We heard over the airwaves that there would be a WWII warbird flyover on Saturday. I looked all over the place for a web page with information, no luck. Then reading Twitter (Don't judge me.) yesterday, I saw it was postponed to today due to high winds. And the postponement notice had a bit more information as to location and times. Bingo, C and I had something to do today.
There was no information I could find on the aircraft for the day. Might sound too picky, but here was my quandary. If it was a WWII flyover, I needed a prop camera set up. If not, and there were jet aircraft involved, then I needed a jet setup. Our best information was it was a WWII era fly over, and the prop was the setup to use. Although I did take a backup camera that could have handled jets, just in case. Not much time to make changes in a single pass event.
The camera setup. I need to keep working with the D780. And one of the reasons for the monster lens is aircraft. That was easy. For the backup was the D500 and 17-200 lens. There might have been some walk around opportunities. So for the aircraft, going on the assumption they would be T-6 class/family I would be ready for them. This is my favorite class of racers at the Reno event. Big target, slow target, but slow props. Knowing this, for a good shot I need to be around 1/200 second for shutter speed. Again, fortunately for me, I have had two years at Reno to understand this type aircraft. Please, don't screw this up.
One of the new pieces of photographic equipment I acquired over the winter was a neutral density filter, 3 stops. Fixed, not variable. For the monster lens with a 95 mm opening that was not cheap. So today was the day to find out if it was going to work. Feast or famine. Without it, all things being equal, today I would have to use 1/2000 second at f/5.6 and ISO 100 for the settings. With the ND filter, the speed was 1/200 second. Pretty much what I had calculated for the purchase of the filer. So far so good. Photo-Stop math can be confusing at times.
The target set up. From what we could tell the flight path was planned over central Michigan in the Flint, Lapeer and Owasso area. The end of the flight pan was the Great Lakes National Cemetery in nearby Holly, Michigan. The end of the plan was to conclude with a missing man formation. C and I would head off to the national cemetery.
And as an unexpected surprise, we ran into a friend of mine I met through the camera club, at the cemetery. We'll just say his name is Bob. Anyway Bob is a Marine Corps veteran who has served with the USMC honor guard which covered the cemetery for veteran funerals. He knows the place well, and was nice enough to ask us to join him. He had picked a great place to photograph the aircraft for what we thought the flight path would be. We had about an hour to chit chat before the aircraft arrived. It's all good.
And finally, a few months before my father started his next adventure in life he passed along to me what I will call a charm that I've worn on each aircraft photo-op. I would have it with me today and I felt it would help. I've also carried it with me on some of the Eagle adventures, because he liked those shots as well.
So, with the right camera, the right lens, the right company and the right charm all I needed was the right aircraft and it would all come together.
And with today being the anniversary of the 1889 Johnstown flood, what could go wrong?
Home Town Hero Fly In
NIKON D780 Ver.01.01 /200-500mm f/5.6
500 mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100
Aperture Priority, Size FX
I took around 50 shots. Out of the 50, 10 were horribly out of focus mostly due to camera shake. I was OK with that hit rate. Others were a bit out of focus due to heat waves. Stuff to learn. Other stuff to learn I found out in post was I had a vignette that I didn't expect. It was correctable, but I'm thinking it is the ND filter as this is the first I've seen it.
But so far so good. Props looking the way I like them.
Home Town Hero Overhead Bank
NIKON D780 Ver.01.01 /200-500mm f/5.6
500 mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100
Aperture Priority, Size FX
There were four aircraft in the group. And I tried to get four in each shot. I don't know if that was the best plan, maybe a close up of each? In these flybys, there is usually only one pass and that is all. Today, there were two passes and with that information, maybe I would have tried it? In the end, this is a group effort, therefor a group photo.
Home Town Hero Overhead
NIKON D780 Ver.01.01 /200-500mm f/5.6
230 mm, 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100
Aperture Priority, Size FX
It might be a small thing, but the sun reflection off the props is awesome to me. Right place, right time, right setup. As these aircraft are just about directly overhead, this is about the time I am close to falling over backwards.
Home Town Hero To the Barn
NIKON D780 Ver.01.01 /200-500mm f/5.6
440 mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100
Aperture Priority, Size FX
Optical illusion, these aircraft are done for the day and are heading away from us and back to the barn.
In the small world of aviation photography, I have my second instance of the same aircraft in two different events. The first was a L39 jet that I saw in Traverse City and in Reno. The second instance was today with the aircraft that has the fixed landing gear. There is a post for this aircraft with some close up photos here.
Today's event aircraft made two passes over the cemetery which was fantastic. The noise alone was well worth the trip. Nothing like it. Great visuals as well. Did I say the noise was great as well?
Nice shots. Looks like I picked the wrong day to bike 35 miles to the east of home! I've rode through the cemetery a few times in the past but the last time I noticed the sign that said no bikes allowed. I think that's intended to keep the kids out, not someone my age respectfully rolling through.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Nice place. There were a few aviation photographers in the area, but most were folks visiting relatives.
ReplyDelete