Another new subject, Remote Control Aircraft. I've been waiting for this day for a few weeks. Aircraft. Finally.
R/C Aircraft on the water. What could go wrong? Actually nothing. The day was fairly gray and a pretty good breeze across the water.
All went well for the aircraft, but all sots of issues for the photographer. I took 315 shots for the day. I kept just under 100. Sure, there were some close duplicates that were nixed, but there were also metering issues. The flat sky was an issue, and the water at certain angles was no better. A CP would help with the water shots, but I don't have one for that lens. (Note to self, get one!) There was a backdrop of trees across the pond that helped the metering and produced some nice shots.
The first good sized aircraft I saw was this nice big yellow target. Perfect for my first photos. Nice contrast for the auto focus. I would expect it wouldn't go streaking across the sky with any big jerky movements. Something even I can track.
There were a few things I took from the event today. First, it doesn't matter the aircraft event, engine exhaust is like perfume to me. Different from AV-Gas to be sure, but the smell of a hard working engine. I was also a blast to the past to try to find aircraft in the view finder. Not always easy. And once it is in the view finder, try to get a AF lock on the subject. I will probably change the AF for tomorrow to be larger so a lock will be kept longer. And the ultimate blast from the past, get the right speed for some form of prop blur. Ah, the good ol' days.
For once, I figured out the camera lens combo correctly. I had the monster lens on the D500 so I could get out to 750 mm for the air shots. And I had the 24-40 f/2.8 on the D780 for walk around.
Like a lot of my mistakes, this is a doozy. I had no idea when I shot this that the man in blue was there. But this really works. Tells the story of the day. Gives reference. Shot should be on a flyer somewhere.
One of the themes I was trying to catch was the interaction of the water. Either taxiing, T/O or landing. A wing tip in the water might be interesting as well. There were some close ones, but nothing that needed rescue.
So we have the taxi water interaction. There's a lot going on here. You have mist behind the propeller, you have large water droplets and water displacement from the pontoons. And a wake.
This next shot was complete surprise. Water interaction I didn't expect. Water in flight. Yep, you can see the water dropping from the pontoons. Awesome. Care to guess the wind direction?
And more water action. The taxi in. Call me old, but this action looks like movies made in the 50's with battle ships. Or Godzilla.
There were other good shots from today. Some will make it here. But I did learn a few things. I have a lot of shots at 1/2000th second with a slight amount of prop blur. These shots at 1/1000th second are good overall focus and I was able to catch the plane with good focus. I did use VR on these shots. Maybe not necessary.
Tomorrow promises to be a better day, at least weather wise. Maybe a little more sun. Winds under 10.
Things to think about. I had been using center weighted metering for today. I think I will try matrix metering tomorrow. Some of my shots were darker than I would like. With the aircraft being all different colors, I think I need more of an average setting. And I'm going with 1/1000th or 1/1250th for the shutter speed.
If I can remember.
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