September 13, 2007 - The Air Force Thunderbirds flew over Honolulu during a practice run for Saturday’s show. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF 300mm f2.8, Manual, 1/3200 sec at f/8, ISO 800, Daylight balance

Sorry, been on vacation, thus a lapse in bloggage… But I’m back, and refreshed. A new man, if you will…

Word on the street was, that the Air Force Thunderbirds were in town.

I was working in the office at Restaurant Row yesterday, and went down to the street for a relaxing smoke break. It was right around 9:30 a.m., and suddenly jets came out of nowhere, screaming like so many banshees over Honolulu.

Ahhh yes… the Thunderbirds.

I figured they’d just be hanging out over Waikiki, but apparently flight paths were drawn over the city. Well, this is fun, I thought, as I watched the jets zip over buildings.

Then I got to thinking… “Well, there’s another practice run at 2:30, I should probably come down here to the street again and try to get some pictures…”

I liked the idea that they were flying over the city, which would give me a chance to try and put the planes in some kind of context, rather than the stock “planes against blue sky” shots.

So I grabbed the 300mm and stuck it on my 20D and went downstairs to the sidewalk. I had noticed earlier that they flew over the Keola La’i building up the street, and thought that would be a neat shot.

September 13, 2007 - The Air Force Thunderbirds flew past a construction crane at the Keola La’i building under construction on South Street. They were doing a practice run for Saturday’s show. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF 300mm f2.8, Manual, 1/3200 sec at f/8, ISO 800, Daylight balance

Of course, I looked like a weirdo standing on the street with a big lens aiming at the sky. People walked by, looking at me, my camera, then the sky, then back at me, and kept walking, scratching their head. But then again, I’m used to this, since I routinely stand around with a camera waiting for a shot, looking like a complete nut-case.

But I digress…

Since I’d be shooting between buildings, I really wouldn’t have time to track the planes as they apporoached. I figured I’d have have to be quick to get the planes framed and get a few pictures before they disappeared behind more buildings and trees.

I wanted a relatively high shutter speed to stop any blur of the planes, and a fair amount of depth of field since I was hoping to get both buildings and planes in the shot, so I set my camera to 1/3200 at f8, which needed an ISO of 800.

Soon there was a roar, and planes appeared from behind Waterfront Towers. I was hand-holding the 300 and got the planes in the viewfinder and shot as they went across the sky. They flew behind some palms, which was nice to get some “sense of place.”

I was still hoping for something with the Keola La’i building, maybe the crane, and kept shooting whenever they came through. Finally, they came by at the right angle, and I was able to get the planes as they flew past the crane.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Photo Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.