Tony Shapps shares a few words on how you can imrpove the images you take at airshows.
Posted: 08/07/2011 - 12:00
This image was taken by Tony Shapps at Panshanger airfield, just north of Hatfield. It was a Rally of Chipmunk Single Engined trainers, of a type much used by the RAF. He used a Pentax K20D set at 1/4000th of a second with a 18-200mm lens at full zoom to capture the plane. The anti-shake was turned on and the picture was taken with the camera hand held.
For many years, prior to retirement, I was fortunate enough to have Pentax sponsoring the various presentations that I did at camera clubs around the world. So when I finally packed up work is was only natural for me to turn to that marque when it came to actually purchasing one with my own hard-earned cash.
My choice settled on the Pentax K20D - the top model at the time - and I have never regretted it. Having recently replaced the short kit zoomlens with an 18-200mm optic, I starting looking around to test the capabilities of this combination. A recent air rally at Panshanger airfield, in the Hatfield area just north of London, provided the perfect opportunity.
Better still, my younger son, Grant, holds a pilots licence and actually owns a plane which is hangered there. And it was then that the old saying of: "It’s not what you know but who you know" came into play because this gave me access directly on to the airfield allowing me to get amongst the various aircraft including, in this case, a rally of venerable Chipmunk Trainers. I was able to take shots of a variety of models, and in particular my sons recently refurbished, updated and repainted Piper Saratoga.
Shooting ground to air shots with the Pentax was a doddle. Even though they were all handheld, and at the 200mm focal length end of the zoom, the anti-shake worked a treat provided you also held your breadth when depressing the shutter button. Again, I had the opportunity of positioning myself just off the runway so that I could shoot planes landing almost head on: this meant that the speed of the approach was not so important. Being a sunny day, I used the TAV setting of the camera i.e. shutter & aperture priority mode set to 1/4000 sec which, in turn, gave the impression that the propeller on the aircraft had stopped turning!
I confess that I did absolutely no research for these shots because we didn’t know the rally was on until we arrived to take a look at the Saratoga. However, it wasn’t my first time at Panshanger so I was familiar with the layout.
So what have I learned about photographing aircraft? Well, there’s a number of general things that are worth remembering:
- Make certain that you have a full charge on the camera battery. You will, invariably, take more shots than you might have originally intended.
- Check your SD card (or whatever storage card is used in your particular camera) to make absolutely sure you don’t run out of graphic space. Even with a 32 gig card that has occasionally happened to me! You tend to overlook all those previous sessions that you shot and forgot (or not transferred or erased).
- Turn on the ‘anti-shake’ and then forget it.
- If you’re shooting aircraft actually flying then their approach gives you both the best shots and most chance of defeating any movement blur.
- If you can do a little research beforehand so much the better. I was fortunate in knowing the location and having access directly on to the flight section of the airfield. It’s always worth asking, especially at smaller airstrips.
Words and images by Tony Shapps.
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