Black Diamond Productions

I will be writing up this entire air show experience tomorrow.. here are just some shots from today….. Very interesting first major air show experience with zero experience shooting fast moving objects…. totally worth the two hours in traffic to get in…

Entry – Two hours in Traffic:

It’s a long story but I do not go to many events anymore and do not travel much anymore. The past 4-5 years  I have been dealing with ongoing chronic stomach issues. For those with them they know how they can run your life and in many cases us that suffer from them are held hostage daily by the side effects of medicines and or “treatments” (It is in quotes because they never actually work). This weekend was an important test of my own will to go do something that was not sitting around waiting to die in my house held up by my own issues. It seems I passed…  

I really miss going to airshows, I used to go to them all the time with my dad, a retired USAF Navigator and career military man. He taught me everything I know about planes and respect for the military. They bring back good memories and these days when good things are becoming much harder to find, I will take whatever I can get.

So after the two hour wait in traffic and then seeing I could have saved over an hour by going in on another road that I had talked myself out of taking earlier in the day, I finally got parked.

I have about 15 years of Law Enforcement experience and was sort of amazed at the lack of security I had hit on the way into the base. I knew I would be hitting some eventually but the way they had parking laid out was different than I had seen in shows from years earlier.

Security:

** Oh man there goes the B2 Bomber flyover……and me in the security line…Nice job **

So here is a clue I do not get out much anymore… I should read the security rules before packing up my stuff and expecting to get into a secure facility – “Sir, you cannot bring any drinks onto the flight line except water and can I see in your bag?” Ok I knew this was coming… So I opened my bag and this is what security saw:

I had just bought this bag – pretty much just for this outing and other smaller jaunts I will be taking. It is really compact and overall I really like this bag. My other bag is a monster Lowe Pro and hauling it around requires a Sherpa. This bag has a ton of very nice features for the price and some very cool hidden features that photographers will really appreciate. Hidden access pockets for lens access is just one of many. See the larger image for what I am carrying…

The only thing it is missing in my eyes is a dedicated external water bottle holder or even better I will be exploring the ability to slide a camelback into the computer pocket (since I do not carry a computer in it) But external water bottle holders are easy to find also.

Here are the details and link to the bag:

Tenba – Shootout – Small Backpack

Description:

The Small size is designed to carry a very well rounded camera system and tripod, plus a laptop up to 13 inches. The Small is identical to the Medium and Large backpacks in every way except for size, and it includes an expedition-grade waist belt and removable photo interior. The Small easily meets the most stringent carry-on requirements, even on the tiniest aircraft, so it is a great option for traveling when you are likely to fly on a turboprop instead of a full sized jet.

See their site for a video walkthrough of the options – It is the most bag for the money I have found in the smaller size.

Gear Choices:

So after sweet talking the very pretty military security person they let me in with my bag even thou it was over the 1 cubic foot max… Pretty sure I lucked out only because I had, as a friend of mine likes to say: All my crap in one sock : And the fact the million people around me not only did not but I am pretty sure were not wearing socks at all.

Actually after coming home and reading the site:

I probably should not have got in at all……

So I hit the flight line after unsheathing the Nikon and the 70/200 – This is easily my go to lens for just about everything. Big – yes – heavy – sort of – but flexible and super sharp. It is also the longest thing I own and I only hoped it would be long enough.

So let’s get down to what I did not want to shoot. The typical airshow photos I have seen from most look like this:

So the above is a common issue I did not want to have on this trip. I like to set goals of what I do not want to do so I can push myself to do everything in my power not to do them. As you can see when your original image looks like the one on the left – and you crop it to try to make it look more interesting – well it still fails pretty terribly. Tons of noise in the sky and overall it is just not an interesting shot. Fill the frame is what I was taught in model photography, it should translate across as most airplanes are pretty much like the women I know… wait that’s a story for another day…

I would like to shoot stuff more like this – But I need to freeze the action better:

So onto figure out how to shoot fast moving objects when the only mode I have used on my camera in Manual mode in the past two years.

My solution – S – Shutter priority mode – If you have not looked at the modes on your camera, well you need too and you need to learn what they can do to make your life much easier. My camera is much smarter than I am, I am pretty sure it told me this on the flight line. It said: Shutter priority idiot and then just worry about getting the little plane in the frame and shoot like a mad man…

I simply set the shutter speed for something around 1/800th and that put me at an Aperture of about 7ish – This will change with this setting thou to try to maintain the shutter speed.

** OK I need a spotter and a program – because I smell Jet-A Fuel? Hmmm… oh – there goes the jet car **

More coming soon after I put out my eyebrows…

Shots from the day:

An overall view of a huge fire we have burning in our area today…

I rarely see overall shots of these – Just a quick Pano standing on the bed of my truck and stitched with Photomerge Adobe CS5.

I will do my best to post a photo a day… we will see how this goes….

Equipment: Alien Bees B800
Single 44” Umbrella – Silver
Post Processed to B&W in Photoshop