RIAT 2014, JETS

1. BREITLING L39'S TAXYING




2. SWISS AIR FORCE F18C HORNET, 'HANGIN' AND DANGLIN''




3. POLISH AIR FORCE SUKHOI SU-22 'FITTERS' ON TAKE OFF (very loud and smoky)




4. ...and again




5. ...and again!




6. SU-22 approaching for 'touch and go'




7. SU-22 underside




8. SAAB GRIPEN, SWEDISH AIR FORCE LOW SPEED PASS




9. EUROPEAN AIRSHOW DEBUT OF SCORPION LIGHT ATTACK JET. COMING SOON TO A WAR NEAR YOU!




10. ITALIAN AIR FORCE EUROFIGHTER




11. AND AGAIN...






12. 'SOLOTURK' F16




13. AND AGAIN...




14. ITALIAN AIR FORCE AMX




15. AMX INVERTED




16. RED GNAT




17. LASTLY 'YELLOW' GNAT




Phew...took a while assembling that lot. Have tried to show some less popular jets that don't usually get shown. Also partly out of necessity as many of the best fast jets were displaying in the worst of the dull, grey and often wet weather. Have got quite a few shots out of focus due to moisture on lens!

The last two for me! Love the bright colours, and once again when you get blue in the sky your exposures seem to be spot on and well balanced. The 'dull grey' ones could do with a bit of spicing up on the metalwork and shadow areas of the aircraft undersides. Once again you're right in there near the takeoff action and have caught a fantastic range of interesting aircraft. Thanks for sharing your shooting experience of this great event!

These are good, but don't quite have enough impact and 'crispness' for me. What lens was used? I think that they are lacking a little brightness / contrast and this could easily be fixed in processing, also they maybe could do with a little bit of sharpening?

As Nigel says, thanks for sharing them, I hope my comments don't appear harsh, as they're not intended to be.

Regards
David

Nigel, Thanks again for taking an interest. I agree, the more colourful planes
make for the better imagery...just have to persuade the World's armed forces to do away with camouflage and low visibility paint jobs now! I was actually about halfway down the runway roughly 250m or so from the centreline (sideways on) which was great for the helos and props as they flew that bit slower and closer but wasn't as good for the fast jets as they tended to turn, with afterburner at either end (or just past)of the runway and tended to manoeuvre further away for safety reasons...300mm just wasn't long enough.

David, thanks for your comments. Appreciate what you are saying. I will have a go at some PP over the next few weeks to see what difference it could make. Overall though using exactly the same equipment as last year I've definitely got more 'keepers' and this despite the poorer weather. I took about 480 or so shots all day last year and had probably about 15-20 that I was happy with to varying degrees...although some last year suffered from sensor marks/debris (since cleaned it). This year I took 601 and will probably end up with about 40-50 that i'll be happy with..so i'm heading in the right direction.

Camera was a K-x matched with the basic Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 (£129 new) so i'm quite pleased when you consider how little the kit cost. I might upgrade the camera
soon but didn't want to before the event as the learning curve might have lead to worse results than last year.

I get some similar softness on exactly the same combination, Kx and Tamron 70-300. Talking to forum contributor Simon Arron a few weeks ago he mentioned similar issues with the same lens, and suggested perhaps trying a manual focus approach for better results - if your lens is like mine, you know as soon as it loses the subject (especially with aircraft) it'll be winding backwards and forwards trying to find something to focus on until you take pity and point it at a nearby tree. As you said, though, price comes into it - mine was used from someone on this forum and well under £100.

My only critique (which I know you didn't ask for...) is the framing on 4, 7 and 17 (and almost on 16) cutting a bit off the end of the subject.

Hi Mike,

yeah, it does seem to be a minor issue (in the grand scheme of things) with the autofocus not being able to cope at times. Sometimes as well its partly me if the lens is at max length (300mm) or close to this as it is hard to acquire a fast moving target in the first place with small Field of View so it might try and lock onto nothing more than a fleeting glimpse! When I was following the aerobatic teams i did try when I remembered to manual focus so at least I had more control and more success with focus when multiple aircraft in the frame.

Framing was a bit tight on a few of them as I tried to fill the screen without going obviously over and often it was hard to see or I forgot about nose probes and things! On the more obvious overspills this was a deliberate artistic decision! (mainly)

Cheers for your comments.

Karlo

I must admit I tend to zoom out a little and then crop rather than trying to fill the frame - for exactly that reason, it's easier to crop later than try to follow something moving very quickly. I'm not sure I have the eyesight for manual focussing but will be trying it next time I'm out somewhere.