Aircraft Photography

Cleveland Air Show Labor Day weekend and the Blue Angels homecoming in Pensecola in November.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to check out my Photobucket site for airshows and museums.  Been a while since I updated it though.

Hodakamax

PS--If I sent you to the Air Show with the gear described above, You too would see the advantage I have with equipment. You would be Amazed! (and cheating.)

Do they have to be flying?

Curtis Helldiver 2 by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

_mg_8741_1 by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Memphis Belle by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Untitled by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Justin, really nice work, and no they don't have to be flying. I like the atmosphere you have created. Keep up the good work. Any more?

Max

BigJim

 

 

Hodakamax

PS--If I sent you to the Air Show with the gear described above, You too would see the advantage I have with equipment. You would be Amazed! (and cheating.)

 

 

I doubt it. It takes a lot to impress me and I haven't seen it yet. I would say that it looks like my little $80 Fuji takes as good a picture as your mega-buck outfit, but, then I would be bragging. 

 

 

I should explain a few things to Jim and everyone else that professional photography is not a viable job option in the digital world anymore. With the coming of computers and the internet, over 90% of picture viewing is done on computer screens. Computer screens are fairly low resolution and even Jim's $80 Fuji meets the requirements for this use. Jim doesn't have to focus, adjust exposure or adjust colors. He just points and shoots. Most phones meet the requirements of the internet and actually look amazingly good.

Not so in the shrinking world of Professional Photography where Magazines, prints and brochures require 300dpi (dots per inch) or more compared to the internet at 72dpi. The shrinking market for hi-resolution photography has resulted in most pros out of work. Lucky for me I was able to retire and do fun things like build models and motorcycles. No sour grapes here, my timing was perfect.

Standards for photograhy have fallen to the level of "good enough'' rather than the excellent standard of the past. Worse yet we have new "experts'' buying automatic cameras and printing business cards.

Photography is still a fun hobby along with other retirement things mentioned. Professional work requires knowledge and experience of lighting, composition and an understanding of photographic principles. It is a profession. When teaching photography I would always start with, ''I bought a camera and I was a photographer, I then bought a pencil and I was a writer. Food for thought. 

Max

Here's a few more...

Curtis Helldiver 3 by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Scene's From Eagle's Mere by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

SI_20150124_175142 by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

F-14 Tomcat, USS Yorktown Museum by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

25 million ready for delivery by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Untitled by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Those are great! I love the "effect"...whatever it is!

Makes em almost look like a really good painting

While I have a bit of spare time let's see if if the $80 Fuji takes as good of picture as the   expensive Nikon. First we should crop Jim's nice shot to make it even better by getting rid of unwanted space and improve the composition by leaving a bit more space in front of objects with direction which leaves space for the moving object to go. Ah, much better. Now let's blow the shot up to look for sharpness and flaws. We must also consider that the Photobucket transition has killed some of the resolution. Now we seem to see the picture is slightly soft probably not from focus problems but from lens quality. Also on the wing we can see a blue line on one edge and a red on the other. This is caused by all colors not coming to focus in the same spot. It's not visible in his other wider angle static shot. This probably a result of errors being magnified along with the image becoming larger in the telephoto setting. This is typical flaw of inexpensive lenses with not enough elements and/or poor design. The Fuji lens has a few elements where the Nikon has over a dozen precision ones. You get what you pay for.

All of this is not Jim's fault but one of an inferior lens. Jims photo is very good and meets the limit requirements of 72dpi for screen viewing on the internet but it's not going to pass for a magazine cover. In other words "it's good enough".

Having said all of this I'm certainly not being critical. Last week in my public service of judging 4H photography I did several hundred of these disertations and I just couldn't pass up one more.

Nice shot Big Jim and thanks for posting. How's that?

Max

Hey Gang, click on a few of Justin's photos and check what I mean by sharpness. Also take note of his composition. Everything is in the right place. This is excellent professional stuff. 

And Justin, thanks for the extra post. Nice work!

Max

PS--I see that Justins photos are coming through FlickR which sure beats PhotoBucket for Resolution it appears.

Hodakamax

Hey Gang, click on a few of Justin's photos and check what I mean by sharpness. Also take note of his composition. Everything is in the right place. This is excellent professional stuff. 

And Justin, thanks for the extra post. Nice work!

Max

PS--I see that Justins photos are coming through FlickR which sure beats PhotoBucket for Resolution it appears.

 

Thanks Max!  I appreciate the compliments!  I am, by any means, a professional (professional meaning I get paid...) .  I have been studying photography for years, constantly striving for a better photograph.  There are many excellent resources available to improve the skils, and most importantly getting out there and shooting!  I've been using Flickr for almost as long as they have been around, and they have a really easy way to share photos on forums such as these...

Let me tell you about my gear...I am shooting with a Canon t1i, which is about 5-7 years old.  My favorite lens is a pretty owned/refurbished 15-85mm canon lens standard with the 7d kit.  Also of note, I go into every "photo shoot" with a vision of shots I would like to make, and an idea as to what the final result will look like.  I use snapseed for edits, and typically I sharpen, add brightness, contrast, and sometimes I adjust the 'warmth' of the photo.  Depending on the conditions that I have no control over (mixed light, too much contrast, not enough saturation ) I will adjust the image with the 'HDR' effects, which it gives the "painterly" effect....

Hodakamax

Here's one that's different. I was trying to get some foreground framing as this F-16 came ripping through on a low level pass. I lined everything up and gave a burst as he passed. Several so-so shots but one good one. My wife calls it luck but you do have to be there with your finger on the trigger!

Max

 

Here's a similar shot...

_mg_8825_1 by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Max, thank you for the compliments.  I must say that all of the in flight shots were the result of catching 5 frames a second and tracking as the planes came by.  Then quite a bit of sifting and cropping to find the pearls among all the sand. While I am getting smarter, I had the camera for just a couple of months when those shots were taken, and still feel the camera is smarter than me.  But I am learning and trying new stuff as often as I can.  I recently upgraded to 17-300 Nikon lens and aside from it being rather heavy have really enjoyed not having to change lenses all the time.  All I have caught recently is some wildlife, and the hardest thing is to get the camera to focus on the moving bird.  Here are a few more shots I've taken.  All have been cropped and maybe adjusted by Windows Live Photo Gallery.  Let me know what you think, please.

This one I was experimineting with the photo options.

This is one of the pair of red tails we have living around our sub division.  He and i are friends.

Thanks for the comments. 

John

Hey John (and Gang). This is not Aircraft photography but the rules apply. Composition is important in photography and some can be done with cropping. These are not my ideas but are things that will make your work stand out. I've cropped a couple of Johns good shots for him. The rule of thirds has been put in effect and anything having direction should have more space in front or as we say, someplace to go. Hope this helps!  

Max

And John, Love the flying deer, What a shot! Your stuff is looking good. This cropping tutorial helps us all and will make our good pictures look better. Wildlife is a tough one in that we are always chasing to get closer. Carry on!

Max

wolfhammer1

 

 

Man! Muh belluh just started growlin!!! What a beautiful creature!

Mike B. just built a teeny model of this and I just sent him a picture of the 1/1 version. Here'a an arty shot of it for our photography posts. Oshkosh 2009.

Max 

Here's a few pics from my Marine Corps days when I was attending an A-6 AME Framp course at NAS Oceana. Having a backseat license I was able to get in some 20 plus flight hours with VC-12 The pilots were all great people and I got in quit a bit of stick time with the planes.

Inbound back to base. Virginia Beach in the distance.

Me after one of the flights. I got the Hasegawa 1/32 TA-4 which I plan on building some day depicting one of the birds I flew in.

Hodakamax

Mike B. just built a teeny model of this and I just sent him a picture of the 1/1 version. Here'a an arty shot of it for our photograhy posts. Oshkosh 2009.

Max 

 

I dig that pic....too bad for the background "noise". I have "alomost" sworn off taking pics at airshows, just because of the growd...that, and I have a ton of pics already. For the last for shows, I'd just "collect" nose art. 

One of my favorites...

It's just a cell phone pic, with some effects in photobucket editor.

The original...

...and...

Here's a link to my album...no GREAT photographs, but some cool pics.

http://s661.photobucket.com/user/fermisb/library/TOM%202010?sort=3&page=1

And a few more from my local airports little airshow, this summer...

http://s24.photobucket.com/user/jbacklund1/library/Fam%20pics/airport?sort=3&page=1

Hey Fermis, I did check out your pix. Wow, you have a lot of air show miles on the odometer like me. Fun stuff.

And yes the Old Crow picture has a lot of clutter but it does have a bit of visual impact, I call it, where your eye goes to it among other photos. When judging photography I give points for visual impact because of factors such as composition, bold colors or contrast, your eye goes to that picture first. This is important in advertising where you want people to look at your ad first. This picture is not great but does draw your eye to it with contrasting colors, high contrast and lots of diagonals. Just another trick in advertising!

Max

And Archangel Shooter, Thanks for the pictures. People forget that photographs really are moments or sections of time in our lives. It looks as though you had some great adventures in the past and you have a record of it. This is what photography is all about. Thanks again for your post.

Max

Don't know who took this one , but it's a heck of a shot:

Some of these shots are a bit dated, buy some standards.

This was a spur of the moment, right place-right time kind of shot.  At the time (2010), I was using a Canon SX10, & I haven't done any post-processing to the image.  One lucky shot...

Browsing through my photos...  For the last 3 years, Ive been using a Canon 5D MkII with L series lenses, and its still a steep learning curve to get everything right.

On the beach next to Phuket Int. while on vacation:

Breitling Wing Walkers:

Royal Saudi Air Force Hawks:

UAE Air Force F-16E Desert Falcon & Mirage 2000:

Airbus A350 Demonstrator:

Few more...

Royal Air Force Red Arrows:

A Typhoon from No.3 Squadron, RAF Coningsby

Hawker Hunter "Miss Demeanour"

These are Great! I love this stuff!

Max

High over Fort DeSoto

There are too many to comment on. These are awesome images by everyone. Keep em coming...

Photography differs from other Art forms in that it's time related. It's not luck, it's being there. When judging photography at least by me, time is a big factor. I'll give you big points for not only being at the right coordinates at the right time but actually recording it sucessfully. When you get the shot, a small portion of time has been recorded whether it's the crash of the Hindenburg or your son's birthday.

Ish47guy's Sunset and Big Jim's moon crossing are great examples of this in their posts above. Big points from Max, whatever that's worth!

Max

So many gigabytes of stored images...

I've been very fortunate to be able to attend the opening race of the Red Bull Air Race series for the last few years.  I learned the importance of high shutter speeds after a few tries.

Another one of those right time-right place shots as the plane's wing rips right through the air-inflated pylon:

Host nation's military flight demonstration unit, "Al Fursan" (The Knights).