First Attempt at Aviation

Yesterday just before having to leave for work, I noticed this guy spraying the soybean fields around my house. So I grabbed my camera to see if I could get a decent shot. What ya' think?

frozenframe wrote in post #18693371
Yesterday just before having to leave for work, I noticed this guy spraying the soybean fields around my house. So I grabbed my camera to see if I could get a decent shot. What ya' think?

Hosted photo: posted by frozenframe in
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forum: Transportation

Good one!

Pretty good, I'd say.
I like the prop and background blur.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #18693562
Good one!

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #18693796
Pretty good, I'd say.
I like the prop and background blur.

Thank you PhotosGuy and Frank.

I have several where I forgot to drag my shutter, and the prop is frozen. I also tried to capture him passing horizontally left to right, but too many trees in the way and he would be in the open for only a second or two. This guy is good. I thought a few times he was going to crash, run into a tree row, but at the last minute would hop over it. I do wish one shot had came out, it was total trash. He made a run parallel to the road in front of my house. He was no more than 30 ft from me when he went by at about 100 mph. Couldn't get him because he was hidden by trees, then pop out.

Done some research on this crop duster. I learned the airplane model is called an Air Tractor. Ok, does fly in the air, but tractor? Not in the typical farm sense , but ok. Also these little machines are fast, durable, very responsive, and very expensive. I've found where you can purchase a used one about 7-10 yrs old for a mere $750k. The one in this photo is a 1981 model, so a lot less expensive, but still a lot of cash for a single purpose aircraft. The company is out of Walnut, Ill, they have a fleet of 13 planes and 2 helicopters.

Also I learned that a few days before this, they were complained about to the local sheriff's office, for some of their flying acrobatics, which were extra curricular to the spraying? Yep, they breached the nuclear power plant's restricted flying area doing some of their aerobatics. Making very low pass runs above highways (not rural roads), among other. Well their boss, the owner got a call from my wife. She's employed by said local law enforcement agency. Needless to say he was not very happy, no he was more on the miffed side, that his pilots were behaving this way in his airplanes. He assured her he would deal with them accordingly. So who knows, might be a pilot seat open??

I bet that pilot would like to have your photo printed and framed - hanging on his wall.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #18695152
I bet that pilot would like to have your photo printed and framed - hanging on his wall.

That would be nice, I'm attempting find out who that pilot is. The company Woodley Aerial Spraying uses linked in. So I'm seeing if I can contact him.

Well done Ron. You nailed the use of the Sigma 150-600. I'm impressed with the detail at a rather slow shutter speed.

Or the company owner as well. Would make a great promo piece for their company.

I really like the capture. Really do. My only add would can you bring up the highlights just a smidge. For example the cone on the prop is chromed, and you have a low angle sun, there should be a "shimmer" of light on it. You have a highlight there, it just doesn't pop. Other than that... again love the capture. These guys will love it.

(disclaimer - that is how it looks on my monitor - my mileage may be different than your own)

Croasdail wrote in post #18695214
I really like the capture. Really do. My only add would can you bring up the highlights just a smidge. For example the cone on the prop is chromed, and you have a low angle sun, there should be a "shimmer" of light on it. You have a highlight there, it just doesn't pop. Other than that... again love the capture. These guys will love it.

(disclaimer - that is how it looks on my monitor - my mileage may be different than your own)

I'll have a look at the RAW again, and bring up the highlight there. I think the websites may have caused it to appear a little more flat. If so I'll counter it. Thank you.

DigiBill wrote in post #18695176
Well done Ron. You nailed the use of the Sigma 150-600. I'm impressed with the detail at a rather slow shutter speed.

Thank you. Honestly, for all the shots I took I only came away with less then a dozen keepers. I'm not good enough with it shooting like this, and the AF didn't respond as well as I would have liked. Of course when I had to guess where he was going to pop out or up it didn't give me much time to get on him. Thank you.

-Duck- wrote in post #18695182
Or the company owner as well. Would make a great promo piece for their company.

I'm hoping he would like one for the office. Thank you.

Let's see if the highlights hold up better now. I boosted the highlight on the prop and then just add a smidgen with the tone curve.

"on my computer" - much better. It has some pop to the suns reflection. For what it is worth....

Thanks. LR histogram in develop module is showing it to be slightly clipping. But there's really no detail in there, just smooth chrome.

Well done!