Abingdon Country Show *Saturday*

Airshow Photography from the UK and around the world
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Big_Gareth
Posts: 158
Joined: Sun 15 Sep 2013, 5:06 pm

Abingdon Country Show *Saturday*

Post by Big_Gareth »

One week on from Abingdon and my face still looks sunburnt! I had a great weekend though and wish to share a few photos from the Saturday.

I arrived at the airfield just prior to 10am and was allowed onsite to witness both the Canberra and Tucano rehearse their display. I simply cannot explain how fantastic it was to see the Canberra on Saturday morning. I was gutted when it cancelled at Duxford last year and here it was with what felt like my own personal display, as I watched it fly right overhead with just a couple of security guards for company.

This isn’t a great photo but I managed to capture ‘that pass’ and if you thought it sounded good from the display line on Sunday, WOW it was immense being stood right underneath it.. my new favourite moment in this hobby – it made all of the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!
:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:
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Left with a huge grin from ear to ear it was the turn of the Tucano to put on his display. I was underwhelmed each time I saw the Tucano last year but I think that this new routine is excellent and it was great to be so close to his landing, even if it was facing into the sun.

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By now a few more people had arrived but we were asked to move on and the rest of the morning/afternoon failed to live up to the excitement of the Canberra. Spotting from the fence, north of the airfield wasn’t great with a 400mm lens, although the late arrival in formation of the Skyvan, Bronco and a passing JP briefly got the blood flowing again.

And then on to the night shoot; huge thanks to Mark for organising the event and it was great to meet some of the people from here. It was quite funny getting locked in at the end of the evening but great to still be taking photos around 11pm. :lol:

I had a bit of a nightmare when my tripod broke but I’m quite pleased with some of these shots. All were taken with a Canon 5dIII, 24-105mm lens, set to infinity in manual mode and using the bulb setting. I was simply guessing exposure times based upon the histogram. It’s only my second time doing a night shoot so C&C very welcome. Thanks for looking Big_Gareth

1) Bronco ISO100, f8, 13sec exposure
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2) Bronco ISO100, f11, 46sec exposure
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3) Tucanos ISO100, f8, 20sec exposure
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4) Tucano ISO 100, f8, 27sec exposure
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5) Tucano ISO 100, f8, 20sec exposure
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6) Skyvan ISO 100, f8, 48sec exposure
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7) Skyvan ISO 100, f7.1, 129sec exposure
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8) Skyvan ISO 100, f7.1, 107sec exposure
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9) Broussard ISO 100, f7.1, 183sec exposure
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10) Gazelle ISO 100, f8, 109sec exposure
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11) Gazelle ISO 100, f8, 46sec exposure
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12) Gazelle ISO 100, f8, 45sec exposure
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13) Gazelles ISO 100, f11, 51sec exposure
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tmattias
Posts: 104
Joined: Sat 13 Jul 2013, 9:32 pm

Re: Abingdon Country Show *Saturday*

Post by tmattias »

Nice photos!

One trick for getting the right exposure during night shots is to first dial the ISO to 6400. If the camera givs you 1s as the correct exposure that equals to 60s with ISO 100

1s @ ISO 6400 = 60s @ ISO 100
2s @ ISO 6400 = 2min @ ISO 100
10s @ ISO 6400 = 10min @ ISO 100

and so on..

You can also take a couple of test shots at ISO 6400 so see how the exposure looks without having the wait 60s+ for each photo. And when you feel you have the right exposure you dial the ISO back down to 100 and take the 'real' photo.

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Big_Gareth
Posts: 158
Joined: Sun 15 Sep 2013, 5:06 pm

Re: Abingdon Country Show *Saturday*

Post by Big_Gareth »

Cheers for the reply tmattias, that's a great tip I didn't know that ISO and exposure time were related in exactly this way but it makes sense. During the night shoot I was desperately trying to remember the maths behind exposure time and aperture but I confused myself with half stops and didn't trust myself to go as wide as f5.6 for fear of losing depth of field.

I was hoping that I might get some comments about the orange skies. I guess these aren't to everyone's taste - certainly highlights just how much light pollution is in the area. I could get rid of them in post production but I actually quite like them :oops:

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