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Air Show!

sataicallistasataicallista High Priestess of Squeee!
in Zocalo v2.0
So Sanfam and I saw an awesome air show today. We're still sorting through the over 3,000 photos we took so it will be a while before you see so I will give linkages instead. [URL="http://www.rochesterairshow.com/index.html"]The main site for the show with a list and pics of the planes we saw.[/URL]

We also toured several large planes including the C-17, C-130 (which my brother flies), C-135, AC-47 "Spooky" gun ship, and a C-5 Galaxy.

I'm mainly posting this now because the main show, the Thunderbirds demonstration, had a really awesome soundtrack full of songs whose names I can't remember. Maybe someone here can. I found some video of the Thunderbirds show from other events. The song I'm trying to identify is at the very end of part 2. It sounds like a Randy Edelman soundtrack piece. Sanfam thought it might be an Olympics piece:

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQIVAA_zZOg"]Part 1[/URL]
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moP7ZM-wqkM"]Part 2[/URL]

Comments

  • Alec MAlec M Award Winning Poster
    That's the theme from "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" by Michael Kamen.

    I can't wait for the airshow here in Abbotsford. Just a couple of weeks away, and the Thunderbirds will be there as well.
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    You know, I feel stupid for not recognizing that. Doh! I suspect that means I need to go on a Kamen-a-thon.

    Anyway, I'll be sorting through photos and find those that don't suck. This was my first attempt at photographing an air show, handheld, with a 70-210mm lens with slow, imprecise autofocus and a shakey final lens and no IS. The results are surprisingly good so far. Mostly bummed with the lack of sharpness, but since my 100-300mm L-glass rental couldn't go through in time, I'll justhave to live with what I've got until next year :P
  • E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
    [QUOTE=Sanfam;174661]handheld... imprecise autofocus and a shakey final lens and no IS.[/QUOTE]Not much use for IS in airshows because you have to use fast shutter speeds any way.
    But "tracking" target surely helps, with low flying aircraft "motion blurred" background is nice.

    Also with target going all around tripod is more inconvenience than help.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    Not bad, but I think the RAF Red Arrows could show them a thing or two! :D
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    [QUOTE=E.T;174663]Not much use for IS in airshows because you have to use fast shutter speeds any way.
    But "tracking" target surely helps, with low flying aircraft "motion blurred" background is nice.

    Also with target going all around tripod is more inconvenience than help.[/QUOTE]

    Air shows aren't just about those moving targets ;) IS on the 18-55mm helped a great deal with interior shots, and panning-mode IS certainly did help counter my unsteady tracking in the past. Biggest problem was still the slow/imprecise AF, which ended up causing far too many shots to be softer than they should have been (Until the aircraft moved just a bit closer). Possibly the biggest issue seems to be the appearance of some purple fringing in higher-contrast shots (all of them :p) when not perfectly in focus.
  • sataicallistasataicallista High Priestess of Squeee!
    [QUOTE=Alec M;174659]That's the theme from "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" by Michael Kamen.[/QUOTE]

    WOW we were hilariously off the mark! I knew I'd heard it before numerous times but I just couldn't freaking place it! Damn I feel dumb now. And I second the Kamenathon.
  • Falcon1Falcon1 Elite Ranger
    I went to Farnborough here in the UK the other weekend. It was excellent.

    We had:

    Airbus 380
    Euro Fighter
    Red Arrows
    Spitfire Merlin
    Apache
    Vulcan
    Vickers Vimey
    F16
    F18
    BA609 Tilt Rotor

    The Airbus is a monster! How the thing flies is beyond me! It is huge and is stupidly maneuverable at low speeds.

    Euro fighter was cool, did some amazing moves.

    Red Arrows were ace as always.

    The Spitfire Merlin (particular Rolls Royce engine) sounded superb and flew beautifully.

    The Apache was simply menacing.

    The Avro Vulcan was cool, saw it back in 2000 and it was still excellent to see in the air. Flew for only a few minutes though as its not 100%.

    The Vickers Vimey nearly crashed!!! An evil cross wind caught it just as it was about to lift off. Luckily the pilot managed to get it down without a scratch but that was the end of it. He taxied back to the hanger after that. Real shame.

    Both the F16-18 were cool, very agile (actually looked more so that the Typhoon but that has the speed edge over them in such turns).

    The BA609 is simply an insane flying machine. I call it the 'planecoptor'.

    The F22 Raptor was at the show during the week, was on the list to fly on the saturday but never turned up! Booooooo!!! Was annoyed by that.

    I shall post some photos tomorrow if I get a chance :)
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    I guess I am just surprised to learn there are other airshows during the EAA one at Oshkosh WI. Its now the largest one in the world.
  • MundaneMundane Elite Ranger
    [url]http://www.tamyk.net/mediaFiles/04-09-05_Air_04_Payerne.wmv[/url]

    Was to a Swiss airshow in 2004. Made this video afterwards..not much to see, but the show was cool!

    [url]http://www.tamyk.net/gallery.jsp?year=2004&cat=09.05%20-%20Air%2004%20-%20Payerne[/url]

    [IMG]http://www.tamyk.net/galleri/2004/09.05%20-%20Air%2004%20-%20Payerne/small/DSC03590.JPG[/IMG]
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    [URL="http://www.omgod.com/gallery/2008_esl_air_show?page=1"]Photographic documentation[/URL] of the event! I've still got gobs more to sort through and a number of them to process, so we'll have to see what I can conjure.
  • Falcon1Falcon1 Elite Ranger
    Nice photos Sanfam, cool you got up close to the craft on the ground. Here's a pick of my photos: [url]http://gallery.me.com/niallj#100099[/url]
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    It must have been amazing to see the A380...

    It's a bit funny to see that written out when so many other marvelous military aircraft were out and about, but the A380's size makes it almost unbelievable that the plane could ever get off the ground in the first place. The proportions are just so wonky, though.

    As far as planes go, I was really hoping to see a Mig-17 and B-1, but they were unavailable. (The Mig broke)
  • Falcon1Falcon1 Elite Ranger
    The A380 was stunning. Obviously it had zero passengers and cargo but still the moves it was doing was amazing. Its take off run was very short and the exhaust/wash from the engines kicked up a huge amount of grass and dust onto the crowd which was quite funny as we all had to look away quickly. Pretty much immediately the pilot banked hard to the right climbing all the way and then slowed down to what seemed like a snails pace and circled the air field. Then he did another sharp climb followed by a rapid dive and then he leveled off. Everyone just went "wow!!" It really looked liked one of those stomach lurching moves you get on an airliner.

    Here's a panorama stitch I made of it before leaving. It needs some touch ups in photoshop which I haven't got round to doing yet:

    [url]www.nialljulian.co.uk/stuff/pano/images/airbus380pano.jpg[/url]
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    I have to work on one of my panoramas, but I've got a few that I'm nearly done with and will post up later. Those super-heavy transports are just unbelievable to experience in person. Their scale is something you can only dream of...until you get the chance to walk around the airframe and touch it.
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