Another visit to RAF Scampton came first - with a 5.30am departure from home being needed to get me up there in time for the Reds first sorties of the day. Much as I hate getting up at that time of day, it does seem silly to go all that way and not put the effort in to see as much as possible of what is going on throughout the day! On this occasion though I could have stayed in bed for a little longer as I arrived up there with rain falling heavily and visibility being so poor that there was a limit what could be done. The Synchro Pair went up for a while - I mainly watched that from the car, then "Enid" - Reds 1-5 - went up shortly after the rain had stopped. I did photograph that but the grey skies were very uninspiring and I've not processed those pictures as there was nothing there that met my own standards. By just before lunch, though, the skies had cleared and the sun was beating down, just in time for 8 Red Arrows Hawks to take to the skies. As they were using the other runway from my previous visit, that mean the exhilarating experience of having them take off directly towards where I was standing...
...quite noisy, that, when they pass over your head at about 50 feet! It was "Red 9" who was missing on this occasion - each pilot flies in a set position within the formations and they can continue to fly if any pilot apart from Red 1 ("The Boss") is missing. If The Boss is unwell, or unable to fly for any reason, the display is cancelled. 2, 4 & 8 fly on the right, and 3, 5 & 9 on the left. 6 & 7 (Synchro) can usually be found playing "follow the leader" behind Red 1 in the first half of the display. The team practise "missing man" formations through the winter so that as and when someone else is unable to participate, everybody still know what their reference points are within the formations - you can see here that with "9" missing the "Eagle" formation looks slightly unbalanced...
In the afternoon they went back up - this time though with 10 jets taking off together - we quickly realised that they were doing a photo shoot which meant formations only - and a lot of them! Some people who were there alongside me were clearly disappointed - but others like me are fascinated by the intricacies of the way the formation changes happen and so found it quite fascinating. It also mean that I could get this shot...
...which Red 10 liked - Re-tweeting it with the comment "PHOTOBOMB!" which I found funny. It's always nice when the team members (Reds or Blues) pick up on a photo I've tweeted, and never more so than when you get a nice comment alongside. Lingy had already commented appreciatively on another of my pics from the day, and Red 8 gave this one a "Wow!" ...
...high praise from a man who is an extremely accomplished photographer himself.
Last week saw me making another trip up - this time for an "Out of Season Practise" or OSP at RAF Cranwell. Slightly odd lighting and a tricky sun position made life a little awkward, but I still got a few bits I was happy with and there were some cracking close passes whizzing by our left ears...
That's Red 6 shooting past! Nice conditions for smoke trails too ...
...they're not yet using the coloured smoke that's so much a hallmark of their display - we probably won't see that now until the team come back from Cyprus at the end of May. The white looks so stunning against a bright blue sky and red jets though it really doesn't matter!
From Cranwell my friend and I went on to RAF Coningsby. The Reds were doing another OSP there later on in the afternoon but I already knew I'd have to leave before they arrived. I did get an hour and half or so watching & photographing Typhoons and Tornado's though, and even saw my first Performance takeoff...
Just LOOK at that heat-haze!
Where I've really noticed the difference with the 7D over my own camera body is in the level of detail and crispness you can achieve. I'm gradually getting all its settings tailored to my own requirements (as any photographer will tell you nobody sets a camera up quite the same as the next person!) too but even before that I was blown away by the results.
Thanks to the kindness of Viv I've got my hands on one several months before I thought I was likely to, and I'm having such fun getting to grips with it! I need to invest heavily in higher capacity memory cards though - the 18mp sensor simply chomps through my current set of 8gb cards and the last thing you want to be doing part way through a display is mucking about changing cards!
More fun planned over the next couple of weeks too - well I've got to keep practising to do such a fab camera justice, haven't I?!
Robyn
2 comments:
Fabulous shots - I have been drooling over the 7D since it came out, but haven't dared try one out, because I know I'll want one too much!
Thanks - honestly, that's probably a wise move. I'd been musing on the fact that they looked nice for a while, but without any "serious intent" if you know what I mean. When I used it though it was like when I first used my 70-200mm on the 40D, having had a 30D - suddenly I realised quite why everyone raves over the lens so much, it all made sense!
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