Fairford Airshow (13 images 700K total)

[Synergy]

Hi There,

I went to the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at Fairford UK last Saturday. I had a great time, although there was nothing particularly interesting flying, it was an excellent display and of course a great photo opportunity. I used my Olympus OM-1 with a 100-200 zoom + a 2X teleconverter . My biggest mistake and regret was that I didn’t use a fast enough shutter speed (SS) with the zoom lens (400mm in total) so my pictures suffered from camera shake. Usually I use a higher SS than the mm of zoom, so for example, with my 400mm zoom I would like to of used 1/500 SS but because I was using 200 film everything would have been underexposed, perhaps I would of got away with it, I was using Fuji Superia which I have found to be tolerant to underexposing.

Any way enjoy the pics..

Red Arrows doing a close pass

P51D Mustang and a F15 doing a memorial flight to USAF

F16 going vertical

Red Arrow just passed

F117A Stealth ooer

Two err helicopters getting a bit too close

Harrier Jump Jet taking a bow

Jaguar taking off

Business end of a Tornado

Could be an F15 againn (not sure)

F117A Cockpit

F16 Taking off

 

[Ant]

Nice pohtos. I was there too but was quite disappointed with most of my pics. I thought it was a bit overwhelming too. I think it's really a two day event, there's so much there.

I don't understand what you mean by nothing particularly interesting flying. Apart from the Russian stuff (Su27 Mig29) what were you hoping for? :?

Could be an F15 againn (not sure)

Nope. That's a boeing F/A-18F

 

[mentos_007]

very nice pic. Although I'n not so interested in planes I like your stuff here

 

[Synergy]

I guess I did miss the more exotic planes like the MIG 29, my first visit to Fairford in 1999 (I think) was spectacular They did an impromptu display with the B2 Spirit and I saw a Mig29 for the fist time and I think that day set the standard. Since then I’ve felt disappointed when that special plane is dropped from the display, which has happened too often. This year though, was excellent although I did miss the more exotic planes this was made up for by the quality of the displays that just kept on coming!

Cheers

 

[photonoob]

Very nice shots the first ive seen of planes and i like them

 

[Ant]

I guess I did miss the more exotic planes like the MIG 29, my first visit to Fairford in 1999 (I think) was spectacular They did an impromptu display with the B2 Spirit and I saw a Mig29 for the fist time and I think that day set the standard. Since then I’ve felt disappointed when that special plane is dropped from the display, which has happened too often. This year though, was excellent although I did miss the more exotic planes this was made up for by the quality of the displays that just kept on coming!

Cheers

I know what you mean. I went to Farnborough the first year that the mig 29 was seen at a western airshow....1987 or 88, but a technical fault kept it from flying on the day I was there and I was extremely disappointed, even though it was an excellent show.

We must have snapped that Jaguar at pretty much the same time, I got it from a different angle.

 

[Ant]

BTW Great shot of the Red Arrows synchro pair. I tried many times to get a shot like that throughout the whole display and failed miserably :cry:

 

[Sk8man]

great shots. i just love airplanes.

the jet fumes are fantastic on the last one, ant.

 

[Crazymainer]

Synergy,

The P-51 Mustang and the Langley base F-15D are performing what is called The Heritage Flight. In order for a Warbird pilot to fly with a USAF or USN moderen fighter they need toattend a week long practice held at Luke AFB.

As Ant said the F-15 is really a Boeing F-18F Super Hornet, this plane is the CO plane and its call sign is DoubleNuts. Better Know as the Show bird.

 

[AirVenture]

Excellent pics! My favorite is the F-117 cockpit shot. I wish we could get Russian aircraft here in the US. Man I love airshow season!

-Brett

 

[craig]

Very amazing! I have never seen an air show. I barely see airplanes for that matter. Your photos make me feel like I am right there. What about a tripod?

 

[Synergy]

Ant Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 9:38 pm Post subject:

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BTW Great shot of the Red Arrows synchro pair. I tried many times to get a shot like that throughout the whole display and failed miserably

Thanks for that, I tried many times to get it using a tighter shot, I had to zoom out to give me more time to react. This is one time I’m glad my camera has no lag! but as you know its hard to do, the second shot is a failed attempt.

We must have snapped that Jaguar at pretty much the same time, I got it from a different angle.

I think I prefer your Jaguar shot! It’s a lot tighter and much more animated than mine plus the background is sharp. I’m interested in learning your technique, you must have been using something like a 500-600mm lens? And i’m guessing you set the shot up and waited for the Jaguar to fly into it? I on the other hand, tracked the plane as it took off and used 1/250 at about 300mm which is why the background is blurry.

Here’s another one of that Jaguar…

A lot of my shots look like this, I like that it shows good detail but it does look like its just hanging there! I’ve got a picture of an F4 Phantom on my desk at work and people say WOW did you take that flying along side it! I wish!

Crazymainer

Thanks for that! I was trying to remember what display was called. It was quite a moving experience, although I think the music they played was a bit cheesy to me (I’m not American), it did leave a good impression on me though.

Craig

I’ve never though to take a tripod to an airshow to use with flying planes, mainly because the planes move round so quickly in all directions, a monopod, might be useful though for shooting take offs.

BTW Ant, what was your impression of the Midnight Hawks? i was quite dissapointed and wanted to recomend they have a chat with the red arrows on how to fly the Hawk! Do you think they missed out some of their display bcause of the weather or something?

Thanks to everyone for you positive comments it’s much appreciated.

Synergy

 

[Ant]

I'm afraid I haven't got any technique apart from click and pray I'm only using an Olympus C750 and that shot was taken at full 10X zoom, which I think works out to be about 380mm.

My camera isn't really too good at taking planes in the air and of the many shots I tried that Jaguar one just happened to come out OK, although I'd have preferred a bit of a sharper focus on the aircraft as it looks a little soft to me. I was standing toward the end of the runway and it was pretty easy to track as it did it's take-off run. The shutter lag on my camera is pretty bad, as is the autofocus delay, so I'm currently looking to get a DSLR for next year.

Interesting you should mention the midnight hawks because I thought they were less than impressive. They just seemed to fly around in formation and that was all. I was well impressed with the Patrouille de France though. I thought they were even better than the red arrows, but then they had better weather and so were unrestricted.

Midnight Hawks

 

[Crazymainer]

Very amazing! I have never seen an air show. I barely see airplanes for that matter. Your photos make me feel like I am right there. What about a tripod?

Hi Craig,

I've been shooting airshows since I was 10 grew up around US Navy and the Warbirds(WWII aircraft) I only use a Tripod when I'm shooting the ground stuff.

I've try to us a monpod but found it just got in the way. I teach a class on taking Airshow photos and the first thing I tell everyone is to find a point off in the distance pick it and use it as your center point. After that watch the first two or three pass's to get a feel of the planes speed and lighting. I never track shot because all you get is blurry shots, what I do is try to pick the plane up with my eye count to 5 and it should be in the middle of my frame. now of coarse this takes alot of practice and many airshows but if your like me thats half of the fun, some of the best photos I've got have been by spot tracking.

Ant

As for the my 17 photo over on the Crit. shooting out of a TBM is alittle tricky I had one foot on the slide rail and the other on the seat cushing.

I'll try to post a photo of the TBM.

Cheers

 

[Ant]

Thanks for the tips. I'd love to take a class on airshow photography. I wonder if there are any over here in the UK.

Looking forward to seeing a pic of that TBM.