General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon

[Ned Harris]

F-16D on final at KTUS. 2/13/15.

_31A0492 F-16D (s/n 84-1326) by Ned Harris, on Flickr

[Chris C.]

F-16C Viper Demo at Davis Monthan during the Heritage Flight Training and Certification Course 3/1/15

General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon Viper Demo/Heritage Team by ChrisCostello01, on Flickr

[Anna M. Wood]

F-16C Viper Demo at Davis Monthan during the Heritage Flight Training and Certification Course 3/1/15

Nicely done Chris....   

[Chris C.]

Thank you Anna.

[Jeff D. Welker]

NIGHT FIGHTERS

[Tower Guy]

Very nice shot Jeff. You even got the pilots attention and they held still, great job. Fun evening.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Very nice shot Jeff. You even got the pilots attention and they held still, great job. Fun evening.

Thanks Harvey. Not sure why they stayed so steady while looking in our direction, but I'll take it  

FOLDED FLAGS

[Dave S.]

NIGHT FIGHTERS

Wow Jeffe,

That is an excellent shot.  Low light + starburst on the lights + tack sharp.  Nicely executed.  If you don't mind sharing, what were your settings on this shot?  I'm guessing in the f14-16 range (no pun intended) to achieve those starburst effects.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Wow Jeffe,

That is an excellent shot.  Low light + starburst on the lights + tack sharp.  Nicely executed.  If you don't mind sharing, what were your settings on this shot?  I'm guessing in the f14-16 range (no pun intended) to achieve those starburst effects.

Thanks Dave. Lightroom EXIF attached below. Interestingly, depth of field was the subject of a some discussion last night. I'm finding that this particular lens can be shot fairly wide open and still maintain a reasonable depth of field. I don't know if that is a function of the slightly longer focal length I employed (125mm) or some other technical explanation. If I had been shooting with a shorter lens (i.e. 50mm) I don't think I'd of had a chance to get focus from nose to tail at f/4.0.

[Dave S.]

Wow, that was at f4.0, impressive depth of field.  Evidence of my continued learning, but I would have thought that a shorter/wider focal length would have given you more depth of field.  Livin and learnin!

[Scott Youmans]

There's an app for that!

[Jeff D. Welker]

There's an app for that!

So true 

Brother Youmans has an app on his iPhone that calc's depth of field. He made a quick calc for me last night and my confidence was strengthened. I even shot a few images at f/2.8 and they turned out well. If I'm remembering correctly, Scott's app noted that the "sweet" spot for my best depth of field was further away from my camera position. Thinking about it now, I'm guessing that if I had been closer to the Vipers the effective depth of field would have been reduced.

[Scott Youmans]

Depth of field Calc is one. Another one that has been discontinued is DOFMaster which I preferred.  Basically you enter lens focal length, distance to subject, and f-stop and it gives you near and far distances where focus is acceptable. Of course that has to be based on a somewhst subjective standard just as the the depth of field scales on many lenses. They used to sell tables with the same info but this certainly more convenient! Canon used to have a cool feature where you focused on the area closest to you that you wanted in focus followed by the most distant area you wanted in focus and the the third time you half-pressed the shutter button it would set the camera at the correct distance and aperture. Pretty slick but no longer a feature.

[Scott Youmans]

Night Shift

[Tower Guy]

This is a real beauty Scott. You took to this night shoot like a duck to water.