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Asian in a Strange Land
An Indonesian in Mississippi. Not as catchy as "An Englishman in New York"
Hawkins Field Airshow 2009
http://www.pamudjiphotography.com/blog/2009/10/05/hawkins-field-airshow-2009/
(Reprinted by permission)
"C" is for "cookie"
Last year as Denise was driving back to the house she spotted an airplane doing stunts in the sky. She promptly searched and called around to see what the deal was and found out about the Hawkins Field Airshow. We were too late to go to it last year, so we put it on our running fun-things-to-do calendar for this year, and since it was held on a free day for us we were able to go see it a couple days ago.
For those looking for airshow photos apologies ahead of time for the boring personal family pics, and for those expecting Denise and Sofia pics apologies ahead of time for all the boring airplane shots!
Camera nerd alert–geeky photography talk ahead! The E-P1, which had established itself as the firm favorite for casual photo outings, stayed at home this time. I knew I’d need good autofocus tracking, and the E-P1 is weak in that area. Plus I knew I’d need long focal length lenses, and the longest I have on theE-P1 is an 84mm equivalent lens. So my heavier hitters did the deed instead–5D + 24-70L for close shots and 40D + Sigma 50-500 for long shots. I also brought 3 other lenses since I didn’t know what to expect for my first airshow, which turned out to be a big mistake that my shoulder really regretted after hauling all that junk around.
As far as images go, I have no idea of the accepted aesthetics in the aircraft and aerobatics (acrobatics in the air) photography sub-genre, but based on my general knowledge of photography there were quite a few shots I was happy with, a few of which I’m sharing here. I’ve photographed helicopters in flight before, so I knew that some propeller motion blur makes images of propeller-powered aircraft look more realistic (if you freeze the propeller in the shot, it looks like the aircraft isn’t moving), but other than that I was definitely… ahem… winging it. For those who shoot airshows all the time and consistently come out with sharp images, big props to you. The combination of lower shutter speed to allow propeller blur while trying to steady a 500mm lens handheld and keep a rapidly flying object in focus meant a lot of my shots were either blurry from camera shake, motion blur, or a combination of both; and when I set the shutter speed higher to compensate for that, I didn’t get enough propeller blur. Practice, practice, practice? Maybe that and a membership at a local gym, because all that up-down-and-around movement meant a lot of reps with a heavy camera and lens combination. During some of the airshow routines my arms started to shake from the effort of keeping the camera steady.
Sorry for any banding and color gradation blockiness in these blue sky shots. They aren’t that way in the originals–only in these 80% quality, web-sized JPEGs. This isn’t a fine arts print showing after all; you get the idea even from the crummy JPEGs. It was a beautiful, sunshiny day, as you can see from the mostly cloudless blue skies.
Despite there being a healthy crowd at the event (A few hundred? A thousand maybe? I’m terrible at estimating crowd sizes), finding a prime spot wasn’t hard. We could’ve plopped down our chairs a few feet from the barricade fence if we wanted to, but I think sitting slightly further back allowed us a better view and less crowding. You can see from the first shot above that there was plenty of elbow room.
Randy Harris of Bearfeat Aerobatics
When I think “biplane” I think “World War I” and “slow and not maneuverable”. So I was shocked to see this biplane and a couple others later in the show perform amazing stunts. This plane is named the Skybolt300, and is apparently the only plane ever built in the living room of a condo. Extreme DIY indeed. I’d never fly anything I built myself.
Gary Ward in his MX2
Even more phenomenal than the biplanes was this custom-designed stunt plane. Makes sense now that I know it, but there are actually planes designed specifically for aerobatics. This plane did some insane tricks; really pushing the envelope of what I thought was possible within the laws of physics. If I recall correctly at one point he hovered his plane, completely stationary. He also did some really scary looking stall and spin maneuvers that a lesser plane wouldn’t be able to recover from. Think Top Gun tail spin on a slower scale but scarier since it’s in real life. Awesome stuff and something everybody should get to see at least once in his life. Randy Harris and Gary Ward are 2 members of the 3-member “Team Chaos” that performed together later in the show. Their individual performances were amazing enough, but they really blew it out with their team performance.
Neal Darnell's Flash Fire jet truck
No, really–that’s a jet-powered pickup truck. It’s not just for show, because the truck can go a reputed 350miles per hour. Neal Darnell is the 3rd member of Team Chaos. Caution: spoilers ahead! If you don’t want to find out everything about their act and its spectacular ending, skip ahead to the next photo and paragraph. Their act is first the 2 pilots “fight” over who gets to race the jet truck by trying to out-stunt each other. Once a winner is chosen, the jet truck starts revving up and blowing short bursts of fire and smoke everywhere while prowling back and forth on the runway, supposedly to intimidate the pilots. The pilots respond by making some very low altitude runs over the truck. After all the back-and-forth is through, the designated race pilot gets a running start (obviously, since he’s already in the air) while the jet truck starts from a standstill and the other pilot comes in from the opposite direction. They time it so that all3 of them meet in the middle of the track at which point a huge explosion goes off. Seriously, I felt the concussive blast of air as well as the heat all the way in the crowd, as did Denise from further back. As I was absolutely not expecting this while framing a tight shot through the 40D viewfinder, my first thought when I saw, felt, and heard the explosion was, “Oh no, something’s gone wrong!” So my 2nd reaction was relief upon discovering it was just a stunt. Completely botched the shot so no photographic evidence for you, but if they come back next year I’m nailing that shot. You just watch. I kinda feel like I’m giving away the twist to an M. Night Shyamalan movie by telling you how it ends, but really you just have to go out there and experience it anyway because it’s totally awesome. |
Reviews
Although Sunday at the Hawkins Field Airshow in Jackson, Mississippi was a rain-out, it was a great weekend in many respects. Several of the original Tuskegee Airmen were guests of honor, and I always enjoy hanging out with these amazing men. The entire show was geared to involve the youth of Jackson in aviation and to inspire them to stay in school and excel. More on that in a later column.
