Photo hunting at Duxford

A couple of weeks ago we popped up to Duxford for a stroll around the museum. With no chance of seeing anything flying I decided to bring my Uncle’s Rolleiflex along for the ride as I haven’t used it for several months.

I didn’t have any clear ideas of what I wanted to photograph, so I simply hunted for subjects which appealed to me and used it as an opportunity to reacquaint myself with this beautiful camera’s challenging manual focusing mechanism.

I’d gone armed with some Ilford HP5 film, which gave me a sporting chance of shooting inside some of the hangars and I was surprised how slow a shutter speed I could get away with if I braced the camera against my body.

23 December 2021

17 January 2018 - In search of subjects that fly

When I awoke this morning the sky was a beautiful shade of blue and featured an unusual golden orb. Of course, what I was seeing was the sun, but it's been so long since we had a sunny day I'd almost forgotten what that looked like! I certainly wasn't going to waste this opportunity so I headed in out in search of some flying subjects, with which to test the focus tracking on my new camera.

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I headed first for the Fowlmere RSPB nature reserve, not far from here. My hopes were high that I might find some bird life to photograph among the chalk streams and reed beds. Sadly I was mightily disappointed. With the exception of a lone swan, who remained stubbornly in the water, I barely saw a single bird. The walk did me good though and it was wonderful to be out in the sunshine, even if there was a cutting wind which was, of course, the probable reason why the birds were in hiding.

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After a couple of hours I gave up and drove the short distance to Duxford in the hope that I might find the odd metallic bird to photograph. Here my luck was in - as I walked out of the visitor centre a Spitfire was revving up its engines, ready for take off. I dug my camera and long lens out of my bag, legged it over to the flight line and snapped away. After  spot of lunch I emerged back into the sunshine and found, to my delight, that the Spitfire was going out again - my luck really was in. I'd been hoping to shoot the odd mundane private plane so this thoroughbred was a huge bonus!

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The resulting photos were something of a mixed bag. That said, I was shooting into the light a lot of the time and my panning technique is horribly out of practice after a winter with no aircraft to aim at. However, there were some successes. With some more practice and greater familiarity with the camera's controls no doubt things will improve- I just need to find more suitable subjects to photograph!

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