Reno air races/military demo teams

docbell

Some pics i took last weekend at the reno air races.











This last one was my 'almost' really good shot; unfortunately i clipped his tail and left wing tip. However this guy was the one that sneaks up from behind the crowd, coming in low and fast (in full afterburner), so I was lucky i got any of him at all.

Thanx for looking. kevin.

Khaos

Very nice set. I like seeing the tail burner on the last one. All are very good.

DJ-S1

Nice work Kevin! I saw the TBirds a fw weeks ago, they put on a great show. The sneaky guy in the last frame scared the crap out of my son!

What lens did you have on your XT for these? You were able to get a good deal closer than I was. Love the upside-down #5 on the fuselage!

TristanP

Warthog - most beautiful ugly plane ever. Nice shots.

docbell

DJ-S1 wrote:

Nice work Kevin! I saw the TBirds a fw weeks ago, they put on a great show. The sneaky guy in the last frame scared the crap out of my son!

What lens did you have on your XT for these? You were able to get a good deal closer than I was. Love the upside-down #5 on the fuselage!

These were shot with a Sigma 80-400 (4.5-5.6) DG OS. I recently purchased it, and am still trying to 'get to know it'. Kevin.

ian408

These are all fine captures! Nicely done.

Did you get a chance to see the Gold Unlimited race?

Ian

docbell

ian408 wrote:

These are all fine captures! Nicely done.

Did you get a chance to see the Gold Unlimited race?

Ian

Thanx everyone for the comments and looking.
Ian - I went out on Saturday and saw some of the qualifying races in the unlimited category. Pretty impressive to watch. I see why they can claim to be the fastest motorsport event going (I think the winner in the unlimited category clocked in at 466 mph).
Thanx again for the comments. Kevin

Francois

You made me jealous Kevin. Wonderful shots.
I was at an air meeting this weekend and just about all my aerial shots can go straight into the dumpster :-( Either no color, or a 'stalled' prop, or moved (by me). Can you show the exif on the shot of the Mustnag please? I am trying to understand what I am doing wrong...... you certainly are doing it right !

schmoe

Awesome shots! I was up in Reno last week but was stuck in meetings the whole time. I wanted bust out of the meetings so bad it just killed me knowing this was going on and all I saw was the inside of a hotel.

Those interested in some good info. on airshow photography here is an excellent link. I plan on re-reading it as a primer for Air Nation at Nellis this year.

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Photography/Airshows/index.html

Thanks for sharing.

Joel

ian408

Joel, thanks for the link! That looks like good info.

If you ever get a chance to see the Gold Unlimiteds, it's amazing. The sound
a P51 makes is just amazing. Nothing like it.

Ian

MainFragger

Sigh..
I went to photograph the air show at Willow Grove, PA this year, and got there just in time for it to rain. It was bizarre..there was no wind..but as soon as it started raining, there was a 65 m.p.h. wind that came out of nowhere. It took me almost an hour to get up there, and 30 more minutes to park. I got maybe 10 or 15 minutes of shooting in, and then the storm hit. I was miserable. It took me almost a solid hour to get from my parking spot to the light at the end of the block. Right when I hit the end of the block, the storm ended, but I had somewhere to be that night, so it was too late to turn back. I'm sure G-d tacked a few "He's going to hell" points on me for the profanity aimed in his direction that day.

To make matters worse, Willow Grove Air Base might get shut down. Which means, there might not ever be a show there for me to photograph again. Sigh!

docbell

Francois wrote:

You made me jealous Kevin. Wonderful shots.
I was at an air meeting this weekend and just about all my aerial shots can go straight into the dumpster :-( Either no color, or a 'stalled' prop, or moved (by me). Can you show the exif on the shot of the Mustnag please? I am trying to understand what I am doing wrong...... you certainly are doing it right !

Bonjour, Francois. Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to you. The exif data on the A-10 and mustang shot: f/8.0, iso 100, exposure time .002s (1/500), aperture priority, exposure bias -.666666. If you want to find the exif data on other shots, you can find it on my smugmug acct (docbell.smugmug.com). There are also some more photos from the airshow there. Kevin.

docbell

schmoe wrote:

Awesome shots! I was up in Reno last week but was stuck in meetings the whole time. I wanted bust out of the meetings so bad it just killed me knowing this was going on and all I saw was the inside of a hotel.

Those interested in some good info. on airshow photography here is an excellent link. I plan on re-reading it as a primer for Air Nation at Nellis this year.

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Photography/Airshows/index.html

Thanks for sharing.

Joel

thanx for the compliments Joel. It's too bad you couldn't have snuck out, as it was a good time (lots of photo ops). That link you provided had good info on shooting airshows, thanx. There is a good thread here on dgrin with tips for shooting airshows --> http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=16372&highlight=airshow
Kevin.

Francois

docbell wrote:

Bonjour, Francois. Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to you. The exif data on the A-10 and mustang shot: f/8.0, iso 100, exposure time .002s (1/500), aperture priority, exposure bias -.666666. If you want to find the exif data on other shots, you can find it on my smugmug acct (docbell.smugmug.com). There are also some more photos from the airshow there. Kevin.

No problem :-) Nice shots on your smugmug site too !
It sure helps having glorious sunshine and them pilots coming in so close to the public.... wish they'd do that over here !
Thanks for the exif.... meanwhile I've been analysing what I did wrong..... I think I should have 'upped' ISO sensitivity, which I had set fix at 200, and my shutter speed at 250 could have been a tad higher too.... oh well.... next time ! :

schmoe

Airshow Photography

docbell wrote:

thanx for the compliments Joel. It's too bad you couldn't have snuck out, as it was a good time (lots of photo ops). That link you provided had good info on shooting airshows, thanx. There is a good thread here on dgrin with tips for shooting airshows --> http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=16372&highlight=airshow
Kevin.

Also another airshow tip is to make sure you get some lens envy shots to bring back and dream about. This is probably the best shot I got last year at Nellis AFB.

All I had at the time was my Sony f707, I felt very inadequate to say the least.



This year I am coming armed with a Bigma! When it comes to lenses and airshow photography, size can matter.

Joel

Francois

Heck, I would have to take up body building first, before I could even think of going out toting some of these white cilinders !!!