Had a nice evening at Luton last weekend with fellow forum member GlobalExpress. Thanks buddy for the company and the heads up on the 146!
It was dead cloudy most of the time apart from a few minutes late on, during which nothing interesting moved! Anyway on with the photos.
Starting with just about the least imaginative livery ever. But Oh well, its still a Mad Dog. Not really a regular at Luton, although BlueLine charters are some of the most common.
The one I came for, Formula 1’s 146! No idea who travels in it as Bernie has his own jet apparently!
This aircraft luckily for us had to perform the compass swing, which means it turns 180′ only metres from us. The pilots were friendly enough to wave… which i somehow seemed to miss in my 20 odd sequence of shots! 😮
This aircraft was shortly followed by Monarch A321 G-MARA, who also had to perform the compass swing!
The one Alex came for: McDonalds Global. Looks just like any other to me! :rolleyes:
Oh look! Some sun!
And finally one nice catch from a brief stop on the 27th, on my way to gliding at Dunstable.
Air Seychelles send their 767s to Thomson for their heavy maintenance. And this one was just taxing back after engine runs. ***** shame it’s the same one I saw last year!
Thanks for looking, comments and criticism welcome!
Dan.
EDIT: Having just uploaded these, I have noticed they are looking incredibly unsharp. Some of them are a bit blurry, but most of them do look a lot better at 1024x!
By: Arabella-Cox - 7th July 2009 at 21:12
That’s a fair idea Paul, I hadn’t thought of that!
By: PMN - 7th July 2009 at 20:56
So whether it’s the 400D or the Sigma lens causing the focus problem, I really don’t know.
Have you tried manually focussing? You’ll obviously have a ‘normal’ focal length for, say, an A319 at LTN so pre-set your focal length and manually focus. See if you can get sharper images doing that than using auto focus. If you can, then you’ll have a fair idea it’s the lens.
Paul
By: Arabella-Cox - 7th July 2009 at 20:43
Thanks Paul!
The global is cropped the way it is because unfortunately a small amount was cut off in the original. And the rest of the shots in the sequence were useless.
Not much I can do about the fence I’m afraid. The spot it’s taken from is a car park. They seem to turn a blind eye to photographers standing by the fence or on the mound of gravel, but I don’t think you’d last long with a step ladder. :rolleyes:
With regards to the camera switrching. I know I should be concentrating on technique more than equipment, but the difference in quality is alarming.
It’s also probably worth remembering the focusing problem I seem to have with my usual combination (400D + Sigma 18-200). For the photos above I borrowed Alex’s Tamron 18-200, and it’s difficult to tell whether the problem is visible with that lens too (the photos certainly aren’t perfect), but the last shot with the Canon 18-55 standard lens looks ok. So whether it’s the 400D or the Sigma lens causing the focus problem, I really don’t know.
By: PMN - 7th July 2009 at 19:43
A 100-400 will boost quality for sure.
It will, but only if your technique is very good and you’re getting the absolute best technical quality you can out of a more standard lens. It’s utterly pointless buying one unless that’s the case. L series lenses are wonderful, but not magical. 😀
I may be being a bit self critical, or it may be just the transition back to the 400D after using the D300 for so long. I just don’t feel on top of my game right now.
Being self-critical is a good thing, but you need to realise the camera is the least important part of the chain. The D300 to the 400D shouldn’t even come into your mind; they’re both cameras and they both do exactly the same thing. When I shoot with my Nikon D50 and basic Sigma 70-300 my images arn’t quite as sharp and as clear as those from my 30D and EF 70-200L, but nonetheless, the results still look like I took them, as they have when I’ve used a 350D, 400D, 40D, 5D, D1x, D2x, D40, and countless lens combinations.
Try not to even think whether you have a Nikon or a Canon in your hand; it’s a complete irrelevence. Just concentrate on taking photos. 😉
There are some nice images here although there are two things I’ll mention. For me personally, cropping T-tailed aircraft through the actual tail like on the Maccy D’s Global leaves a very unbalanced image. That tail is a very important part of how the aircaft is balanced in the frame and cutting through it just doesn’t work for me. Secondly, is there any way you can get shots without the extremely distracting barbed wire in the lower bit of the frame? Ladders maybe?
I do like the front end crop on the 146, though. Very nice indeed. 🙂
Paul
By: rab5869 - 7th July 2009 at 10:42
very nice shots indeed maybe the first one is in disguise to blend in with the cloud:D.
well done
Rab5869 D A R K S I D E – A V I A T I O N!!
By: Global express - 6th July 2009 at 21:25
Dan, it’s good to be self critical and to set high standards. The quality of this set of photos is higher than many threads on here but regardless, everyone does their best. The conditions last Sunday were absolutely awful so getting worse results than a clear blue sky day is inevitable.
A 100-400 will boost quality for sure. Beware, as soon as you go L series you won’t go back. Your wallet will never be the same again! 😀
By: Arabella-Cox - 6th July 2009 at 20:08
Thanks guys. 😀
Alex, I think that Citation shot was taken at f7.1, I am aware it is very poor quality and it is certainly not in the JP queue! It just happened to be the best movement when the sun was out.
I may be being a bit self critical, or it may be just the transition back to the 400D after using the D300 for so long. I just don’t feel on top of my game right now. It was only just over a month ago I was shooting super sharp shots like those here: http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=91170
Ah well. Maybe this will kick my **** in gear to buy the 100-400 I’ve been pondering over for so long.
By: steve rowell - 6th July 2009 at 11:04
Very nice shots!!!
By: Global express - 6th July 2009 at 08:21
Hi Dan,
Some really nice shots there mate. Love the motion blur with the G5 and WZZ A320.
Not sure if you’ve edited them again, but they all look very sharp to me. The Citation XL looks slightly out of focus towards the nose and tail. Were you using F3.5 or similar?
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July 5, 2009 at 10:46 pm