Bf-109 at Paine Field

[squirl033]

the Flying Heritage Collection put on another of their "free fly" days today, featuring the Messerschmidt Bf109E-3 and the Russian Polikarpov I-16. i'd never seen a fully restored Bf109 until this one, and never one in the air (i believe this is one of only two flyable 109E's in the world), so this was a real treat in spite of the crappy light and dull overcast sky. this airplane will fly again in September, so i'll probably see it again then, most likely with better weather, but i wanted to get some shots now, just in case i couldn't make it to the September show. all but the last of these were processed with ReDynaMix to help counteract the lack of detail and the dull light. 40D, 100-400 at various focal lengths and settings...

 

[BrianH]

Awesome shots Rocky, the third capture gives me the chills!

 

[Trackside]

Ah good, I'm glad you made it as well. Shoot you could have shown up 20 minutes late and gotten a front row seat today. I thought it was going to rain at one point. The dead light was a real drag, but we really lucked out the last 3 Fly Days. I like the processing you used. How does it look full size?

I'm starting to get a little better at panning. I hope to get a chance to upload some more later, but its just been too busy today.

I don't know about you, but I had little interest in that stubby Russian fighter. LOL!

 

[ddietiker]

That may explain the 4 P-51's that flew over my house yesterday.

Great shots, I think the sky actually makes the airplane stand out better.

 

[squirl033]

yeah, i wasn't too interested in the I-16 either, though i did get a couple of decent shots of it. looks like you were getting some nicer sky in the background than i was, though... which is weird, since the whole viewing area is barely 100 yards long...

 

[BobH]

yeah, i wasn't too interested in the I-16 either, though i did get a couple of decent shots of it. looks like you were getting some nicer sky in the background than i was, though... which is weird, since the whole viewing area is barely 100 yards long...

Were either one of you using a polarizer?

 

[squirl033]

Were either one of you using a polarizer?

Bob, with overcast like this, a polarizer would have only cost stops...there wasn't any sunlight for it to work with.

 

[BobH]

Bob, with overcast like this, a polarizer would have only cost stops...there wasn't any sunlight for it to work with.

That's true, I was just trying to figure out how the skies ended up looking different.

 

[ddietiker]

Bob, with overcast like this, a polarizer would have only cost stops...there wasn't any sunlight for it to work with.

I almost never use a polarizer on sunny days with sky in the shot. I do use one one cloudy days, they can add quite a bit of contrast to the clouds.

 

[squirl033]

That's true, I was just trying to figure out how the skies ended up looking different.

part of that is the ReDynaMix processing, which heightens cloud contrast like Topaz does. also, the light was better at the start of the demo, to the north, and i spend more time shooting west as the aircraft flew over show center. alas, the clouds were thicker to the west and south...

 

[Trackside]

That may explain the 4 P-51's that flew over my house yesterday.

Great shots, I think the sky actually makes the airplane stand out better.

Actually I believe those were part of a flyover done for the funeral of someone who worked with the Heritage Flight Museum.

As far as the sky - no polarizers here either, I think I'm just pointed more to the north in the 2 I posted and I also used the brush tool in LR2 to add a little more clarity to the clouds. There were nice blue skies to the north/northwest. My shots farther south look more plain/single tone.

I was standing in front of the northern most stand that was selling T-shirts. Next time I might try going over to the west side of the field and see what the head-on shots look like. It was nice that they flew N-S this time too. That's what they did the first time too and what was lacking during the last FFD.