If you’re looking for a particular post please use the search box below
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
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
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
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.
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.
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!
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!
