Waddington airshow 2014 advice

[moochas]

Hi all, just wanting a bit of advice on where to plonk myself for best angles of attack at the airshow from people that have been before or even if it would be better from somewhere outside the actual event?? Thanks in advance

 

[jonathan_ed]

Hi moochas.

It'll be my first time so can't offer much help, what I do know is that xh558 will be positioned to the left end of the runway

 

[MatBin]

And it looks like it will be raining
I'm going on Sunday.

 

[jonathan_ed]

I'm going Saturday too, although weather has marginally improved from the other day

 

[dean messenger]

you have two choices for runway.. take off or landing shots.. decide first and foremost what you want to get.. air shots it doesnt matter where you stand.
for camera settings a good guideline is the following
Focus set to AF
Centre AF focus point selected only
AI Servo Mode
Evaluative Metering mOde
generally best to shoot in TV ( Shutter Priority Mode )
AUTO ISO
Continuous shooting mode

Shutter speeds
fast jets 1/800th to 1/1200th
fast jet blurred backgrounds 1/500th
Prop aircraft between 1/125 and 1/250 ( depnding on prop.. bi planes the slower speed , spitfires and the like the faster speed
Prop Helicopters between 1/60th and 1/125th depending on speed of rotation
try and keep below ISO 400 if you can though on a sunday day auto ISO is fine and try keep between f/5.6 and f/8 .
again not easy when using TV ( Shutter priority ) but again dpends on weather conditions

And of course make sure you have spare batteries, plenty of SD cards ( i used 3 cards for Biggin Hill festival a couple of weeks back and took over 2000 shots )

and enjoy!

 

[jonathan_ed]

Is there a standard end to take off or land from, I.e left to right for take offs?

 

[dean messenger]

google maps the runway. it should have indicator markings to give you an idea.. though to further expand on that. at biggin hill the take off zone was around 2/3 down the runway so if you want to ctach them as they are rising in the air id say be around 3/4 down. .. for landing they were coming in around 1/3 along the runway before taxing the length to the slipway.
so if you want landing shots i would be no further than halfway down. Normally these vents will have a film crew stand set up and maybe even a pro photographers enclosure so try to get near them and you cant go far wrong.
i found at biggin hill we had tons of room and was able to move from our inital spot further down to a better location with no problems.
oh and for reference they were going from left to right.
its worth googling waddington airshow on images to see previous shots though from the shots ive seen from there its the same with them going from left to right.