Photographing airplanes from the ground is very hard. Usually they are too small in the frame to get much detail and if they are against the sky, it is tough to have any sense of scale.
Luckily, old style flying shows still exist and we are fortunate to have one nearby. We went out an overcast but still very hot morning to see the show.
Because of the relatively slow speed of the aircraft, I knew I wanted to shoot in Shutter Priority mode and set my speed at 1/800th of a second. Additionally, I changed my metering mode to spot as I really wanted the camera to focus on the airplane. Even with that, the relative smallness of the plane versus the much brighter sky, meant that the images were going to be too dark. I cranked in +1 EV of exposure compensation to start, but wound up having to take it to 1 2/3 EV more than the camera thought necessary. I had my 70-200mm f2.8 on (my favorite lens), but knew that was not going to be enough. As you look at the EXIF data, you will see that my focal length wound up being 340mm. I used my 1.7 "doubler" which magnifies your image at the cost of 1 or 2 stops of light. In post processing I really cropped the images significantly, removing more than 50 per cent of the image so that you could actually see what was going on.
Created after World War 1, as the United States sold off many of the planes they had built, flying circuses and barnstormers crisscrossed the nation, giving most people their first sight of an airplane and for many, their first ride. As the competition between shows grew more intense, the length they would go to for stunts also grew. Wing walking, if you haven't seen it, requires a person to climb out of their cockpit and climb out onto the wing. Since most of these aircraft were biplanes, they did have plenty of struts and wires to hang on to.
One of my wife's fellow teacher's boyfriend happens to be not only one of the pilots, but also is the wing walker.
Joe is a very brave young man. In real life he runs his own cattle ranch. His first trick, once he is on the lower wing is go hang upside down, from the wing, only holding on with his feet.
Next he climbs on top of the airplane's top wing. This whole process is done without any kind of parachute and often times without any tether. At least there is a post and some foot straps because, the pilot then starts doing aerobatics. Here is Joe going all the way around a loop. At one point is twice as heavy as on the ground, and then he is weightless.
To cap off their show they unfurl a lovely American flag and buzz the crowd at pretty low levels.
A successful landing is one you can walk away from is an old pilot's adage. Here they come back to earth.
. If you live close to Northern VA, you should definitely make this a weekend destination. Hours and schedule are posted on their website: http://www.flyingcircusairshow.com/ You can also buy flights in their open cockpit aircraft. It is a lot of fun and the balloon festival is coming up soon.
Posted in Camera, Travel and tagged with Aircraft, Flying Circus, Bealeton.
August 11, 2016 by Mark Segal.
Over the Easter weekend we took a little vacation down to the Omni Homestead resort in Hot Springs VA. We planned on staying a couple of nights and had so much fun we stayed an extra day. One of the adventures they offered was the chance to go and play with their falcons. We enjoyed it so much last summer in Ireland, that we wanted the opportunity again. Thanks to American insurance laws it was a very different experience, but still quite thrilling. In Ireland, we had a short lesson, and then got to take the birds flying through the woods. Here, they require a preliminary training class first, and then you can take a second one and actually "fly" the birds yourself. We certainly would have, but couldn't fit it into our busy schedule of relaxing. Luckily we can go back and go on from there. First, let me say that these aren't actually falcons. Falcons can be fairly ill-tempered and with the number of children these birds interact with, probably not a great idea. These birds, just like in Ireland, are actually Harris hawks. Our bird's name was Remington.
Linda, the falconer was very proud of her birds and did a great job connecting with the fairly large group, including kids to the history and habits of the birds, hunting and the challenges of keeping them healthy. One of her best points was that these birds are not her friends; they just see her as the easiest path to reliably get food. It was clear though that she respected them and knew what they were thinking before they did. You can see they share common expressions and are sharply focused.
You did get to sign waivers before you took the course. One of the neatest parts of her demonstration was showing just how food focused and agile the hawks are. She stood this couple together a few inches apart and held out the food down low.
Remington had no problem, folding back her wings and making it through the gap. At the end of the flying demo, she got a nice treat.
After she was pretty full, she went through the crowd allowing all the brave people to perch Remington on their hands. Sarah is getting to be very comfortable.
Just for perspective, here was the first really brave adventurer.
I gave Sarah my camera and she managed to get one in focus shot of me. I like the fact that my nose is just slightly bigger than Remington's—at least from this angle. It is difficult to describe just how impressive these hunters are when seen up close. They are still wild and very fierce and that is exactly how it should be.
Posted in Miscellaneous, Travel and tagged with Falconry, Omni Homestead.
April 13, 2016 by Mark Segal.