I hope that the COVID-19 allows this...

[rpcrowe]

One of my favorite airshows takes place at the Chino Airport in California and is presented by the Planes of Fame Museum... I really enjoy photographing at this airshow because I love vintage aircraft (especially from World War Two) and because the airshow is a small venue which allows viewers to get close to the planes as they take off and fly by. In fact my crop sensor Canon 7D Mark-ii and 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS ii lens was the perfect combination to shoot these grand old birds from the top of the viewing stand...



Here is my smugmug.com gallery from a few years ago...

https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Airplane...me/i-zf7KhcX/A

The airshow was cancelled for 2020 but there are plans to have the show again on the weekend of October 30th and 31st this year... I plan to shoot these aircraft using my Sony A6600 with the 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS lens and may also rent a Sony 200-600mm lens for that weekend to use on my A7iii. Image stabilization is great for shooting propeller aircraft because I like to shoot at fairly slow shutter speeds to blur the spin of the props. I shot the above image of the P-40 Kittyhawk (Warhawk in U.S. service) at 1/80 second with a 480mm equivalent focal length...

I panned with this shot, also at 1/80 second shutter speed using an equivalent 449mm focal length...



Chino is about a two hour or so drive from my home but, was well worth the trip!

I will place another post closer to the end of October to remind members of that airshow... Let's cross our fingers that COVID-19 will allow the show to proceed...

[pschlute]

Lovely shots there Richard. Fingers crossed

[lunaticitizen]

Wow the panning shot looks gorgeous!

I've never been to an airshow, and I'm not sure there's an airshow for vintage aircraft here, either...

And as a bonus apparently if I want to enter a US military base here I need a special approval

[rpcrowe]

Wow the panning shot looks gorgeous!

I've never been to an airshow, and I'm not sure there's an airshow for vintage aircraft here, either...

And as a bonus apparently if I want to enter a US military base here I need a special approval

And speaking about the Land of the Rising Sun - The Mitsubishi A6M Zero Fighter



Very few of these great aircraft are left flying...

[lunaticitizen]

Nice. I've never seen one flying, but I've seen the remnants of it at Yasukuni Shrine, a place where Japan is characterized as the victim of the world's aggression in the second World War.

[Chataignier]

Nice shots, and I do agree about the slow shutter speeds for prop aircraft, it makes life difficult, but there is no substitute for a properly blurred prop.

Below : De Haviland Dragon at Legendair in St Junien, taken at 1/80th sec

[rpcrowe]

Nice shots, and I do agree about the slow shutter speeds for prop aircraft, it makes life difficult, but there is no substitute for a properly blurred prop.

Below : De Haviland Dragon at Legendair in St Junien, taken at 1/80th sec

Great shot of a wonderful airplane. The transition between biplane and monoplane as well as between cloth covered frame and aluminum body is a very interesting time in history. World War II certainly speeded up the development of aircraft!

Regarding, a slow shutter speed for prop aircraft... I learned that when I shot the Red Bull Air Races on San Diego Bay. These small aircraft were flying so fast that I shot at too high a shutter speed... 1/2,500 second because this is the first time that I used the 100-400mm Mark-ii Canon lens on airplanes.



It is difficult for me to judge small areas (like the prop spinning) when viewing on a Canon LCD in bright sunlight. My Sony mirrorless cameras allow me to review the images while looking through the eye-level viewfinder, This is a LOT easier for me...

Jets are a lot easier to shoot because you can use as high a shutter speed as possible since there is no propeller to worry about...



I shot the above Blue Angel image at 1,600 second using a 300mm f/4L IS Canon lens (480mm equivalent) on a crop sensor Canon DSLR body...

[rpcrowe]

Nice. I've never seen one flying, but I've seen the remnants of it at Yasukuni Shrine, a place where Japan is characterized as the victim of the world's aggression in the second World War.

This might be an interesting museum to visit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzesh6eN14

The superiority of the Zero over all allied fighters early in WW-II combined with the experience and high skill of the Japanese pilots made the Zero a force to be reconned with.

Allied pilots developed a few tactics that allowed them a fighting chance against the Zero.

John "Jimmie" Thatch a Navy Ace, developed the Thatch weave. I had the privilege of interviewing this man for a Navy film we shot in the 1960's

THATCH WEAVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzq3944Xo9M

General Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers also developed tactics which allowed his pilots, flying the inferior P-40 Warhawk to compete with the Zero. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D70MUd2fq34

I also met Rutledge Irvine a distant cousin of mine who was a Flying Tiger...

However. later in the War, better and more numerous American aircraft such as the Navy F6F Hellcat combined with facing lower trained and less experienced Japanese pilots resulted in the Hellcat scoring a 19:1 kill ratio against Japanese aircraft in general and a 13:1 kill ratio against the daunted Zero...

See Great Marianas Turkey Shoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9EBemu3T5o

[lunaticitizen]

This might be an interesting museum to visit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzesh6eN14

Hello Richard,

Yes, that is the place I was talking about. I recall you mentioned that you were stationed in Yokosuka in the past? I wonder if you haven't visited the shrine/museum yet since Yokosuka is relatively close to Tokyo. I go to Yokosuka every year, mainly to see a popular flower park there.

It is interesting place to visit because of the effort it does to whitewash history and to absolve Japan from any responsibility in the second world war.

It is also a place with a lot of beautiful sakura trees; the Japan Meteorological Agency uses them to determine the start of the sakura viewing season in Tokyo.

Btw if you're interested in more history about the Zero aircraft, you might want to watch the animation movie 'The Wind Rises' from the revered animator Hayao Miyazaki.
https://youtu.be/PhHoCnRg1Yw

[rpcrowe]

Leo - it has been eons since I was last in Japan. I was first stationed there with the Navy Combat Camera Group, Detachment Alfa from where I deployed to Vietnam. This was in the late 1960's. I passed through Yokosuka for the last time in 1977 while I was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation.

I did not visit the museum those days. However, I did visit the Yasakuni Shrine itself in the 1960's. I lived with my Japanese fiancé for a while in our apartment in Hodogaya which was equi-distant between Yokosuka and her secretarial job near Tokyo...

[lunaticitizen]

Ohh.. so long ago..

Both Yokosuka and Yokohama (where Hodogaya Ward is) have changed so much since you last visited I think..

Btw the only airshow that has been confirmed this year is the Iruma Air Show in.. November... I hope I get get a longer lens by then.

And since the base is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force base, I won't need a special approval from the US SecDef

[rpcrowe]

Leo - I don't know if it is possible in Japan but, renting a longer lens for some specific venues might be a more economically feasible way to obtain a longer focal length glass for occasional use.

I had decided to rent longer a longer lens for the few occasions each year when I really needed a long focal length. I am fortunate that a local camera shop has a very good deal for renting lenses. I can pick up a lens on Friday and return it on Monday (Tuesday if it is a three-day weekend) for the price of a single days rental...

However, when Sony introduced the lightweight and small sized 70-350mm f.4.5-6.3 G OSS lens, I decided that I might use it often enough to justify the purchase price. So far, this has been a good plan. I use the lens quite often shooting my new puppy...

[lunaticitizen]

Yes, I can rent here too, Richard.

When I went to Hokkaido last year I rented a Sigma 100-400 for shooting the Ezo red foxes but the lens was still too short

I got some Ezo sika deer pictures, though. Some restaurants there serve venison and it was really yummy


DSC02951 by Leo Bhaskara, on Flickr