Action photography is hard!

A few from today. Critique welcome.

Nice shots Chris.

The chopper is a bit static, ie no movement in the rotors, but nicely caught.

The first plane shot is very nice but I would have prefered it the other way round (try rotating it 180) I tried it with a horizontal flip and thought it looked better, but that stuffed the numbers up.

Third one is my fave. any lower and it would have been spoiled.

Well done on the condensation trails from the propellor tips on the banked turn photo.

The third one is very nice. Great 4"x6", but no bigger as the subject appears a little fuzzy.

The chopper is also great, but would look better if it was not clipped, i.e. 100% in the frame.

Nice pics. Looks like East Anglia. Duxford?

G

Nice and sharp, I wish my shots were as crisp!

Have these been cropped much or have you got a nice long lens?

I'm saving my pennies for a longer lens as I'm not happy with the magnification of the kit 50-200 DA.

Agreed. I almost didn't bother with it because of that, also the clipping.

No way. Firstly because it wasn't that way, and the purist in me doesn't like messing with photographs like that.

But there's a much more important reason why not.

Have a look more closely at the rotated version. Rotating it through 180 degrees gives the impression of a descending turn to the right. But the ailerons are now wrong - the left aileron is pointing up, and the right one down (relative to the aeroplane), which would bank it to the left. Ok, it's conceivable that he could have just reversed the ailerons, but that would be quite contrived IMO.

Whereas in the original, he really is banking left, and the position of the control surfaces is consistent with this.

Ha ha, like I noticed that at the time. I mean, yes, of course, completely intentional...

Yep. I haven't got the hang of autofocus yet (for moving subjects), so it was manually (not quite) focused. I'm already better, though, than in the days before shake reduction. I'm expecting to improve a lot, though, with practice.

They're cropped a bit. The two of the Yak 50 are about 3/4 frame.

The lens was a Pentax 28-200 SMC-FA F3.5-5.6. Mostly at the long end.

Compton Abbas, Dorset. About 3 miles south of Shaftesbury. The Yak 50 is based there, he was practising for a display or a competition somewhere, I guess.

nice shots, I think I saw and photographed that same Yak above Hartfordshire a fortnight ago! A very similar one at least, I havn't got the shot here in Canada to check.

Hi Chris,

nice shots..

You have the K10D yes. Has it got the mode switch that the *istD series has? If so, there's a mode with a running man, that is basically for continuous AF while tracking a subject. Ah, no.. it's got the AF-C or AF-S options on the switch hasn't it. Switch to AF-C (continuous). I could of course be talking rubbish having not held a K10D.

Cheers

Liam.. (typing on the hoof)..

Liam,

The K10D doesn't have programmed 'modes', it's a 'proper' camera.

Yes, I'll try and remember to give AF-C a go, thanks. The problem I was having with AF was that with the fast-moving subjects, if I didn't have the camera pointing right at it, the AF would hunt and I'd never see the subject let alone get it in focus. So I switched to MF to capture the action, and only later discovered that I'd left the AF on spot rather than auto.

I'll try and do better...

Liam

The istD itself doesn't have "modes" either (its also a proper camera ) only its offspring have them.

A quick question for users of the "D"s that do have the mode dial....Does it still light up like a christmas tree when you turn it on like the MZ7 does?

Hi Spider,

no it doesn't light up, that I've noticed anyway. I found that that mode gave me a quick way to get AF-C rather than hunt through the menus.. and I only found that at the weekend.. (along with being able to rotate shots in playback mode on the LCD.. I really should dig out the manual again)

I think I'm right in that I can change the attributes for each mode on the dial, so as long as I remember which does which, I can in theory access half a dozen presets when needed.. which when chasing stuff that doesn't want to sit still could save the shot.

Anyway, to both of you.. yopu may have noticed that I don't need a proper camera.. 'cos I'm not a proper photographer..

Cheers

Liam