Thunderbirds
The United States Air Force Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds fly Lockheed Martin's F-16 Falcon aka Viper. As an Air Force veteran, I always jump at the chanc...
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The United States Air Force Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds fly Lockheed Martin's F-16 Falcon aka Viper. As an Air Force veteran, I always jump at the chance to photograph them.
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Jun, 2017Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in 2017 on the flightline at Scott Air Force in Southern Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St Louis.Time
It was mid afternoon during your typical summer day in the Midwest. Which means bright,sunny, and humid.Lighting
It was bright and sunny and out on the flightline there is nothing to obscure that. Since I was photographing aircraft that day, the biggest issue was making sure that I didn't point my lens at the sun and blind myself.Equipment
I used a Nikon D750 with a Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 G lens. No other equipmentInspiration
A year before I had taken a similar photo of the US Navy Blue Angels diamond formation going through the frame, left to right. I wanted to get a matching photo of the Thunderbirds.I had actually come to the airshow the day before too so I could watch the flight routines and figure just where I needed to stand since I had a very specific shot in mind.Editing
I cropped the edges a bit since most of it was just blue sky and not very interesting. I made sure to leave enough on the left side of the frame to suggest movement. I also darkened it a bit to make the white of the aircraft stand out a bit more. I generally try to keep a very light hand when editing, I'm not a huge fan of doing a lot of editing.In my camera bag
Since 2015, my camera body has been my ever faithful Nikon D750. For lenses, these days I carry a Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G and a truly giant Nikkor 200-500mm 1:5.6E. I have other lenses that I can use, but I've found for the things I generally shoot, these lens serve me very well. I also carry a Nikon SB-700 flash. To round out my gear is a random assortment of extra batteries, extra SD cards, gaff tape, a Gerber multitool, remote triggers, a Manfrotto mini tripod, and a first aid kit. It all gets carefully placed in either a GoRuck GR1 Shooter, a North Face Recon, or a Maxpedition Mongo Versipack, depending on where I'm going and what I'm doing.Feedback
Jets move fast, so its a great idea to prepare as much as you can before the show starts for whatever aircraft you're aiming for. Figure out your exposure and focus so you're not fumbling around during the show and missing it. Set your camera for burst fire and remember that you are limited by how quickly photos can be written to your SD card and your internal memory buffer, so time when you start shooting. And remember to have fun, airshows are great experiences and its super easy to get glued to your camera and miss the experience. And don't forget sunscreen, no on wants a camera shaped sunburn on their face.
