean Tucker and Team Oracle
* Greg Poe Air Shows
* Bill Reesman and his Red Bull MiG
* Air National Guard John Klatt
* Oregon Aero SkyDancer
* A10 West Coast Demonstration Team with the A1 Skyraider
* Renny Price and Hammerhead Aerobatics
* Roger Kelsay and his MiG and Provost Warbirds
* Experimental Aircraft Association Flight
* Oregon Model Aerobatic Team
* Pyrotechnic and Fireworks show (Friday night)

We've been to this show many times, but not recently. After reading this thread I think we may go again this year.


08/05/2007 02:25:11 PM · #35
Just a word of warning. Last weekend I went to the Red Bull Air Race in London. I went with my brother in law, a fellow DPCer (name witheld to protect his good name but you know who you are).

Well my he hired a Canon 500mm lens - more of a rocket launcher than a lens - in order to capture all of the action.

We did learn lots of things from this outing: 1) Work out before you try to lug the lens around ;
2) make sure you have a red flag to hang on the end of the lens so people can see you panning; 3) when you purchase seats make sure they are in the next county that way minimum focal length won't be a problem! 4) Be prepared for envious drouling:)

Seriously if you don't have enough glass to take the shots you are after you should consider hiring for the event. I have seen the shots and they are well worth the extra effort required.
08/05/2007 02:36:32 PM · #36
Hi Mike,

I feel like I have seen both of these images before?

How did you get the image of the F-18 breaking the Prandtl-Glauert singularity effect thus creating a vapour cone? I can only assume that you were in a second F-18 that was leading the other aircraft with the shock-collar as you would not be able to freeze this shot from a stationary position or achieve this angle effect from a ground position?

Please, tell us more. I saw the other image before too, so where did you have them published? I am sure that I have both images in my archive at home? I will look when I get back on Tuesday.

Truly they are amazing shots, both are one in a million images. What are the odds of that?

Cheers,
Michael

Originally posted by MikeJ:
It helps if you can watch the practice they do the day before. If you know what patterns they are going to run around the show area you can be prepared for some of the jets fast streaks across the main area. And be prepared. I wasn't expecting this shot as two Blue Angles were coming down the runway. I thought they were going to do a normal run and takeoff, although I figured something might be up because the Navy team brought their video crew out and set up. So I was ready and had my camera on them as they taxied towards me.



I wasn't very prepared for this one when it happened, so it's not as sharp as I would like it to be.



You are going to do a lot of panning and twisting and turning. Turn your IS off during all of this because it will get confused and could cause you to get fuzzy pictures. This is also where AI focus comes in handy. And get there early so you can stake out a good spot. Usually near the paid seating is going to be where the center of most acts will be. So if you can get up close to the fence there, the better. And make sure you are covered on both sides of you. Once the main act starts, people have no qualms about moving right in and squeezing right in front of you if you leave them an inch of room to get in. There have been a few times I've had to protect my spot with my 100-400. I was a little wilder about panning it from right to left than I usually am. But it kept people from crowding in to close or in front of me (and I was leaning against the fence). Some people even brought step stools so they could get up a few feet higher. I carry enough camera equipment with me, so I've never done that, but it doesn't seem like a bad idea to be able to shoot over heads of other people.

Mike
08/05/2007 02:45:32 PM · #37
Do not be anxious about using a long lens / focal length for static shots on the ground or tarmac. You can create some very interesting and unusual perspective from a long lens that tends to isolate the parts of an aircraft. Here is an example of what I mean.


08/05/2007 03:55:08 PM · #38
Originally posted by Morgan:
Hi Mike,

I feel like I have seen both of these images before?

...

Truly they are amazing shots, both are one in a million images. What are the odds of that?


There's about 80 million people in the world walking around with cameras these days. Why are you dogging the guy? I'm sure more than one person has taken similiar shots.
 08/05/2007 11:17:02 PM · #39
Originally posted by routerguy666:
Originally posted by Morgan:
Hi Mike,

I feel like I have seen both of these images before?

...

Truly they are amazing shots, both are one in a million images. What are the odds of that?


There's about 80 million people in the world walking around with cameras these days. Why are you dogging the guy? I'm sure more than one person has taken similiar shots.


thats because he went to the same event as the guy that did the article about the 1D mk III in this months issue of Pro digital imaging. i was reading it last night and noticed that they have similar photos.
 08/05/2007 11:45:30 PM · #40
Originally posted by Morgan:
Hi Mike,

I feel like I have seen both of these images before?

How did you get the image of the F-18 breaking the Prandtl-Glauert singularity effect thus creating a vapour cone? I can only assume that you were in a second F-18 that was leading the other aircraft with the shock-collar as you would not be able to freeze this shot from a stationary position or achieve this angle effect from a ground position?

Please, tell us more. I saw the other image before too, so where did you have them published? I am sure that I have both images in my archive at home? I will look when I get back on Tuesday.

Truly they are amazing shots, both are one in a million images. What are the odds of that?

Cheers,
Michael


They were both taken a couple of years ago at the Hillsboro Airshow here in Oregon. Since I live in the flight path of the Hillsboro airport, I try to make it to the airshow as often as possible. I didn't make it last year because of a dog show I was shooting in Salem that weekend. I've posted these images a few times on a couple of different forums, so you might have seen them posted before.

It was humid the day that I got the first shot. When the jet made a pass down the runway I saw wisps of viper forming on the wings. So when he made his next pass I was waiting but the viper flair happened before he got to me and I had to swing the camera and let it refocus to get the shot. That's why this one isn't as clear and well defined as others have posted of this. I was on the ground at the fence running down the runway and the jet was probably 50' above the runway.

The second one was taken at the same show as two of the Blue Angles made their take off run. I knew something was up because that is the only time the Navy crew brought out the video equipment you see them with in the lower right of the picture. I regret I was too tightly focused in with my 100-400 and only got a good shot of the right jet and only part of the one on the left that I've cropped out. If I could have gotten both of them doing this together, it would have been a much better shot. There run wasn't very far down the runway either and they kind of bounced and were up and gone.

The airshow is here next weekend and the Blue Angles are back and though I'm more partial to the Thunderbirds, they both put on great shows.

Thanks for the comments.

Mike
 08/06/2007 01:26:24 AM · #41
I'm still learning and have had some great opportunities. Challenge entries:


stuff from this spring


yesterday
way cool history on this one Pitts touchdown Decathlon touchdown
 08/06/2007 01:43:30 AM · #42
I've just got two.

and
08/06/2007 02:41:05 PM · #43
Thanks to everyone for their input of suggestions, I managed to get off around 1400 pics :P so its gona take me a couple days to sort through them but I think I got a few descent ones.

Thanks again,

-dave
 08/07/2007 03:12:46 PM · #44
Wow, just started sorting through some of the pics and there looks to be a lot more keepers than I was expecting :) not so good for my HD space but I hope to get some posted closer to the end of the week when I get a chance to edit them.

-dave
 08/07/2007 09:28:12 PM · #45
Very cool; disk space is cheap now, right? Look forward to seeing some of your keepers.
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