(Air) More From Copperstate 2009

[FlyingPhotog]

Mixing Sun and Flash
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p263991047-5.jpg

Snappy Decathlon
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p86967523-4.jpg

Middle Gun
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p109439734-4.jpg

A Little B&W
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p94513368-5.jpg

Do Not Adjust Your Monitor .. He really climbed out at this angle. What can 360HP do for you?
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p260233368-4.jpg

Full Gallery on my Zenfolio at This Link (http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/p849393336)

[slcr1]

Very nice!!! I like the paint job on the nose of the crankcase in pic #1..

[PhotosGuy]

Good stuff. Does the coming Winter & more time to PP mean that you start going through a new "Arty" period each year? ;)

[A2EVOMR]

Great as always, number 3 is just awesome.

[FlyingPhotog]

Very nice!!! I like the paint job on the nose of the crankcase in pic #1..

Thanks. That was a pretty cool treatment on that Stearman. Hadn't seen one done up that way before.

Good stuff. Does the coming Winter & more time to PP mean that you start going through a new "Arty" period each year? ;)

I prefer to think I'm just expanding my creative horizons. It should be obvious to all that I don't see aircraft quite the same as some/many/most so I tend to push the boundaries sometimes.

[Adding] Is there a trend you see that is particularly Good or Bad? You've piqued my curiosity with the word "Arty" ...

Great as always, number 3 is just awesome.
Thanks very much. :D

[PhotosGuy]

Is there a trend you see that is particularly Good or Bad? You've piqued my curiosity with the word "Arty" ... Nope, just pulling your chain! I did leave a smiley. ;)

[FlyingPhotog]

Nope, just pulling your chain! I did leave a smiley. ;)

Um, Ok...

I was actually hoping I'd hit on something that was extra "Wow Worthy" :D

[Cyclop]

Great series.

[RadAL]

don't understand why you cut off the bottom cylinders on the 2nd picture...

[Ramrod]

Superb, I do like your close up stuff. No.4 is my favourite though.:)

[Aaagogo]

3rd one is my favourite

[Rivman]

don't understand why you cut off the bottom cylinders on the 2nd picture...
. . . probably so he could catch the sun - good 'Arty' ones Jay ! ;)

[FlyingPhotog]

Great series.

Thanks

don't understand why you cut off the bottom cylinders on the 2nd picture...

Guess I could have laid flat on my back but without doing so, it was the only way to put the sun where I wanted it.

Superb, I do like your close up stuff. No.4 is my favourite though.:)

Thanks Very Much.

3rd one is my favourite

Glad you liked it.

. . . probably so he could catch the sun - good 'Arty' ones Jay ! ;)

Much appreciated, thanks! :D

[lpryor]

Thanks

Guess I could have laid flat on my back but without doing so, it was the only way to put the sun where I wanted it.


There will always be a compromise... as usual, I thought they were excellent. I like the cockpit one the best.

[FlyingPhotog]

There will always be a compromise... as usual, I thought they were excellent. I like the cockpit one the best.

Thank You. It actually was much more about the process than the result. I took an outdoor flash workshop recently and the notion of even trying that shot just popped into my head. I felt the result was worth showing.

[Design]

Beautiful work. You have a good eye. #3 is superb.

[focus.pocus]

Love the shots but I really like the first one...

[FlyingPhotog]

Beautiful work. You have a good eye. #3 is superb.

Thank You, that's very kind of you to say...

Love the shots but I really like the first one...

Appreciate it, Thank You.

[chuckie365]

Perfect prop blur on #2 and all of them look great. Nice Job!

[FlyingPhotog]

Perfect prop blur on #2 and all of them look great. Nice Job!

Thanks...

Nothing beats a three-bladed prop at climb power for getting the full disc! :D

[chuckie365]

Hey Jay,
I just checked out your Zenfolio site...great stuff...i noticed that you meter some shots using spot metering...when do you use that over evaluative or pattern? The crispness of the shots are amazing...are you going to be at the Nellis show? Thanks for any info you can share ;)

[FlyingPhotog]

Hey Jay,
I just checked out your Zenfolio site...great stuff...i noticed that you meter some shots using spot metering...when do you use that over evaluative or pattern? The crispness of the shots are amazing...are you going to be at the Nellis show? Thanks for any info you can share ;)

I'm in Manual Mode probably 90%+ of the time so I can't really say why I'd be in one metering mode over another.

Chances are pretty good that I maybe Spot Metered something 30 minutes ago and hadn't found a need to change it yet. ;)

The bulk of the prop shots were at 1/125 @ f/8 - f/11 while the jet shots were probably 1/1000 @ f/2.8. For taxiing aircraft, I'll sometimes drop down to 1/90 or even 1/60 if I'm feeling really steady.

I'm usually in IS Mode 2 for panning but I will use Mode 1 for head on taxiing shots.

I do use a 52mm drop in 1-stop ND in my 300 f/2.8 so I can try and avoid ever having to stop down any smaller than f/11. I've noticed a little bit of softness due to diffraction when I start hitting f/16. The trade off is that I lose that stop of speed on the fast end. Fair trade says I. :D

[chuckie365]

It seems that at F2.8 that the shutter speed would be greater than 1/1000 even at ISO 100 in bright skys. SO does that mean your set at F2.8 and then use whatever shutter speed exposes correctly?

[FlyingPhotog]

It seems that at F2.8 that the shutter speed would be greater than 1/1000 even at ISO 100 in bright skys. SO does that mean your set at F2.8 and then use whatever shutter speed exposes correctly?

I was just double checking a couple of shots and it does look as if I was able to squeeze out 1/1500 on a few @ f/2.8 but generally yes, I'll go wide open and take the shutter speed it gives me.

Sometimes, as was the case at Oshkosh, you can get caught out with a fast mover following behind a prop so you still have to use your prop settings (1/180 @ f/9.5) and rely on solid panning technique:
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p817476476-4.jpg

[chuckie365]

So is it safe to say that when i use Tv mode for props and shooting them at 1/250, that the reason they sometimes come out blurry is because of the higher aperture (>f11). I tried shooting the heritage flight at Miramar at 1/200 and 1/250 but its tough sometimes to get the F16 and a mustang nice and clean at the same time...i will try shooting manual exposure at Nellis...Do you use AI Servo at all or ust one stop AF? Thanks for responding to these questions ;)

[FlyingPhotog]

So is it safe to say that when i use Tv mode for props and shooting them at 1/250, that the reason they sometimes come out blurry is because of the higher aperture (>f11). I tried shooting the heritage flight at Miramar at 1/200 and 1/250 but its tough sometimes to get the F16 and a mustang nice and clean at the same time...i will try shooting manual exposure at Nellis...Do you use AI Servo at all or ust one stop AF? Thanks for responding to these questions ;)

I shoot anything that's moving in AI Servo. Static subjects I try and remember to switch back to One Shot.

When you start to really get aggressive with chasing prop blur, you'll find that panning technique becomes critically important (and I miss my fair share, trust me...)

When you start to break the rule of thumb which states 1/Focal Length = Shutter Speed, you run the risk of camera shake. The one "cheat" I can offer is to pay attention to the power setting of a prop driven plane. You can still get acceptable prop blur all the way out to 1/320 or so if the plane is taking off or flying fast at a high power setting. When they're taxiing or on short final to land with the throttle pulled back, then you need to take a crack at 1/180 and slower.

This was at 1/180 but he was rolling out after landing and you can see how "un blurred" this one is:
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p780857654-4.jpg

Same with this one at 1/160 + Idle Power on a Mustang:
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p428547772-5.jpg

This one I dropped all the way down to 1/30 but I had a traffic cone next to me on the flight line which made a handy camera rest:
http://jcbeckman.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p923007775-4.jpg

Hmmm... Guess I'm kind of hijacking my own thread. Sorry Frank... :oops:

[PhotosGuy]

Hmmm... Guess I'm kind of hijacking my own thread. Sorry Frank... One extra image in a thread of this length? Not a big thing!

[FlyingPhotog]

One extra image in a thread of this length? Not a big thing!

Plus, it's highly educational! :D

[Design]

Jay what camera and lens are you using? Do you stay in panning mode 2 if the planes are going vertical and looping? Is using F2.8 mostly due to getting the fastest shutter speed possible or are you also going for more background blur?

[Ripskin]

Love number 2.

[FlyingPhotog]

Jay what camera and lens are you using? Do you stay in panning mode 2 if the planes are going vertical and looping? Is using F2.8 mostly due to getting the fastest shutter speed possible or are you also going for more background blur?

At the top of the thread, #1 and #4 were shot with a 5D Classic and a 17-40mm f/4L. The rest were shot with a 1DMkIII and a 300mm f/2.8L IS.

I generally stay in Mode 2 IS unless there is a strong diagonal component to what I'm shooting in which case I generally turn IS off. I actually see more blur and missed shots at the point of "Pull Up" because the IS wants to keep the lens moving horizontally and can't cope with rapidly changing to a 45 degree angle up or down.

I work pretty much off determining the shutter speed I want and let the f/stop kind of go where it wants. Usually though, I want fast enough that wide open is where I end up. Background Blur kind of takes care of itself with panning either because of a slower shutter speed (props) or the actual speed of the subject (jets)