Unintentionally Artistic

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When you're shooting on the fly you can only take advantage of what happens in front of you and see what comes out later, and sometimes the results are surprising, things the eye did not register at the time. This is an old T-28 Trojan trainer, flown by Wayne Pearce, at the Goolwa Classic Airshow, February, 2007, an aircraft I captured in many studies. The conditions were bright sunshine (exposure time is short enough to stop the prop) and a strong, buffetting wind, and by afternoon a lot of heat was reflecting from the landing strip, creating the heat haze seen here. I was tracking with the aircraft on landing, at maximum telephoto, and it seems the heat haze meant the sonic focussing beam could not find the subject. But it did find the strands of grass blowing in the foreground, generating an image that suggests I focussed deliberately on the grass to let the subject matter blur artistically. This is serendipity, I certainly couldn't have made it happen! Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Colour- and contrast-balanced. Image by Mike.

Machine Texture

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An aviation museum has many subtle and visually interesting textures, from the gloss of paint finishes to the not-yet-restored grub and corrosion of metal long exposed to the elements. Here the engine is dismounted from a Mirage III fighter, workhorse of the Royal Australian Air Force in the 1970s, at the Classic Jets Fighter Museum, Parafield Airport, north of Adelaide, and the lighting conditions were a challenge. The shadow areas inside the engine bay contrast with the burned-out primary light source and the chip has found an excellent balance, bringing out good mid-tones. This was further enhanced with gamma-correction, plus a round of sharpening, contrast and colour adjustment. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic; January, 2007. Image by Mike.

White on White

Shooting interiors can be difficult, artificial lighting is always an interesting exercise, but here a white subject is seen against white lighting, and that is a recipe for burnout. But the chip compensated amazingly, as the shadow areas and the yellow parts can be seen to be properly exposed. This is an old British Bloodhound surface to air missile, photographed at the Fast Jets Fighter Museum, Parafield Airport, north of Adelaide, in January 2007. Only sharpness and colour were enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Classic Backlight with Foreground Illumination

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The long row of windows along one side of the first display hall at the RAF Museum, Hendon, in northern London, made for tricky lighting throughout, as the natural light of a drizzly, grey day vied with the artificial lighting inside. This shot of their immaculate Mustang was taken from the mezzanine gallery on the opposite side of the hall, shooting under the nose of their suspended lifesize mockup of the Eurofighter, and I was mildly amazed that everything balanced out properly. The exposure was comparatively long, the overcast afternoon completely burned out the windows, but, remarkably, the school kids at bottom right were moving little enough not to blur. The ring of lights under the plane have registered amazingly well, making this a delightful play of light and reflection. The camera was solidly supported on a handrail. Enhancements include sharpness, contrast and colour. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto; December, 2006. Image by Mike.

Through a Plate Glass, Sharply

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One thing about travel, you spend ridiculous amounts of time waiting for transport. It all starts at the airport of departure, and if you're careful you can get in some practice at aviation photography. It's not as easy as in the physical photography days, or unless you're using a digital SLR, as the sonic focusing system has the greatest difficulty getting hold of aircraft in flight (well duhh!) This Boeing 767 had just left the runway at Adelaide International Airport in November, 2006, and I shot quite a few arrivals and departures before getting this one, clear and sharp. I was shooting through the plate glass wall of the lounge, which makes me wonder how the chip can process the information generated by the acoustic focusing beam, passing through the attenuation factor of the glass on both pulse and echo, but it does. This is necessarily a telephoto image and that also makes focus more difficult. The image was sharpened, colour-tweaked and cropped for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic exposure, maximum optical zoom. Image by Mike.

A Case for Filmspeed Adjustment...

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My UK trip in late 2006 was my first really major digital foray, at least with an up to date camera with sophisticated capabilities. I wasn't clear on many of the functions and had heard all sorts of conflicting stories about just how digital photography compared and contrasted with the physical age. Show me a Pentax K1000 and a roll of film, and I'll make it sit up and talk... "Virtual grain" was a concept I was worried about, and preferred to minimise motion than risk resolution damage, especially as I was looking to cram as many shots as possible onto my flashcards and was shooting at only 2mp to start with. This shot was taken at the RAF Museum, Hendon, in the northern suburbs of London, in early December '06. You might think that so many lights glaring off polished aluminium would make for ample illumination, but not so: with a filmspeed of 200 selected, to increase light gain but still stay safely in the fine-grain range, the camera was on the verge of motion problems all the time. I started using steadying supports -- beams, railings, anything. In this shot of the B-17G, the camera is on top of a post in the walkway fence -- see it snaking toward the POV at left? Don't even ask about flash, the FinePix S5600's flash wouldn't reach as far as the propellers. Of course, it turns out I could have raised the filmspeed by a factor of four before encountering virtual grain, but I didn't know that at the time... Photo by Mike, 2006.