Warbird Information Exchange

I had considered writing a few words about the show, but instead I'll just thank everyone who worked so hard to make yesterday evening such a success and quote a comment I overhreard in the crowd during the SE5a/Triplane display:

"it doesn't get any better than this"

A few photos for your delectation (I've managed to stamp most of these with "2004" in the copyright, I'll change them when I have time):

After lurking in the dark recesses of Andy Preslent's workshop for many months, the Pup is nearing completion. It's simply stunning. Note the large Le Prieur rockets on the struts.

The Triplane and SE5a displays were some of the best I've seen - hats off to Andy Sephton & Trevor Roche - masters of their art.

For these two limbo shots I tried my old 10D with a 28-135 lens instead (being a great deal lighter it's much easier to pan with)

This is the first Old Warden show that I've shot entirely in RAW and I've got to say that it's a big improvement over JPG. It's more work, but it's definately worth it. It's just a shame that a great deal of detail, tone and gradation is lost in shrinking down to an 800 pixel JPG for posting.

Rob

Thanks for sharing your beautiful pics. Great lens work.

I have a Canon EOS 20D DSLR, and am anxious to try it out at the upcoming Great War Fly In in Dayton at the USAF Museum at the end of September. Hope to get a few small paintings from my shots out of that trip!

I was a confirmed film guy, but now I just shoot away at Medium Fine (good for 8" x 10" prints) setting with my 2GB card (I can get something like 853 8" x 10s at the Med Fine setting on the 2GB card), and then put everything on disc ... I love digital! All I need now is a good "L" lens and I'll be set for years.

Thanks again for sharing!

Wade

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Wade, I always shoot at the highest resolution that I can. I've even moved over to shooting in RAW for aerial shots now when I've always used large fine JPG in the past. If you don't capture all the detail when you shoot, you can't put it back again. If you take a humdinger of a shot you'll only end up kicking yourself if you don't squeeze every bit of detail out of it.

Rob



A few more photos from a lovely evening's show. My friends and I have spent the last winter cleaning these planes and it's really given us all a real appreciation for their form and structure. Seeing all of this caressed by the warm (in colour only, it was freezing!) glow of the setting sun makes it all worthwhile.

You're right, of course. RAW is the ultimate use of the 8.2 MPs I have at my disposal. Large Fine JPEG also takes advantage of that Canon processor. My kids' photos I take look super at either one.

I should have specified that I shoot Medium Fine for my everyday shooting of the kids, etc. I shoot them a LOT not only for archival purposes (tons of shots on disc for us to look at years later), but it keeps me "current" on my 20D and all it's features. I feel right comfortable with the old girl now - but I do lust after some "L" glass one day.

Another thing is that if I shoot, say, 150 shots on the 2GB card at Large Fine and transfer it to the computer for transfer to disc, the computer starts acting funny most of the time. Not the camera's fault, but 3 MP files x 150 frames starts to tax my computer's memory. So, for the everyday shooting I bumped it down to Med Fine (8" x 10", if I want to print out frame "X" or "Y").

For less than 100 shots, or my artwork, I shoot Large Fine. For the artwork, I shoot the gray card for exposure then white balance. Haven't yet tried to shoot artwork RAW since I'm not so sure about the RAW editor or my image editing program's ability to give me a good white balance. Need to try it out.

Wade

_________________
Website: http://www.wademeyersart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Wade.Meyers.Studios