Spitfire Flypast

[StuG]

Tomorrow (Sunday) is apparently the anniversary of the 1st flight of the spitfire and as a celebration a single Spitfire will fly down Southampton Water to the Solent meet up with two more then the three of them with fly back up the water toward Southampton. It all happens at about 4.30pm.

I'm going to see if I can get some good shots but as I'm not very experienced at this sort of thing I'd appreciate any tips you can give me.

Obviously I'll need my telephoto lens but am I better off using the monopod than going hand held?, what sort of shutter speed should I be using ? and will a shallow depth of field be a good choice or something longer?

any advice would be much appreciated, I'm out all day today but I'll check back in the morning. :thanks:

[StagePhotography.co.uk]

I'd forget about depth of field I'd go for speed.....
The faster the better and the closer the better..

You should try for for as high a f/stop as possible,
but that depends on the weather.. hope it's a bright sunny day...

Try and get somewhere high, like a hill top near the place
of a large building to get closer...

Depending on how high that is of course it may be still too high and just be a dot......

Which direction it's coming from try to position yourself so it's coming towards you and slightly to the side then run off as many shots as you can...

Use a tripod but keep the joints slightly loose so you can track and follow the thing....

Focus...... hmm difficult as it will be moving a high f/stop is more forgiving, but then it will lower the shutter speed and give more blur perhaps...
I'd go for auto focus to give you less to think about...

Of course you could just stick it on automatic and pray.... :)

[Stemmy]

Not much else to say I think george has covered it all. its all about planning. Speak to some of the organisers to see exactly where the plane will be.

[Arca-dog]

Bracket bracket bracket.
You will find the sky brighter than the aeroplane so keep varying the exposures.

[StagePhotography.co.uk]

Hey.... It made the news....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4775726.stm

Read the last paragraph...

"Photographer causes Spitfire to crash due to
pilot dazed by 60,000 megawatt flash unit..."

[StuG]

Well I found a decent vantage point on the shoreline at Netley about half way up Southampton Water which was about as good as I reckon I could get having seen the route published in yesterdays local paper. I arrived a good hour before the scheduled take off to ensure I could set up the tripod where I wanted to. By 4.30 (take off time) there were several hundred people even on the smaal green Id picked. Unfortunately when the Spits flew up the water toward Southampton, they flew right up the middle which means they were about half a mile from any point of land so the view wasn't very good :(x
I took 4 or 5 shots as they flew past but I'm not sure how good they'll be as the planes still looked small through my 300mm lens.

Just to cap it all having spent 30 minutes in traffic to drive the 5 miles home, I found out the spits flew low right over my back garden on the way out from the airport :banghead: :banghead: :sulk:

[StagePhotography.co.uk]

hehehehe..

opps sorry..

*wink*

Really sorry to hear that.... :) HONEST!!
:ops:

[Stemmy]

Ah well thats just the way it goes. Next time youll get some stunning shots to keep. Its a numbers game. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt.

[lostmysnorkel]

You'll only have to wait another 70 years for them to do it again!!!!!!!

I was diving out of Plymouth one weekend a couple of years back when the RAF were doing a bit of an airshow to boost recruitment. The number of fiighters buzzing the place was awesome and the dive boat returned to port with us divers singing the them tune to 'Top Gun all the way - not a pretty sound!!!!

Unfortunately, my nikon was sealed away inside an underwater housing with a 1:1 macro lens fitted otherwwise there would have been some awesome photo ops.

All I ended up with was a decent abstract of a Spiny Sea Urchin, a portrait of a Blenny and a rather drunk -looking Starfish.

Ho hum, sometimes you've just got to accept that you won't get the shot and just enjoy the show.