Haven’t posted in this category for a while so I thought I’d post some photos from last year’s Valdez May Day Fly-In. The Fly-In is a bush pilot competition event and airshow that takes place every year at Valdez, Alaska. This image is one from an aerobatic demonstration by Scott Sexton. It looks like he’s about to crash into the mountain but the show happens at the Valdez Airport which happens to be right next to the mountains. The mountains make a great backdrop for the events!
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
The aerobatic events are very fast paced and the plane is up, down and all over the place at high speed. I’ve found that the only way to catch decent images is by hand holding the camera. The most difficult part is being able to modify the exposure settings and shutter speed while panning because the background goes from dark browns and blacks to bright white snow and sometimes a combination of both and it’s changing every second. I get the most predictable results by operating in full manual. I also try to be constantly aware of the background content and the position of the plane in the frame in order to get a decent composition. So the question is; do you think it all worked in this shot?
Technical Details
Sony a6500, FE200600G @ 282mm (423mm w/crop factor), ISO-250, f/56.6, 1/4000, hand held.
Gary, the image does give the feel of an aircraft looking to be in trouble with the dive angle and streaming trail behind it too. The detail and colors all look really spot on to me also.
During my travels throughout the entire state I flew in everything in both military and civilian aircraft.
Back in those days I think the STOL (Short Take Off Landing) aircraft were a bit limited to the Swiss made Pilatus and the Canadian DeHaviland Beavers & Otters. I flew many times on the Otters. The military DC-3, C-123, C-130, & C-141 were all too big for the smaller remote dirt runways or frozen lakes.
HI Gary, this is really cool. I think the composition is perfect. The plane in the clear sky, the mountain and hills framing the image. Really well done.
I’m certainly no expert at plane photography, having only shot two air shows over the years. One thing that I read or was told that when shooting propellor planes you should slow down the shutter so that the prop blurred a little, so it doesn’t look like the plane was stalled. Anyway, just passing that along.
I really like this and hope to see more of your air shots, Gary.
Have you tried using “Auto” IOS?
Auto ISO with the center weighted metering mode seems to work pretty well with quick changing backgrounds.
Maybe try using manual mode with 1/1000s, f5.6, and auto ISO on a trial shoot at the Valdese airport?
I’ve shot a lot of airshows and friend’s airplanes from the ground and air to air and 1/1000s seems to work really well, especially if you’re panning at the same time.
Sometimes even slower shutter speeds like 1/500s works well if you want a good prop disc in motion blur.
I really like your STOL aircraft shots and that’s mostly because I have been flying myself since 1987.
We don’t have many places here in central NC in the way of grass, dirt or gravel strips but we do have a few
