Reno 2017 - Warbird Photo Dump

[Zac Yates]

All banking away so no "topside" photos, but it does satisfy KiwiZac's request

Chris, you're a gentleman and a scholar!

I'm all about variety in the Unlimiteds but something tells me Race 8 is a bit overweight...

[Blackbirdfan]

Who wants another big photo dump? The Silver unlimited race, from the hillside. Not my best work, but I'll take what I can get.



Lap 2...


Lap 3... still at it.






lap 4+








Will

[garbs]

Works for me, Will. IIRC, that's not "High G Ridge", but is an undisclosed location of your own choosing, right?

[Blackbirdfan]

Works for me, Will. IIRC, that's not "High G Ridge", but is an undisclosed location of your own choosing, right?

Correct. Its between pylon 3 and the guide pylon, essentially the fenceline, of the eastern side. It requires a 4x4 or mountain bike to get to, unless you are up for a long walk. The dirt road comes up from Lemmon valley dr.

Will

[Zac Yates]

Awesome sequence Will! I'm going to need to quote that whole post and share it over at Wings Over New Zealand, love it!

[Blackbirdfan]

Awesome sequence Will! I'm going to need to quote that whole post and share it over at Wings Over New Zealand, love it!

There are actually two shots missing from it, and I'm not sure where they went. One of the shots was a bobble by the Speedball Alice that allowed Full Noise to go through. I'm not sure what happened, in the pic, or, where the pic went. Its on an SD card here somewhere. I'm editing stuff on two computers, so I will find the pics again when I go through the SD card they are on again on my desktop.

A few more shots from Thursday.

Making a Wildcat look like its doing 500mph... (I really pushed my limits as a photographer for this. I shot this handheld at 410mm, F18 at 1/60 sec shutter speed)


Not quite as slow, but still 1/80 sec 410mm.


Shanty Irish at 1/100th sec 400mm


1/80 at 400mm



Shanty Irish on the ramp Friday night.


Will

[garbs]

Very steady hand, Will. I don't even try any slower than 1/350th!

[Blackbirdfan]

Very steady hand, Will. I don't even try any slower than 1/350th!

Its funny, whenever I shoot that fast, I end up with blurry shots. hahah. Whenever I'm having a bad shooting day I take a breath, and slow the shutter speed down and try again. Nine times out of ten, it works. Perhaps it just makes me focus on what I'm doing more. I was shooting tons of garbage one of the days at Reno and I kept going up in shutter speed. It was so bad that I was shooting 1/800 and getting fuzzy shots. Since I had nothing to lose, I went to 1/160, and things got better. So I went down. 1/125 and 3 out of 4 shots were clear. So I went 1/100 and was about 50%. The morning I shot the these (Thursday morning I think) I was getting good shots at 1/160 so I made sure I had some good ones of the class, then went to 1/100, had 2 of 3 good shots so I kept going lower. I tried some 1/50 shots but they were not happening. I did shoot a fair number of good shots in the sport and other classes at 1/80.

1/350 is the typical go to shutter speed for "safe" shooting. Gives decent prop blur, and usually sharp pics. Going to the slower shutter speeds brings a different dynamic to the shots, especially if you have a background to blur. For Reno, since everyone is shooting nearly the same shot, I'm trying to teach myself how to take the same background and make the shot different from everyone else out there. Does it produce some garbage shots? You bet, but, everyone is shooting some garbage out there. (I'm blown away by the number of people who use the spray and pray method, shooting huge bursts of shots at a time. I'd hate to have to sift through all those identical shots looking for a good one, or one that stands out more than the rest.) My goal was at least one good shot of every plane racing. I think I'll be pretty close on that. Hopefully they will be shots different enough from everyone else that they will be identifiable as mine. I'll be thrilled if I can get 3 pics in the program next year. (I had two in it this year.)

Will

[Zac Yates]

I love that photo of Martlet "at speed"! I'd say your experiment worked.

I also really like that third photo, of Shanty Irish coming at you. I'm gathering photos to use as reference material for a scale model of her and I think that's the first time I've seen the race number on her top wing.

The B&W photo of her on the ramp...sublime.

[Blackbirdfan]

I thought I was lucky enough to get the Martlet at 1/60, so naturally I had to outdo myself with another of Shanty Irish at an even longer focal length.







Will

[Zac Yates]

<- me, speechless. Gorgeous photos!

[Neal Nurmi]

They surely are nice! My thanks to all who have been willing to share their Reno experience. It's not as good as being there, but it sure does help.

[airtj]

DSC_0275 by Travis Hopkins, on Flickr


DSC_0336 by Travis Hopkins, on Flickr


DSC_0355 by Travis Hopkins, on Flickr



DSC_0452 by Travis Hopkins, on Flickr

DSC_0592 by Travis Hopkins, on Flickr



DSC_0540 by Travis Hopkins, on Flickr







DSC_0556 by Travis Hopkins, on Flickr

[Blackbirdfan]

A few more shots from Pylon 2, Sunday






These were reworked, I think I posted them before, but these look far better.




Will

[Blackbirdfan]

Or, in color...




I'd love to share a couple fantastic shots of sport class racers, does anyone object?

Will