Avalon 2013 (heavy)

[J.D.]

[J.D.]

[Quincy]

awesome

[J.D.]

Thanks.

Had to battle horrendous white skies again, as in 2009.

Lots of F-16 pics for Sensible Mick who, IIRC, is a fan of the Electric Jet.

I don't think I'm destined to ever get a decent shot of an F-22. The pilot had the trots or something today so it didn't fly.

[wobblysauce]

Good to see you didn't have a memory card issue.

[Scottie]

Fantastic pics!

[Swain OHaw]

I can only imagine how difficult shooting jet fighters must be, respect ... I love shots like the second to last one, always impressive.

[Exar Kun]

May have been crappy skies but perfect conditions for those vortices! Awesome shots.

[norbs]

EXIF data doesn't seem to be intact?

[J.D.]

Mmmm...thanks for pointing that out. I try to preserve mine but maybe it's Photobucket which strips it. It doesn't seem to matter which site I upload to, the pictures are never as crisp as the originals either. Anyone got any ideas?

Also, the second last one looks a bit extreme here. The vignette on the original is actually quite subtle...

@Owain; jets are actually easier to shoot in some ways than props because 1/2000 is easier than 1/200th with a 500mm lens. Helicopters are harder again, usually @ 1/60.

@Mick: agreed. It was extremely humid down there yesterday. Even a paper dart would have trailed one! The second last pic of the F-16 has a vapour cloud under the tail. I know it probably should be there but I've never seen that before. Nor have I ever seen such a big cloud around the intake.

Thanks all.

[Durrie]

Great shots indeed.

How could anyone not be a fan of the Viper?

[J.D.]

Thanks.

Yeah, it's very photogenic.

You should see a Flanker in action. Like an F-16 on 'roids.

[KNAPPO]

Top shots J.D.

[Swain OHaw]

@Owain; jets are actually easier to shoot in some ways than props because 1/2000 is easier than 1/200th with a 500mm lens. Helicopters are harder again, usually @ 1/60.

Fair. I suppose the challenge with jets is the sheer speed you have to track, and keeping the framing ...

[J.D.]

For a lot of things with jets you just "spray and pray", all the while hoping the AF does its job.

[Duke]

@Owain; jets are actually easier to shoot in some ways than props because 1/2000 is easier than 1/200th with a 500mm lens. Helicopters are harder again, usually @ 1/60.

Fair. I suppose the challenge with jets is the sheer speed you have to track, and keeping the framing ...

The Airshow does make it easier as you are super close to the action compared to plane spotting on any other day plus they do some real slow passes, it's not all high speed. Add to that you can wait till the aircraft turn or are moving perpindicular to you / the runway rather than parrellel along the runway, it then requires predominantly zoom changes rather than ading the additional panning motion to get some cracking good shots.

[J.D.]

That's not really been my experience. I don't, as a rule, use my 70-200 for airshows. In the pst I used my 300mm, sometimes with the 1.4 TC on it. with that now consigned to lamented memory, I shot all these with my 500mm prime and sod the framing. I wouldn't bother with a 100-400 myself, not because it's not a good lens but because I'd rather let the event just happen and see what results.

[J.D.]

I think with the onset of the Nikon D800, you want to have the sharpest prime lens you can find and maybe use a 1.4x TC with that for outrageous results.

I use primes because they're usually faster to focus.

Sharpness? Meh. I only care that it's in focus. I had all the gear I needed, including a 1.4X TC but it didn't make the shots any better.

TBH, I'm really not happy with these. They are just not as good as my shots from the last show and the conditions were dreadful to shoot in. The jet shots would have been better without the white background and without them flying through their own jet exhaust.

I also can't understand why these things look so bad on the interwebs. They look cleaner and brighter on my monitor. Upload them and they look like they've been filtered through a septic tank.

[Gougoodthing]

fantastic photos JD