Terre Haute Air Fair

pathfinder · September 17, 2006

I went out yesterday to the Air Fair here in Terre Haute, hoping to capture some great arial displays. I did not know that most of the time the sun would be on the far side of the field, backlighting the planes most of the time they were in the air, and the sky was grey and heavy

Thes are a few shots I did enjoy.....More can be seen here - comments are welcome and appreciated -- http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/gallery/1899216/1

B-25 Mitchell nose art

A full frame shot of a F-16 in a turn

An F-16 and a P-51 in a Fly By...

A wing walker

Leaving the mid wing position to climb on top of the upper wing

A 1929 Travel Air Mystery Ship - Winner of the 1929 Air Race

Except for the first two images, the rest were all shot with the Tamron 200-500 Di zoom. A handy lens for an air show.:thumb

gus · September 17, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

A 1929 Travel Air Mystery Ship - Winner of the 1929 Air Race

Except for the first two images, the rest were all shot with the Tamron 200-500 Di zoom. A handy lens for an air show.

I like this a lot. Little wonder you see 'em with their heads hanging out to one side when taxiing !

pathfinder · September 17, 2006

Glad you like that shot Gus.

Once they're moving, it is easier for the pilot to see down the runway...

You can read about the Travel Air here -- http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/4515/Travel.html

Fred W · September 17, 2006

Great shots !!!! Looks like you had some great weather at the show. What lens were you using on the air shots?

LookBothWays · September 17, 2006

The B52 shot is very nice. I noticed you managed to get in a little self portrait in the chrome cap of the prop.

Joan · September 17, 2006

LookBothWays wrote:

The B52 shot is very nice. I noticed you managed to get in a little self portrait in the chrome cap of the prop.

Hey, that's cool! I had to go back and look at the B52 shot.

~ Joan

pathfinder · September 17, 2006

Fred W wrote:

Great shots !!!! Looks like you had some great weather at the show. What lens were you using on the air shots?

I used the Tamron SP200-500 f5.6-6.3 Di - I have posted about it here on dgrin previously -

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=41819&highlight=200-500

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=40471&highlight=200-500

pathfinder · September 17, 2006

LookBothWays wrote:

The B52 shot is very nice. I noticed you managed to get in a little self portrait in the chrome cap of the prop.

Yes, it is hard to avoid a self portrait around convex mirrors:D

I have a leg still remaining in the image of the red lady in the nose art also. Again a convex surface

mercphoto · September 17, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

I went out yesterday to the Air Fair here in Terre Haute

Wow, Terre Haute! I spent four years there (Rose-Hulman, class of '89). Bringing back memories! Good pics, nice color, nice composition. My only critique is you need a slower shutter speed with propeller plans, such as 1/125 or so to get more prop blur.

pathfinder · September 18, 2006

Merc, I just can't please everyone

I had the shutter at 1/800th of better as the lens is not IR and I was hand holding at 500mm. If I had a tripod I might have tried slower shutter speeds - I could have dropped my ISO from 400 to 200 also with a slower shutter speed.

I agree with you that more prop blur would be an assett.

Is this any better??

1/320th f8.0 ISO 200

ian408 · September 18, 2006

Some nice shots. Especially the Mustang and '16.

Ian

ed_h · September 18, 2006

I must be showing my age, but i think the P51 looks a lot nicer. thanks for taking the time to share them with us
Ed

Skippy · September 18, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

I went out yesterday to the Air Fair here in Terre Haute, hoping to capture some great arial displays. I did not know that most of the time the sun would be on the far side of the field, backlighting the planes most of the time they were in the air, and the sky was grey and heavy

Thes are a few shots I did enjoy.....More can be seen here - comments are welcome and appreciated -- http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/gallery/1899216/1

B-25 Mitchell nose art

A full frame shot of a F-16 in a turn
An F-16 and a P-51 in a Fly By...
A wing walker
Leaving the mid wing position to climb on top of the upper wing
A 1929 Travel Air Mystery Ship - Winner of the 1929 Air Race

Except for the first two images, the rest were all shot with the Tamron 200-500 Di zoom. A handy lens for an air show.

Wow, double WOW, and WOW again :jawdrop these are brilliant I tell you.
You'd have to be over the moon about this lot .......gawwd I love those arial shots....... I really really really wanna go to the airshow at Avalon here in Australia next year....... I wish someone would gimme a free ticket

I love that Red plane ..... what a fantastic series you've shared.
Thank you.......... Skippy (Australia)

mercphoto · September 18, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

Merc, I just can't please everyone

You did ask for critique.

1/800 is fine for jets but way too fast for prop planes. The worst has to be helicopters, whose blades turn much slower than you would expect. Getting blur in the blades of a copter is hard. Here are some of my examples, with EXIF turned on:
[url] http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/475750[/url]

I had the shutter at 1/800th of better as the lens is not IR and I was hand holding at 500mm. If I had a tripod I might have tried slower shutter speeds - I could have dropped my ISO from 400 to 200 also with a slower shutter speed.

A tripod would have been worthless. How are you going to pan with a tripod? Slow the shutter speed, follow the airplane. Just takes practice.

pathfinder · September 18, 2006

mercphoto wrote:

You did ask for critique.

I did indeed!! Thanks for your suggestions - I'll keep them in mind for next year

rofl

I looked at your gallery you linked P-39, P-40, HellCat, 1/125 seems to be just right for displaying the porpeller. Nice gallery.

The only warbird we had was a single P-51, and a B-25 Mitchell ( but that's not a single seater though )

Awais Yaqub · September 18, 2006

Very cool photos loved them

wxwax · September 18, 2006

Outstanding shots, PF, very nice! And you got some super results with that lens, the image quality is first class. Wow, and less than a grand, too.

Thanks!

JWright · September 18, 2006

It's too bad nose art has fallen out of favor with the military...

pathfinder · September 18, 2006

I agree!!

I have got a few frames of nose art along the way though.

From a Douglas SkyRaider

From a B-25

From a Liberator

From a B-17 that was still air worthy

Three out of four, I think there is a theme here...

pathfinder · September 18, 2006

Merc, I did have a prop shot at 1/80th of a sec just for you

An up close and personal inspection of the propeller of the 1929 Travel Air Mystery Ship.

gtc · September 19, 2006

excellent series
congratulations for an excellent series.

big bill suggests that panning with long glass is aided by a monopod in a belt cup.

greg

mercphoto · September 19, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

Merc, I did have a prop shot at 1/80th of a sec just for you

That's what I'm talking about

Now imagine that prop blur with the plane in the air.

Strange that I'd actually start to miss Terre Haute, huh!

mbz · September 19, 2006

Very nice

pathfinder · September 19, 2006

mercphoto wrote:

Strange that I'd actually start to miss Terre Haute, huh!

Yup....

THE TOUCH · September 21, 2006

Awesome job Pathfinder!

I love the 2nd and the 3rd!

pathfinder · September 21, 2006

Nobody seems to like the shots of the wing walker, and I always get a kick out of watching them take off between the wings and then crawl out in mid-flight and up onto the top of the upper wing.

Think what a rush the view would be from there as the pilot does a loop or a roll!!

Here's one from 2004 -- Look Ma!! No Hands!!

Terre Haute Air Fair

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