Show your aircraft photos! (Airplanes, helicopters, blimps...)

[RichardC]

Nice. They certainly throw those Spartans around at airshows.

The guy rolled it, but my picture's a bit fuzzy. I'll see what I can do with it.

 

[Breezy]

Cant beat a bit of fluff!

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[MadMarco]

A couple of snaps of the "Thank U NHS" Spitfire that is doing the rounds over key NHS hospitals. I was out in the garden and heard the sound of a Merlin engine, so dashed in the house and made a quick lens change to the Pana 50-200 with seconds to spare. First shot is a bit off, but I had a few moments to compose myself and the shot for the second.

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[Breezy]

A couple of snaps of the "Thank U NHS" Spitfire that is doing the rounds over key NHS hospitals. I was out in the garden and heard the sound of a Merlin engine, so dashed in the house and made a quick lens change to the Pana 50-200 with seconds to spare. First shot is a bit off, but I had a few moments to compose myself and the shot for the second.

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Nice captures. A slower shutter speed would have given some prop blur and not given the impression that the engine was stopped. ?

 

[Brownie]

Nice captures. A slower shutter speed would have given some prop blur and not given the impression that the engine was stopped. ?

When you're prepared, yes. It can also mean not getting the shot when you're in a hurry.

 

[Breezy]

When you're prepared, yes. It can also mean not getting the shot when you're in a hurry.

Yep. Can do.....

 

[Brownie]

Yep. Can do.....

Please expand. Can do what?

 

[Breezy]

Agreeing.....can indeed cause you to miss the shot if in a hurry.

 

[MadMarco]

Agreeing.....can indeed cause you to miss the shot if in a hurry.

Indeed.

I had no idea what the camera was set to when I grabbed it and had just enough time to pull Memory Recall 1 and set to Program mode, which are my "safety" settings. Unfortunately this includes Single AF, which I should probably change in my defaults to Continuous AF as it is generally more useful for emergencies. I was still in motion walking out the house when the first photo was taken which is why it has some motion blur. I managed to plant my feet for no. 2 but didn't have enough time to set for C-AF.

 

[Brownie]

Indeed.

I had no idea what the camera was set to when I grabbed it and had just enough time to pull Memory Recall 1 and set to Program mode, which are my "safety" settings. Unfortunately this includes Single AF, which I should probably change in my defaults to Continuous AF as it is generally more useful for emergencies. I was still in motion walking out the house when the first photo was taken which is why it has some motion blur. I managed to plant my feet for no. 2 but didn't have enough time to set for C-AF.

Been there. I used to carry a P-n-S that I kept in auto for just that reason. I usually shoot in Manual almost exclusively. While I do have a custom set up that'd work well for aircraft in most cases, I still prefer to spin dials when there's time.

 

[Dion Houston Sr.]

OK, so slightly odd question, but since I got smart people and people with experience shooting aircraft....

My boss would like a picture of our unit (about 400x PAX) with our five aircraft. Right now I'm thinking a V (modified bowling pattern) with people on the outside and a V of people on the inside. Our planes are very large, so I'm assuming I'll need to take multiple shots and stitch them into a Pano.

The question is - and I'm sure it's just math - how far out and how high up would I need to be to capture the scene vertically at ~12mm (as a function of the plane size)? Added bonus if I can get a mountain in the background Or any other ideas on how to capture this.

 

[Brownie]

OK, so slightly odd question, but since I got smart people and people with experience shooting aircraft....

My boss would like a picture of our unit (about 400x PAX) with our five aircraft. Right now I'm thinking a V (modified bowling pattern) with people on the outside and a V of people on the inside. Our planes are very large, so I'm assuming I'll need to take multiple shots and stitch them into a Pano.

The question is - and I'm sure it's just math - how far out and how high up would I need to be to capture the scene vertically at ~12mm (as a function of the plane size)? Added bonus if I can get a mountain in the background Or any other ideas on how to capture this.

There are field of view calculators on the web by the dozens, everything from any 12mm lens to your specific one. The decent ones are sensor specific. Using your Google Fu, you should be able to get it nailed down to the foot.

 

[Dion Houston Sr.]

Perfect, thanks! You led me in the right direction - I found an app (Photographer's Companion Pro) that let me just choose the camera model, and automatically put in the sensor size, crop factor - made it super easy with a slider. Seems pretty up-to-date -- even had an entry for the OM-D E-M1 Mark III!

Now all I have to figure out is how much space I need for everything

 

[szczepanl]

Apologies for an image heavy post. My first airshow attendance in about 25 years. Below are some of my favourite shots from the event. Sept 12-13 2020 London, Ontario.

RCAF CF-18B Hornet

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RCAF CF-18B Hornet

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USAF F-35A Lightning II

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USAF F-22 Raptor

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USAF A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog)

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USAF A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog)

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USAF Thunderbirds F-16C Fighting Falcon (Viper)

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RCAF CF-18B Hornet

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RCAF CF-18B Hornet and CC-150 Polaris (Airbus A-310)

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RCAF CF-18B Hornet

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RCAF CF-18B Hornet

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A-10 hangin ten

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Heritage flight

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F-22 Raptor

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F-16C Fighting Falcon (Viper)

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F-22 Raptor

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Ornge Air AW-139 air ambulance, (not part of the airshow but stationed at the airport)

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USCG MH-65 Dolphin

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[Brownie]

Nice! That shot of the Hornet and Polaris is a jaw-dropper!

We were discussing the show at the YAF event. The T-Birds and other performers from the US were housed at the Selfridge ANG base on Lake St. Claire. They flew in, did their show, and left. Of course the Warthogs are housed there all of the time. Had they landed, there would've been quarantine restrictions, etc. Glad you got to go.

How did they handle all of the distancing and mask issues?

 

[RichardC]

Apologies for an image heavy post. My first airshow attendance in about 25 years. Below are some of my favourite shots from the event. Sept 12-13 2020 London, Ontario.

Those are fabulous images.

I used the 300 f4/EM1 MK2 combination last year. Your pictures are way sharper than mine.

Are you using C-AF or S-AF?

 

[szczepanl]

Nice! That shot of the Hornet and Polaris is a jaw-dropper!

We were discussing the show at the YAF event. The T-Birds and other performers from the US were housed at the Selfridge ANG base on Lake St. Claire. They flew in, did their show, and left. Of course the Warthogs are housed there all of the time. Had they landed, there would've been quarantine restrictions, etc. Glad you got to go.

How did they handle all of the distancing and mask issues?

Thanks Brownie, oddly I wasn't going to post it at all - too much grey. I went out of my comfort zone and post processed it way more than I usually would.

The show was drive in event without a ground portion. You drove in (or walked in to the photo-pit with a mask on). You were assigned a "socially distant" pod and were required to stay there. If you needed to use a rest room you had to put a mask on etc. I thought it worked very well.

I was very impressed with the performance put on by the USAF, incredible skill and professionalism.

 

[szczepanl]

Those are fabulous images.

I used the 300 f4/EM1 MK2 combination last year. Your pictures are way sharper than mine.

Are you using C-AF or S-AF?

On day 1 i had horrible focusing issues, I chalk it up to inexperience at an airshow and poor camera configuration (C-AF+TR and not correct micro-focus adjustment) on top of technique. The 300 was set up pretty well from a prior micro-focus but I found it challenging to keep track of the fast moving jets. On day 2 was a bit easier. I decided to stick to one camera for most aircraft and seeing as I was happy with the 300 focal range I opted to pair the MC20 with the 40-150 for some flexibility, the los of aperture didn't bother me because I was planning to step up to get a larger focal plane anyway. I opted to keep C-AF with single small point, and did a quick and dirty on site micro-focus tune before the show by just taking a few shots of a distant object in the center focus point and then adjusting "default data" +/- until I was happy with the results in the viewfinder. I switched to my second body with the Pana-leica 100-400 that had a ND filter so i could slow down the shutter speed only for aircraft with spinny things. I also set up AF zone limits (50m-999.99m). This was a totally different experience to what I am used to, glad I went - it really pushed my skills to their limit.

 

[szczepanl]

Finally had some time to finish going through more of the shots from the airshow.
USAF C-17 short field takeoff demo was very impressive

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USAF A-10 Warthog

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USAF F-16 Viper special demo paint scheme, I had a particularly hard time getting any good shots of this jet.

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RCAF CF-18's and CC-150 Polaris air to air refueling demo

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USAF Thunderbirds mirror pass

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RCAF C-130 Hercules SAR demo

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USAF F-16 Viper demo, Sunday featured a F-16 in standard paint scheme

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An Air Canada DeHavilland Q400 taking off during a break in the show

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The special demo scheme on the F-16 viper

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CF-18 taking off

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USAF Thunderbirds

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USAF C-17

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RCAF C-130 Herkules

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USAF F-22 Raptor

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USAF F-35

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Thunderbirds F-16

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Thunderbirds cross pass, wish I focused on the jet coming in from the left but pretty happy I got the shot at all.

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[Aushiker]

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Air Asia 9M RAE at the Air Bridge - Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport by Andrew Priest, on Flickr

Snapped a photo of Air Asia’s Airbus A320-216, 9M RAE at the air bridge at Bali Ngurah Rai International airport.

I was a bit surprised as, as other low-cost carriers flying in and out of Bali they seem to have to make use of buses to get passengers on and off planes. Even flying Guardia, Indonesia national airline has seen us doing the bus shuttle.