Evan's photography phun

[evangilder]

Cheers for the compliments guys. Yes, it was 2 Texans taking off in formation. When I first looked at the thumbnail, I thought it was only one. Then I thought about it and realized that they didn't take off singly. When I enlarged it, I thought it was a cool effect. Lucky shot. And yes, Lee, the back seat in BOTH of those Texans were empty, and that is really wrong!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

That deffinatly was a good shot though! I envy you a bit. I dont get to see war birds all that often in flight.

 

[Pisis]

Yes, I think Eric is is the luckiest of us here when it is about being close to warbirds. I live literally next to an airfield but it is a feast when a warbird comes. And that is like once a year...

 

[evangilder]

Like real estate, location is important. Camarillo is 20 minutes away (where I volunteer). Van Nuys is about 40 minutes and Burbank about 45. Chino is about an hour and a half. There are a lot of good places for warbirds here. One of these days, Syscom and I are going to March ARB. That is a real feast for static displays.

 

[trackend]

here here Adler go for it Eric just dont do the photographers bread and butter, bloody wedding pictures nearly all the guys i used to know that did it said all it consisted of was bossing a load of uncoprative people around to get them in the right order and their kids to stand still then sweating that the rushes come out alright.
But I bet you could sell some of you pics freelance to a. the owners of the aircraft and b the flight mags try over seas you wont be competing with the local in house snappers then although the international picture libraries are know as a good place to start (you have to give up all copy rights though).
I hav'nt noticed any shots in the Uk Flight Magazine from Carmarillo it may be worth an E-mail to them you never know Eric.

Anyway im going to pick you brains now old son, I went out today and guess what I bought a D50 and a 70-300 zoom, this weekend is Duxford flying legends I only have 4 days to acclimatise myself with the kit so any tips regarding how to get the best out of the Nikon would be useful.
Do you over Exspose for your flight shots or is the Nikons metering latitude sufficiant to cope with a high contrast subject like planes against a bright blue sky (forcast is for 80s and 90s and cloudless)
cheers Eric

 

[evangilder]

Wow, 4 days?! hehe Ok, a few of the basics...

AF mode either in auto mode or continuous. This allows the servo to track the moving object as it moves toward or away from you. If in AF-S, you will have crap images of moving objects.

My first time out, I shot almost entirely in full auto (left dial on green auto). You can do this and get decent images, but you have no control over what you are going to get and your results can be inconsistent. Plus, with no control over what your camera is doing will mean that you will have no idea what to set to reproduce the image or effect.

You can shoot in either aperture or shutter priority mode, and that is a matter of personal preference. I prefer shutter priority as I can control what speed I am shooting at to maximize the prop blur effect. It's a fine balance as too slow a shutter speed can lead to "whole aircraft blur"! It's something you will have to play with to develop the feel for.

Since you have a few days, play around with the camera in the ayrd, around town, etc. Try different settings, multiple shots of the same subject with different settings, etc. The beauty of digital is if the shot is bollocks, just delete it! Also make sure you check it on your screen on the computer. Sometimes it looks great on the LCD on the camera and looks so-so or not good at all when on the big screen.

One BIG thing you want to do is to turn off the Image Review function. For one, it will save your battery a bit, and it only stays on for a short while anyway. It's useless as far as I am concerned. You can review the images by pressing the top left button next to the screen and using the thumbwheel on the right to step through them (chimping).

Questions???

 

[evangilder]

Speaking of tweaking settings and trying new things, I shot these tonight in the park by my house. Almost completely manual settings. ISO 1600, shutter initially at 500, way too fast. Dropped it to 200 (shutter priority mode) and you can see the results.

 

[trackend]

Thanks for all that Eric it will save quite a bit of time I usually use shutter priority although as exsposures and speed are interdependant I tend to bracket shot with half a stop over and half under that said i had a quick go this morning taking a church steeple against a very bright sky and was very impressed at the metering I think I will forgo bracketing in favour of ( as you advise) the af continous which I think is super I followed a bird and the servo was very good at maintaining a sharp image.
Unfortunately after forking out for everything, spare batt, uv flilters etc I could only afford the one SD card so I went for 2gig but that gives me 568 frames in fine mode and I am taking my Lap top so I can down load my snaps also I shall use my Olympus for the static shots as it works very well as long as high speed focusing is not needed.
Even though I have just got it out of the box I must agree with you Eric for it's price you get a very good spec camera with plenty of creative control the only one draw back I have is because my lenses are not CPU I cant use the center weighted or spot metering perhaps a new lens in the future is on the cards. Thanks for the tips and I will let you know how things go Eric cheers m8.
ps like the night shots I will have to get a bit more familiar with the unit before I progress to more specilised useage.

 

[evangilder]

Lee, don't rely on the counter to be accurate for fine jpg.You should get 1,000 or more shots on that SD. I typically get about 500 shots per 1GB SD card. Take the laptop just in case, but you will find that the counter is not that good of a gauge for how many you have left. ALthough it might work ok if shooting RAW, which I never do. I also know several pros who don't shoot RAW either.

For future reference, buy your SD cards online, you will get them much cheaper. A 1GB card at the shop cost me $89. a 1GB online was $29! The best price I found so far is at new egg (Newegg.com - Buy Computer Parts, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras, and Electronics)

 

[trackend]

Cheers for that Eric I was unaware the frame counter was not accurate I paid £49 for my 2 gig card but the 80 X high speed version was £112.
I had a read up on the raw files and after down loading both types I see no real advantage with RAW, I found both easy to manipulate and no real quality differential. Mind you I've spent all my money now so instead of staying in a hotel I'm bivvying on a camp site (few years since I did that).
Thanks again for the info Eric all the best.

 

[evangilder]

The high speed flash cards are ok if you are looking to speed shot (multiple shots with one press of the shutter button), but I never do that. I prefer to pick my shots and make them count. It does download faster from the card to the PC though if you are using USB 2.0.

RAW versus fine JPG has it's plusses and minuses. The only real advantage I see to RAW is that it gives you more information to edit. But how much editting do you really need? If it takes more than 10 minutes to edit an image to make it look good, you need to take better pictures to begin with!

Have a great time at the show. I look forward to seeing the pics.

 

[evangilder]

2 new calendars posted to my calendar store. This time the classic Texan. The second calendar I called "Grumman Iron" and features the F3F, F4F, F6F, F7F and F8F. Here are the preview sheets for your viewing pleasure...

 

[Nonskimmer]

Very, very nice!
Cool fireworks too.

 

[evangilder]

Cheers, NS. I enjoy this way too much.

 

[trackend]

Lovely shots Eric I really like the Tigercat it reminds me of those balsa planes we used to buy as kids with its almost 2 dimensional fuselage.
Had a browse through your calenders the close ups is my favorite but there all great

 

[evangilder]

Cheers Lee. Here is a section I call "In Memoriam"

 

[lesofprimus]

Nice stuff Eric.... Quality shots...

 

[Pisis]

S!

 

[evangilder]

Cheers guys. I put up a photo essay with these shots and others on my website at Van Gilder Aviation Photography, Memorial Day, 2006- In Memoriam

 

[Nonskimmer]

Well done.