The NEWBIE Starts His Learning Curve

[Jeff D. Welker]

I read with interest the posts on activity at Luke today. I was going to be visiting a project site at 103rd & Indian School, so I had all the rationale I needed to venture a little further west and check things out. Since I have not purchased my own DSLR equipment yet, I borrowed one of my dad's rigs and decided today was going to be as good as any to start my learning curve on aviation photography. I only had a hour or so to spare, but thought it was worth a try.

I purposely grabbed my dad's Sony a350 and screwed a Minolta 75-300 zoom on it. That way, if I dropped it in the dirt dad wouldn't be as unhappy as if it was his a900.

Trying to continuously zoom, compose, pan, and focus on a fast incoming F-16 was both intimidating and difficult. A heck of a lot more challenging than the Osprey last week at Willy. I'd pick-up a F-16 on its turn at full zoom and follow it in while going wide in an attempt to maintain a consistent composition. If I had to do things over again, I would have chosen a particular zoom power and left it there while concentrating my energies on framing, panning and focus. I keep mentioning focus because the a350 has a small center point AF sensor and getting it to lock onto the plane and keep it tracking was a chore (score one very big point for the 1DMkIV's AF system). I also came away with the impression I would have enjoyed better success if I had been using a fixed telephoto lens and not been fiddling with the zoom ring so much. This last statement may be driven more by my lack of success than fact; however, that is how I felt.

I know it sounds like I blaming part of my failure on the equipment; no matter, I know it was the indian and not the arrow. If any of you AzAP veterans had been shooting with my stuff I'm sure you would have had much better results. That being said, I can also see where having the right equipment will compliment the proper technique and result in the wonderful shots I see posted here on a regular basis.

This is clearly much different from the weddings, portraits and landscape photography in my past. Shooting fast moving objects while hand-holding long glass takes proper technique. It is obvious I need practice, practice and more practice. Today's short experience made me more appreciative of digital photography than ever before. I shot 46 images and think I only got 4 decent captures. If that had been wasted film, rather than expendable space on my CF card, I'd be crying like a little girl.

I walked away from today's experience more motivated than ever. While I know it was a disappointment for many that no F-22's had materialized by 2:00 PM, being that close to those F-16's was an absolute hoot for me. I very much want to learn the techniques necessary to transfer the vision is in my mind's eye to my CF card. I admire the skills the AzAP veterans have mastered in producing those wonderful tack-sharp images that get posted on the website.

Here you go; blunders from the newbie - comments on my observations or photos are always welcome.

Hey, where is the front half of that F-16?


Am I shooting landscape or aviation?


One of a very few that looks halfway decent.


PS - I had a chance to meet a few of the AzAP folks stationed along Alsup Road (Chris, Brian & Bubak). It was nice to put some faces with the names.

[Stephen Marshall]

Couple tips:

1.) Center point focus
2.) AI Servo AF setting

You don't need a 1D AF system to track aircraft. That's like buying a 747 for the free peanuts. All you need is to set any camera (even a rebel XS) to AI Servo and you'll be amazed at the difference it makes. I don't know anything about sony's, but the camera you were borrowing may have had that setting.

I really like #3. Fighters can be fast. At least 20% of all my photos end up looking like your first! And on top of that, working with equipment that's not your own can be tough.  Not sure how many photos you took, but getting at least one keeper is worth the trip to me. To put things in perspective (hopefully) When the Coolings foundation WW2 aircraft were at Willie I took 300 images. Want to know how many I considered good enough to be keepers? Nine. That's a 3% keeper rate, and for me it was fairly average.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Hey Stephen:

Thanks for the comments. I'll check into the AI Servo function on dad's Sony a350 - I appreciate the tip. I'll likely be using that camera until I get my new gear. While I'd definitely like to produce better images, I am not discouraged. And yes, the 1-hour I was there and the few keepers I got were well worth the trip/effort. If nothing else, this reminds me of golf - one good shot keeps you coming back for more.

Later.

[Joe Copalman]

That third shot looks really good.  Use what you got while you got it.  The basics are the basics, just control all the things you can like framing, panning, exposure, etc.

Working the zoom takes practice, and I still chop off the occasional pitot tube while panning - and of course, those tend to be my sharpest shots of a series.