Kemble Air Day 2009

[RGCirencester]

Hey All... Just wondering if any one else on here is in to airshows. I've been to Kemble Air Day today and only taken a mere 1008 pictures

Will think about posting them when I've had a look on the computer... If they're any good

My Dad and I go to Kemble every year, we live about 5 miles down the road in Cirencester. This is the first year that the event has spanned two days, being Saturday and Sunday this year. Unfortunately the Red Arrows could only attend on the Saturday this time around, so we missed them (Kemble has a great tradition with the Red Arrows, as they used to be based at Kemble pre 1976 I think it was).

Weather wasn't that brilliant today, grey and overcast, but it didn't rain that much, just a light drizzel every so often. We did have brief periods of sun too, and my camera hand is now burnt, where my other hand (below the camera) isn't lol.

I gave up with the changing light levels halfway through the day and decided to try spending the entire day in Manual mode on my camera. So 800 or so pictures were all judged by me... Haven't found out if that was a mistake or not yet

In the meantime here's some pictures from last year if anyone is interested.
http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...t=63075ce7.pbw

[garysnooker]

looks like a good day out

[ferret]

I was gonna go but ended up going to Stonehenge at 3:30 thismorning, have a look on my Facebook for a few images, will put the rest up tomorrow after I have edited them.

Fairford is nearly on us though

[DandyA]

I was gonna go but ended up going to Stonehenge at 3:30 thismorning, have a look on my Facebook for a few images, will put the rest up tomorrow after I have edited them.

Fairford is nearly on us though

blimey Ferret ... I never knew you were a druid ... I also didn't know Stonehenge is open to the public again ...

as a young boy, I have happy memories of visiting StoneHenge and climbing all over the place ... but last time, I visited, maybe 20yrs ago, it was more like a prison camp ... barbed wire and security peeps everywhere ...

has it got better?

[edit] Silbury Hill is still probably my favourite - what do you think of that?

[ferret]

Stonehenge is only open to the public for the one day a year, security is good there and a good time had by almost all, my brother nearly got arrested for climbing on a stone lol well no one told us we could not climb on the pillar shaped ones lol

I just go for the pics and got some great ones too;

[RGCirencester]

just finished looking through them. No where near as good as last years pictures though. Weather was against us for photographs really.
http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...%20Day%202009/

Some great pics there ferret. Especially like the guy with the spikey red hat!

[DandyA]

just finished looking through them. No where near as good as last years pictures though. Weather was against us for photographs really.
http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...%20Day%202009/

Some great pics there ferret. Especially like the guy with the spikey red hat!

Wow thanks RG ... I've just watched your slide show and really enjoyed it ...

I guess the Vulcan must be the one that has amazingly been restored by the "Vulcan to the Sky" project ... well it's not a guess really cos surely it is the one and only Vulcan still flying ... http://www.vulcantothesky.org/

I enjoyed greatly your photos although I couldn't see a name to every plane ... what's #7 possibly a flying boat ... and what's the one with a delta wing with two separate struts to the tail ...

I also enjoyed Ferret's photos of the summer solstice at Stonehenge although I have to disagree with you RG that the best photo was the one of the bloke with spikey hair ...

The Gorgon girl, Medusa, could turn me to stone anytime she likes ...

So thanks both for the photos

[RGCirencester]

Thanks Dandy. Yes that would be the famous Vulcan finally restored and flying! Didn't get any really good pictures of it though unfortunately.
The lack of labelling is a combination of lazyness and not having the guide with me
The double boom tailed plane with the delta wing would be a sea vixen I believe. I think the other twin-boom jet preceeding it is the venom. Always preferred the vampire to the venom though.

The other one you referred to is the Percival Pembroke.

If you liked the first slideshow heres one of this years airshow
http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...t=71dfb021.pbw

[DandyA]

thanks againg RGC ... stunning photos of planes in flight ... what camera are you using?

I used to go to RAF Gaydon every year (long gone I think) and the highlight was always at the end ... the Vulcan on the apron used to taxi over spectators and then fly ... followed by a Phantom Mk II which lit up it's after-burners as soon as it V3'd ...

[RGCirencester]

I have my lowly old canon 350d. It's getting on a bit now as I had it for my 18th birthday and its seen a lot of use since then!
I have a Canon 70-300 IS lens which could do with being 100mm longer, but one of the nice things about Kemble is you get quite close to the planes.
I really wanted the "Bigma" - Sigma 50-500mm DG lens, but I could not afford that so got this instead, and I must say it is a very good lens.

[DandyA]

I have my lowly old canon 350d. It's getting on a bit now as I had it for my 18th birthday and its seen a lot of use since then!
I have a Canon 70-300 IS lens which could do with being 100mm longer, but one of the nice things about Kemble is you get quite close to the planes.
I really wanted the "Bigma" - Sigma 50-500mm DG lens, but I could not afford that so got this instead, and I must say it is a very good lens.

well I for one am very impressed with that Canon 70-300 IS lens ... either that or you've got very steady hands ...

[DandyA]

btw ... dunno about these days but in the good ol' days, Sigma were fairly c r a p ... so, if I were you, I'd stick with the Canon lens ...

[RGCirencester]

The days of Tamron = good Sigma = crap are over!
The bigma is a really great lens. For around 700 i think it is, you get from 50-500mm, which is an insane zoom range, and really good image quality.
Canon also do a 100-400mm IS lens but thats rediculously expensive

Once you've had an IS lens there really is no way back! Its amazing, it really is. From the 2008 collection the take off shots were using IS but I had IS off for the in flight photos to save battery. This year I had a spare higher capacity battery so left IS on all day. the funny thing is my hands aren't that steady taking stationary pictures, but give me a plane taking off and I can keep the camera perfectly steady while panning. Seems strange to me anyways.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...8/IMG_8816.jpg
This picture was taken at 1/40th @ 170mm and its one of my favourite pictures I've taken.
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...8/IMG_8409.jpg
1/50th @ 250mm for this one. I just love the take off shots.

[ferret]

Canon also do a 100-400mm IS lens but thats rediculously expensive

Ah its not that bad that is the bad boy I use for the snooker pictures {Click banner at the top of the page to see}

You can pick one up these days for around £900 if you do some digging about on the net.

[DandyA]

well yes they are extremely impressive shots ... both good panning ... I prefer the second one personally but that's my personal choice ...

what's this IS and 70-300 stuff ... in my day, all we had was a 50mm prime and those glass cubes for flashes ...

I am slightly joking and I realise how difficult it is to take photos like that but I'd be interested to hear exactly how you do it ...