1st Group of Oregon Airshow Pictures

[mikej]

We had our airshow this weekend at the Hillsboro, Oregon airport, which is about 15 miles west of Portland. We got splats of rain off and on most of the day, but with all the clouds around, we were lucky and didn't get dumped on. It did keep some of the planes and the Thunderbirds from doing their high flying though. But it was still good to see them peform along with all the other aircraft. Here are a few pictures from the day I went to the show.

All taken with my 1DMKII and 100-400 4.5/5.6L lens. ISO was mostly 800 to keep the shutter speed up above 1/600 to above 1/1200 when the sun peaked out for awhile.

This was a eary British jet trainer.



This was two of the Air Force trainers, the old version and the newest.



It's not as good a shot as some have shown, but I did manage to get the F18 Super Hornet as it broke the sound barrier. I wish I had pushed the shutter speed up a bit for this, but at least I got almost a full vapor circle.



The featured Thunderbirds







Mike

[dvdowns]

The last two make it look like they are extra close because of the angle they were taken . When they break the sound barrier I suppose that is when you want a camera that can do 8 fps ...

[mikej]

Even though the lens make them look tighter than they were, they were still pretty close together. There were a couple of times they seem to get pretty close to each other.

Yes, the 8.5 fps does come in handy. Which is why I got the 1DMKII rather than the 20D. I do a lot of action type events and need the faster AF and frame speed.

Thanks DV.

Mike

[lordarka]

I love the shot of the Super Hornet. Those things overfly our workplace almost 4 times a day as they practice air exercises out of Miramar MCAS.

Arka C.

[mikej]

Thanks Arka. We don't see them around here very often. We have F15's based at the Portland Airport, and we get A-10's up and down the Columbia River Gorge all the time, but not a lot of other fighter or attack jets very often. Growing up around Air Force bases and being in the Air Force for 9 years, I did get to see a lot of different aircraft though.

Mike

[edawn]

I knew I could count on you for some great airshow pics, Mike! We live pretty close to the airport (near Intel's Hawthorn Farm campus), and we felt like we had our own private showing, twice a day for 4 days! The Thunderbirds came low right over our house! I managed to get some shots, but my equipment and my experience are not able to capture what you did so nicely. Thanks for sharing!

Elaine

[ellette]

Great shots! I love the sound barrier one and the last two especially.

I got to work at a booth at the airshow once several years back. Haven't been since actually, need to take the boys and go though!

Sara

[mikej]

Thanks Elaine and Sara.

Elaine, we live not to far from the airport too and back before the FAA got real picky about which direction the planes took during their runs, they use to come over our house too. I wish sometimes the FAA was just as picky on the day to day single and double engine airplanes that come in over us at tree top level sometimes. A few years ago one actually landed in a tree in the park a couple of houses down from us. Good thing it was a single engine plane or it wouldn't have stayed on top of the trees.

I've thought about volunteering but I'd be so busy watching the planes and wanting to take pictures that I wouldn't do a very good job. I just wish they would have the setup the same from year to year to I would know where the best place was to setup and head there as soon as I got through the gate. But I guess if they did that, then I'd have more competition from other photographers in getting there.

Thanks again.

Mike

[Marc Kurth]

Mike,

They are all really good captures, but that second one with the trainers is my favorite!

Marc

[mikej]

Thanks Marc. Air shows are so much fun... loud, but fun.

Mike

[mikej]

Jared, you mean they have non-military planes at airshows?

Yes, I did, although not as many as I wanted too. It was a long airshow and about 2/3rd of the way through my battery died after off loading 10 gigs into my Image Tank that I was dumping my CF cards into and I was afraid I'd run out of CF cards before the Thunderbirds performed. So I cut back a lot on my shooting. I shoot raw and at 8 meg files each, even with 7 gigs of CF cards that doesn't give me a lot of extra room for the way I shoot at events like these. So I conserved, although I found out at the end that I still have 4 gigs still left over. So I wish I had gotten more of the other planes. Next time I'll take the spare plug in battery pack for my Image Tank. I use to be able to dump more than 10 gigs worth of files with my 10D but they were only 6 meg files, so the battery life lasted longer.

Mike

[deluco]

Wow, these are fantastic!
Did you set the exposure manually or did you let the camera set it?

Thank you for sharing these.

[mikej]

Jim, I was on auto exposure (TV, shutter priority if I remember correctly). The 1DMKII has spot metering, which is what I used and focus was set for AI. I did the same show last year with my 10D and though I got some pretty good pictures then, I had a lot more keepers with the 1D. I just haven't had t hat great of sky the last couple of years though. Thanks Jim.

Jared, yes, when upgrading cameras or even just moving to digital from film, there are a number of other things that have to be considered. Although my 1 ghz PC has more or less been able to keep up for a long time, disk space has not. I'm currently pushing 2 terabytes of disk space because I pretty much have always shot raw since I went digital. I'm glad harddrive space is so cheap. I just upgraded to a 3 ghz PC, 2 gigs of ram and a big case for all the drives, mostly because of the time it takes to process panoramas and some of the other stuff I'm getting into. I've had to buy more CF cards to carry as well as the 40 gig Image Tank to dump files in during long shoots without access to my computer or laptop. And then there is all the software we have to buy in support of digital. It really sucks you in. I keep thinking of the 600mm lens I could buy if I didn't have to spend money on all the extra non-camera equipment that I have bought.

Mike

[mikej]

Here is a shots I took last year of one of the Blue Angles. I knew something was up with the Navy camera crew came out but I thought it was going to be a low level pass or something. I was only partialy ready when two of the blue Angles took off like this. I wish I could have gotten both of them at the same time, but I was focused on this one and had planned to snap a picture as he took off in front of me. They took off a bit early with full power. Kind of like how Superman use to jump once and then he was up up and away.



Mike

[Mr. Pickles]

I like airplanes. The Air Force has been a part of me for awhile, and I like the Thunderbirds. But then again I like the Blue Angles too. Even if they are Navy or Marine flyboys

You gonna make me go find some old airplane photos

[dc2]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickles

I like airplanes. The Air Force has been a part of me for awhile, and I like the Thunderbirds. But then again I like the Blue Angles too. Even if they are Navy or Marine flyboys*

You gonna make me go find some old airplane photos

I saw the thunderbirds a while ago : I was bored luckily the red arrows turned up and put on a proper show

[mikej]

The Blue Angles have prettier jets but the Thunderbirds put on a better show. Red Arrows? Isn't that the bunch of PT-17 bi-planes that perform at airshows on their off time when they aren't crop dusting?



Mike

[dc2]

Originally Posted by Mike Jordan

The Blue Angles have prettier jets but the Thunderbirds put on a better show. Red Arrows? Isn't that the bunch of PT-17 bi-planes that perform at airshows on their off time when they aren't crop dusting?



Mike

All I can say is most of the Americans in the stands walked out when thunderbirds had been doing there boring stuff for 10 mins but then when crop dusters showed them how its done properly no one blamed them

[mikej]

DC, I'm sure I have a picture of the Red Arrows here somewhere... let me look...


Is this them:




Wait! Never mind, my mistake. That's the Red Barons, not the Red Arrows. Close though.



Mike

[mikej]

Jared, a number of years ago, we were at the airshow and left before the end of it. The wing walker fell off the plane and was dangling underneith by her harness a rope and couldn't get back up and the plane couldn't land. They had to run back and forth with a pickup truck underneith trying to get the rope cut or the harness lose. They finally got her out of it and into the truck so the plane could land. Had we stayed I would have been in a prime area to get pictures of a lot of it.

It's one of those things you don't want to see it happen and you don't want anyone hurt if it does, but I'd love to be able to get pictures if I could.

Mike