Hi Mike,

In my part of the Southern Hemisphere we don’t have an airshow season as such, having said that we did have a couple of big ones this year. The first being the Australian International Airshow 2013 at Avalon Airpot, Geelong, Victoria that was held during late February and early March. The second being Warbirds Downunder 2013 at the Temora Aviation Museum, Temora, New South Wales, that was held during 2 November, 2013.

Shown below is a very small selection of my pictures from both events .

Australian International Airshow 2013.

Warbirds Downunder 2013.

All images Copyright ©2013 Daniel Cox.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Hi Axel,

Nice pics, thanks for showing them off.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Hello nx611_1945,

I do not have any records, however The National Archives of the United Kingdom does as would the Library and Archives Canada.

The following links I have provided below should help you to find what you are after.

AIR 28, Royal Air Force Stations;

AIR 28/715, RCAF SKIPTON ON SWALE, 1943 Jan – 1945 Nov.

AIR 27, Squadrons (these files are commonly known as Operations Record Books;

AIR 27/1863, 433 RCAF, Appendices, 1943 Sept – 1945 May.

AIR 27/1863/2, 433 RCAF, Record of Events, 1944 Jan.

AIR 27/1863/3, 433 RCAF, Summary of Events, 1944 Feb.

AIR 27/1863/4, 433 RCAF, Record of Events, 1944 Feb.

AIR 27/1863/5, 433 RCAF, Summary of Events, 1944 Mar.

AIR 27/1863/6, 433 RCAF, Record of Events, 1944 Mar.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for showing off your pictures, I really like the fourth picture with that terrific lighting.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Hi Thane,

I wouldn’t have walked back for the glasses either!

It sounds to me like you know what you’re doing, we all can easily have a bad day I had a crap shooting day a couple of weeks ago ground to air (the light was very poor until the very end that’s my excuse), it doesn’t mean that we don’t have fun and don’t get good things out of the experience.

I was mostly covering shutter speeds in order to capture prop blur. As you know, shooting at a plane in the sky can often result in an over exposed or under exposed subject depending on what metering mode your digital camera is in. Like you in those circumstances I will either go manual or bracket my shots usually 1/3rd of a stop to a half a stop either way till I get what I am after or shoot manual and ignore the camera meter which is telling me I am over or under exposing as appropriate to the conditions.

It is also worth practicing panning using lower shutter speeds while shooting moving cars in the absence of aeroplanes. I will also sometimes before shooting rehearse position and holds trigger pressing etc simply because it gets me in the mode for the task and makes me think about my technique. I also double check my settings often, for I once took some panorama shots and more of a spectacular ancient lake with the most inappropriate ISO setting for the conditions (oops) because I was shooting indoors and neglected to check the camera ISO settings. Lesson learnt well of course that said the shots are still nice just incredibly grainy and not what I was after.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Hi Thane,

Welcome to the forum and thank-you for sharing your nice pics from what must have been a terrific show to see, as to boring I would love to see more.

I had a look at your shots on your Flickr account and hope to offer some advice that might be of help to you, I will share some of my techniques and settings.

I see that most of your shots showing live propeller aircraft are shot with a shutter speed of 1/1250 or 1/640 as you can see doing so freezes the props which makes a turning or turning and moving aeroplane appear a little unnatural. What you should try to aim for is to get nice prop blur while the subject also appears sharp, this isn’t always easy to achieve especially when panning or being blown by wind or in poor light etc, practice and a few techniques will help to overcome this.

When I shoot stationary live propeller aircraft from the ground with engines running I use shutter priority (because in camera metering these days is very good so Manual capture in this instance doesn’t really contribute anything better). For example with a 70-200mm lens hand held I start shooting at 1/320 sec and then adjust the shutter and reshoot until and including 1/60 sec to capture prop blur. Because of the risk that the pictures will not be sharp as the shutter speed decreases I usually start faster just in case to nail it. I also concentrate on position and hold as well as subtle shutter manipulation.

For moving propeller aircraft ground to ground or ground to air I’ll usually shoot at a shutter speed of 1/160 or 1/125 and hope for the best in order to get reasonable prop blur while limiting dud shots which when panning are unfortunately easy to get. I will however sometimes also shoot moving prop aircraft on the ground at 1/60, 1/120 1/200 and 1/320 as well;

For moving propeller aircraft air to air I also use Shutter Priority stating at either 1/400 or 1/320 and then step down until 1/60 or 1/100 which tends to work well since again I nail an okay shot with a touch of prop blur then anything I capture to full prop blur that works is a bonus.

For Jets burning while stationary or moving feel free to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/1250 sec for example. Of course if the jets are mixed with turning prop aircraft shoot all as if they are propeller aircraft.

For all aircraft that are stationary and not running I will most often shoot using Aperture priority for depth of field.

Next time you visit an airshow or just generally shoot aeroplanes try some of the suggestions and see how they work for you and keep shooting more I have found the more I do the better I get. Also if you don’t mind please post more of your aeroplane pictures here, I am certainly not alone in enjoying them.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Hi Phil,

I thought you were someone called Daniel so I notified you here that someone called Phil Buckley may have plagiarised your posts on Hyperscale unless you were the same person. Anyway I noticed you are the same person so no one has been taking your copy.

Cheers,

Daniel.