Airshow Photo Attempts

On June 25th, 2011, the Swiss army air defense troops celebrated their 75th anniversary, and on this occasion they organized an air show in Dübendorf, just about 6 km from the place where we live. The setting was an old, venerable military airport (formerly also Zurich's civilian airport) that is in the process of being dissolved: it is located within the agglomeration of Zurich, in a relatively densely populated area — we all (even 4 - 6 km away!) still remember the very disruptive, rumbling noise caused by the Mirage IIIS jet fighters starting with afterburner!

Lea and I had been at the Air '04 in Payerne 7 years ago (2004-09-04, in tropical heat and totally blue sky) — I then took pictures with my Nikon Coolpix 5700, with mixed success: for good pictures that camera was simply too slow, the electronic viewfinder too limited. This time I wanted to do better, and so I took my Nikon D300, the tripod, 70 - 200 mm and 24 - 120 mm zoom lenses (only used the former in the end), as well as the 2x teleconverter into my slingbag and was curious to see how things would go. The weather was so-so: mostly covered sky, but at least enough visibility for the event to take place. That part worked out OK, though the contrast was limited with all that gray background. Once it began raining a few drops, but that was just minutes.

So, how did I do? Well, let's start with the downside: we arrived by train, what we thought was "just in time" — but we did not anticipate the extended foot walk due to the route which they assigned to pedestrian visitors! Once we were on site, we spent some time trying to find a good viewing spot: the initial location was not good enough, so we had to walk a while to find a suitable, central location. This was merely minutes before the event would start; needless to say that front row spots were all taken, though that was a minor issue, as things would mostly happen in the air. I had enough time to install my tripod, mount the 70 - 200 mm zoom on the tripod (with the teleconverter), to attach the camera body, and to adjust the tripod height — and (too) soon the event started! In the aftermath I should have taken more time to think about optimum camera settings: most of the shots were taken with "P", I must confess! That alone wasn't too bad, though — but I should have switched to a higher ISO setting: in lieu of ISO 200, I should have used ISO 400 or 800, maybe (above that, the D300 starts to be a bit noisy), in order to shorten the shutter speeds for sharper pictures. Of course I used the VR — but with moving objects this is of limited value.

Some general remarks: most of the pictures were taken from the tripod, though I kept the ball head loose, so just used the tripod as stabilizing support, which worked out OK. I never used the 24 - 120 mm zoom, all pictures shown here are from the 70 - 200 mm zoom, with teleconverter, using the resulting range of 140 - 400 mm focal length (210 - 600 mm equivalent @ 35 mm frame size). In the aftermath, this turned out to be adequate: with a stronger zoom it is hard to capture some of the fast moving actions, and at wider angles (e.g., 70 - 200 mm without teleconverter, or with the same lens setting, but a full frame body) I would end up doing more cropping back home — and then I might need a higher pixel count. A camera with higher ISO range would have helped, though! Note that all pictures are taken with horizontal camera position — with cropping back home, as necessary. On to the show — all focal lengths mentioned are for 35 mm frame size; click on the images to enlarge:

The event started with the PC-7 team (currently still located in Dübendorf), showing off its power in precision formation flight — the selection of a central viewing spot paid off:

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 480 mm, f/14, 1/250"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 600 mm, f/14, 1/160"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 600 mm, f/14, 1/160"

Next in the program was a F/A-18 "Hornet" fighter plane:

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 600 mm, f/14, 1/160"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 600 mm, f/10, 1/400"

Paratroopers showed off a precision landing. When you see these guys sitting in their ropes, that looks rather comfortable — not really comforting, though, considering that international war convention explicitly allows shooting at paratroopers during their descent!

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 210 mm, f/10, 1/400"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 420 mm, f/10, 1/400"

This was followed by a Super Puma helicopter presenting some amazing maneuvers: military pilots call this a "truck" — yet it can almost do loopings!

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 210 m, f/10, 1/400"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 210 mm, f/10, 1/400"

This being the 75th anniversary of the Swiss air defense, they had to show some live shooting at real airplanes — using self-decaying plastic ammunition, of course:

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 480 mm, f/8, 1/250"

The highlight of every airshow in Switzerland is the Patrouille Suisse, showing some spectacular acrobatics & precision formation flights on their six F-5E "Tiger":

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 300 mm, f/11, 1/500"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 300 mm, f/11, 1/500"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 300 mm, f/10, 1/400"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 210 mm, f/10, 1/400"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 600 mm, f/11, 1/400"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 600 mm, f/11, 1/500"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 315 mm, f/11, 1/400"

 ... and their final bouquet before finishing the show with flares:

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 210 mm, f/10, 1/400"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 210 mm, f/10, 1/400"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 210 mm, f/10, 1/400"

D300, 70 - 200mm f/2.8 zoom + TC-20E III @ 210 mm, f/10, 1/400"

I missed the most spectacular piece where five Tigers are forming a tunnel, and the sixth machine is flying against them at near speed-of-sound, through the tunnel: exactly at that moment a guy in front of me decided to lift his daughter onto his shoulders, right into my view! Well, even with serial shots this is hard to capture anyway.

Given my lack of experience with photography at such events, I was quite satisfied: after processing and selecting I retained  almost 100 pictures out of 160 taken (could probably trash a couple more, though).

Some Experiences With Tripods

I must have had a tripod with my Topcon RE-2 already, but don't remember the details. Around 1983, I was looking for a tripod for my Nikon F3 - and followed a personal recommendation, as I had no idea what to select. It was one of these "This models works perfectly for me, why don't you just take that?" recommendations - I should have made some comparisons myself! The tripod was an early Slik model (the Slik 500G, if I'm not mistaken), aluminium, with a 2-way panorama head; it had one big advantage: it was very light - but that's about the only feature that I liked about it. The head was a bit clumsy to use, though just stable enough for my equipment, the screw-type telescope leg and center column fastening mechanism was a permanent nuisance (one would typically not fasten or unfasten the intended leg segment), stability and stiffness overall was very marginal. In 2006, when I already had a Nikon D200, one of the legs simply broke off.

My next tripod was a Manfrotto 725B that I purchased in 2006 for the Nikon D200 with a 18 - 210 mm superzoom lens. I bought that in a local store and explicitly asked whether it would be strong enough for that type of camera and lens. I was not disappointed in that respect: the tripod was at least twice as heavy (1530 g) as the previous one (also aluminium, but much more rugged), bigger as well, reasonably short for transporting (49 cm, with a carrying bag) — and it was very stable (for my purpose), the leg fastening mechanism was a joy to use. It was maybe a bit short (133.5 cm without using the center column) — I typically had to use the center column (extending its maximum height to 166 cm) to get the camera to the desired height, hence giving up some of the rigidity. The aluminium ball head featured a one-lever lock, making it fast and easy to use, and the quick release plate turned out to be very handy. The Nikon D200 with the given lens was just about the right (maximum) size camera for this tripod — however, I did not anticipate the evolution of my equipment! With the Nikon D300 and new lenses a few years later, the ball head turned out to be clearly too small, insufficient to hold heavier "pro" type lenses — and with the Manfrotto 725B, the head was built in / non-exchangeable — so in the end (January 2011) I sold it again for 30% of its initial price, after 5 years of occasional (mostly indoor) use.

I now have a new tripod, the Cullmann Magnesit 525C — and I'm happy with it! The tripod offers more flexibility than any tripod that I had before: the legs can be stretched out individually and at various angles (even beyond horizontal!), it is very rugged, and it does not come with a built-in head: I selected the Cullmann Magnesit MB8.5 ball head: this supports gear up to 6 kg. I have two quick release plates: the regular one that I keep on the camera when the tripod is likely to be used, and a second, longer one that can stay attached to my 70 - 210 mm telezoom. OK, that's 2.5 kg just for the tripod (even though the tripod itself is carbon, the head alone is 900 g), and the thing is not exactly tiny (61 cm when packed with the head) - but I won't be running around with it. The smaller and lighter MB6.5 ball head would have been more than sufficient for my needs — but that wasn't available earlier this year.

I have used the Cullmann indoors (for taking pictures of stuff that I sell at auctions), and I did a first outdoor test at a recent military airshow in Dübendorf near Zurich (a few km from my place). This was a test for me in several ways - for one, I had never been at an air show with a DSLR, and then, I wasn't sure whether using a tripod at an airshow with its rapidly moving objects would make sense at all. It did make sense for me in the end, as it helped staying "organized" with the sometimes rapid action at this event, and the ball head was fast enough in use, and even helpful as flexible support, i.e., without fixing the camera position. (there were some other aspects that I had to learn that day, but that's something for a separate blog entry).

I can't resist posting a set of two shots that I made back in 1983, during our vacation in Finland. Lea and I were staying on my friend's cottage (Mökki) at the east end of a little island named Miehinkisaari on a lake called Yli-Kitka, some 30 km north-west of Kuusamo (a real nice area!). I placed my Nikon F3 on the tripod, at the lake, pointing towards the landing place for the rowing boat. The idea was that I would take a picture of Lea and myself, sitting on the landing place, like this:

July 1983, Miehinkisaari, on lake Kitka, near Kuusamo, SF
Nikon F3, color slide, scanned using Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED,  4000 dpi

this was the first attempt — it worked out as intended - but as I wasn't quite sure whether a) the timer worked properly at all, and b) whether I made it to the photo position in time, as I had to run around to the left, and onto the landing place, all within the limit of the timer, and when I was finally sitting, I did not hear the shutter. So, I gave it another try, just to be sure: back to the camera, forward the film, make sure the timer is selected, press the button, and run out to the place next to Lea ...

July 1983, Miehinkisaari, on lake Kitka, near Kuusamo, SF
Nikon F3, color slide, scanned using Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED,  4000 dpi

... and I almost made it, though I certainly did not hear the shutter this time! Only after returning home we saw that the timer caught me in mid-air (well, my right foot may still be on the wooden planks?), shortly before a hard, maybe painful landing ...