The Blue Demon Pitts

One of the Battle Creek air show acts was the Blue Demon Pitts.  The Pitts aircraft design originated in 1943 and first flew in 1944.  The original design was a single seat, bi-plane used primarily for acrobatics.  The design was/is very successful.  The aircraft was very popular in the 60s and 70s, getting a lot of attention for performances.  Various models of the Pitts comprise the majority of entries in the Reno Air Race Bi-Plane class.

For Friday's airshow, two shots of the Blue Demon Pitts made the cut for the day.  One shot fooled the camera so much, it turned out pretty artistic for me.  The other, just plain lucky.  I may have to create another category for the year end awards, this being called the Blind Squirrel  Award.

The day had a light upper level haze going on.  And there was some airshow smoke going on as well.  I wasn't having any luck shooting the aircraft with a 1/250 sec shutter speed.  I thought the best opportunity for a good shot would be the top of a vertical climb.  On the plus side, the aircraft is about as slow as it will ever get.  The downside is distance.  For the distance, I was using the 70-300 lens on the D500.  That gives me approximate 450 mm reach.  (I just can't think of lugging around the monster lens, but some day I will!)  At some point during the performance, there was a vertical climb at show center.  I was able to get these two shots, just the top of the climb was reached, and the fall back through the smoke.  The second was after the recovery from the stall and start of controlled flight.  Both nice slow speed, and a touch of luck on my part.

I will guess that the airshow smoke and the slow shutter speed, helped by a three stop ND filter helped to confuse the camera.  And these are the results.

In this shot, I like the light of the smoke.  Mistakes often lead to creativity.  And this is creative for me.  This has a pretty sever crop, any more and I'd have to Gigapixel it.  I usually like my subjects to take up more space, but in the case the smoke is almost as much of the subject.  And the prop blur is just right!  Reminds me of the opening of a John Wayne movie western art.  Definitely on the screen save list.

Falling Pitts

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR

450 mm, 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size: DX

3 Stop ND Filter

Shortly after this fall to earth, the aircraft will regain controlled flight.  When this happens, it is still moving relatively slow.  In a series of six shots, this was the best.  Again, prop blur!

Pitts in the Clouds

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR

450 mm, 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size: DX

3 Stop ND Filter

I'm planning on returning today, or more for the evening show.  I'd like to catch the F22 Demo show again, can't get enough of the sound.  And I'll stick around for the twi-light show.  And maybe the night show.  I'll travel much lighter, planning on only the D850 and 70-200/f2.8 lens.  I may take a CPL filter just for fun.  But that's all and I'll just have to make it work.