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The summer air show season seems a long while ago now, but I was lucky enough to attend one of the flying displays at Duxford at the end of August. The grey skies didn’t exactly offer perfect conditions for aviation photography, but I caught a few of the aircraft in flight - in particular the Blenheim and one of the Spitfires.
Photos taken 31 August 2024
It’s been a long while since I tried my hand at aviation photography and I’ve been looking forward to putting my new camera (well, newish - I’ve had it since last November!) through its paces. My opportunity came last month when we went to the airshow a Sywell Aerodrome.
A wingwalker in action, hanging off an aeroplane in ways I could never contemplate!
I took about 1000 photos through the day and my camera’s new focusing system worked very effectively. Yes, I had lots of failures, but they were mostly down to me being so out of practice at panning with aircraft rather than any deficiency in the camera!
One of the local pigeons decided to take part in one of the air displays!
My old camera would certainly have failed here. Instead of being distracted by the hats of the people in front of us, my camera’s autofocus remained locked onto the aircraft, convincing me once again I make the right decision in upgrading!
Photos taken 22 June 2024
After we’d had our fill of the classic cars in St Paul’s Bay, we headed on to the Malta Aviation Museum. It’s a small museum (just a couple of hangars), but the light in the old buildings was wonderfully atmospheric and I found so many small scenes to inspire me.
The hangars aren’t too full, so it’s possible to find some wider images which don’t look too cluttered.
Dramatic light - my favourite type!
More dramatic light, this time in the cockpit of one of the aircraft.
This type of camouflage was used in Malta during World War II as there are so many dry stone walls there. I can imagine this car blending in very nicely.
Zooming in on a Hurricane.
A small glimpse of a familiar British landmark.
The crisp winter sun created some wonderful shadows…
Photos taken 19 November 2023
One blustery day in July we joined a group of friends from our local camera club for a photo day at Duxford’s Imperial War Museum, exploring some of the commercial aircraft. What a fascinating day it proved to be. Our tour guides had a tremendous knowledge of the aircraft and their history and we were allowed free reign to stick our lenses into every nook and cranny of them!
I found myself fascinated by the smaller details, especially on the flight decks where there were lots of atmospherically lit corners.
Kevin’s grandfather worked for Airspeed during World War II so we had to have a photo of Kevin beside the Airspeed Ambassador, even if it was a bit blowy!
The view from the navigator’s seat…
Enjoying the pilot’s seat
Many of the aircraft had been decorated with period features, such as crockery for the in flight refreshments.
Aboard one of the Queen’s personal aircraft
Buttons and dials everywhere on the flight deck of Concorde.
Photos taken 21 July 2023
It’s been a long while since I had a proper chance to test my aviation photography skills but late in July one of the flying displays at Duxford coincided with some a dry day. The sky was grey but with some texture in the clouds and this set off the colours of the aircraft well.
Photographing aircraft in flight is always a balancing act. You want a slow enough shutter speed to capture some movement in the propellers, but if you go to slow it becomes difficult to keep the camera still enough for a sharp photo. I usually begin with a faster shutter speed and then gradually reduce this as I get back into practice with my panning skills.
A trio of different Spitfires…
Spooling up for take off.
Happy landings.
The Mustang ‘Miss Helen’ readying herself for the skies
Photos taken 29 July 2023
While it’s so cold outside I thought I’d look back to a hot summer’s day when we visited Duxford. Kevin’s been a member of the Sally B Supporters’ Club for over thirty years now and one of the perks of this is being able to take a tour inside Sally B, the last airworthy B17 in Europe.
The last time we did this was one winter when she was still inside the hangar, so it was lovely to see her in the sunshine this time.
I’d taken my little Fuji camera with me (handy to have a small camera in the tight confines of an aircraft) and focused on capturing some of the details I saw around us.
Photos taken 7 August 2022
There are certain subjects you expect to make good pinhole photos, but aviation photography is not an obvious choice. When we visited Duxford over the summer, rather than taking a digital camera with a long lens, I plumped for my large format pinhole camera. I knew this would severely restrict my options but that wasn’t going to stop me!
Sally B was out on the concrete apron, surrounded by people so I set my tripod up over the fence and took a slowish exposure. This meant the people blurred as they milled around, creating a ghostly effect.
Elsewhere on the airfield the two seater Spitfire was being readied for flight so, once again, I took the opportunity to capture a sense of movement in the human element in the frame as the passenger slipped into the cockpit.
Another Spitfire, albeit one made of fibreglass, which is why I was able to get quite so close!
Photos taken 21 August 2022
We both celebrated our 50th birthdays during the restrictions of 2021 so the adventure we had planned to mark the occasion was fashionably late, in May 2022. We headed off to the Old Warden airfield in Bedfordshire for a flight in ‘Wacky Wabbit’, a WWII Harvard aircraft.
We weren’t allowed to take anything in the aircraft with us, but that wasn’t going to stop me catching some photos as Kevin went on his flight.
Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.
Coming back in to land…
Our day also coincided with one of the regular Shuttleworth Collection air shows, so naturally we stayed on to watch and catch some photos!
Photos taken 1 May 2022
Back in August I spent some time using my diminutive Rollei 35S film camera, getting to know it better. It’s a tiny camera, with an amazingly sharp 40mm lens so it’s great to keep in your pocket for impromptu photo outings.
Work in progress in the restoration hangar
Light levels tend to be quite low in the old hangars at Duxford, but the Rollei coped with this easily and I enjoyed finding compositions which suited its lens.
Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.
Photos taken August 2022
Whereas Henry Ford supposedly told his customers they could have their Model T in any colour, as long as it was black, the Imperial War Museum’s latest exhibition offers any aircraft you like, as long as it’s a Spitfire.
The NHS Spitfire which has toured the country as a thank you to the thousands of NHS staff who have worked tirelessly through the pandemic. Click on the images to see them larger.
The leaden winter skies weren’t enticing us towards outdoor activities today, so instead we headed for Duxford to get a closer look at twelve of this amazing machines. All of the aircraft are already part of the fleet housed at Duxford, so I’ve photographed many of them before. However, it was good to see them all together and it gave me a chance to catch some angles I’d never seen before.
29 December 2021
