If you’re a pilot, or at all interested in aviation, nothing can compare to EAA’s AirVenture. It is the world’s largest airshow and each year draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world. While the numbers for this year haven’t come out yet, last year brought some half a million visitors and over ten thousand aircraft. It truly is a sight to see.
For the past three years, I’ve been spending more and more time at the airshow each year. It started as a day trip with a friend and our Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). The year after that a different friend and I flew in (since I had earned my pilot’s license) and camped for a night. Then, this year, I visited twice, once camping for 3 days, and then as a day trip. The week flew by, and I’m already anxious for next year’s show.
Unfortunately, because of limited capacity, we weren’t able to camp at the Oshkosh airport. Instead we camped about 20 miles south at Fond Du Lac airport. This meant I wasn’t able to wake with the sun and photograph all the warbirds as I had hoped. Despite this, I still had a great time experimenting with my airshow photography. There is nothing better in life than combining multiple passions in a single experience. Given the limited time I’ve spent practicing, I wasn’t surprised to find my panning skills a little lacking. I was still able to get a few in-focus shots, but not as many as I would have liked.
Another thing I came away with was just how hard it is to find a unique picture. Everyone has a camera, and judging only by equipment, there were quite a few experienced photographers. As I took the standard shooting-into-the-sky pictures, hearing and seeing all the other cameras click just made me realize how ordinary the pictures would likely turn out. My goal next year is to try and find the unseen pictures and explore new angles.
Anyway, here are some of my shots! Let me know what you think.
What a fun weekend! If you are interested in photography and have’nt heard of Scott Kelby or his Worldwide Photowalk event, I highly recommend checking it out and attending next year. Not only do you get to meet fellow photographers and chat, but you get a chance to win lots of great prizes!
I attended both the Stillwater, MN and Minneapolis, MN photowalks and both were great. Each photowalk is organized by a volunteer and it usually consists of a basic planned route (although you can go where you choose) and then a meeting place at the end. There you will have drinks or even a meal and share photos and conversation. It was a great way to spend a Saturday; and editing all the photos kept me busy all day Sunday.
The Stillwater, MN walk was actually organized by several members of the Lightroom and Photoshop teams. It was really nice to be able to speak with them and see how Adobe not only puts out a great product but cares about their customers, thanks guys! The walk started overlooking downtown Stillwater, and wound down and around the city and river before ending up at Smalley’s BBQ. While the lighting could have been better (overcast), we didn’t have any rain. I got some decent pictures and look forward to not only going back to reshoot some things, but maybe they will have an encore next year.
For Minneapolis the leader chose the St. Anthony Main area, beginning on Nicollet Island and making a loop via the 3rd Ave and Stone Arch bridges. It was a good choice for people that haven’t had an opportunity to shoot downtown, but seeing as I shoot there a dozen times a year, wasn’t anything exciting for me. I got a few pictures, but nothing I was too impressed with; I still need to do a lot of work on pre-visualization. While I broke off before the end, the group ended up at Grumpy’s for their show-and-tell. Thanks for leading the group guys, hope to see you next year.
It was interesting to see, at both locations, how many people came together just for a hobby. Given my other hobbies I shouldn’t be surprised (look for Airventure pictures next week), but for some reason I wouldn’t have thought a little Internet event only in it’s 2nd year could attract some 30,000 photographers in over 900 cities worldwide. I’m glad Scott and the other people involved took the time to put it together and I look forward to next year’s event.
I’ve put several of my shots up in the galleries for purchase (Stillwater and Minneapolis). If you want to see other photos from the trip, be sure to check out my flickr page. As always if there is anything on flickr that you’d like a print of, let me know and I’ll set it up.
Unfortunately, I missed most of Spring in Minnesota, but was fortunate enough to spend some time in the Los Angeles National Forest in California. This was the first time I was able to spend time creating photographs in an area varried terrain height. The terrain let me explore a large gamut of photograph styles from elevated intimate shots to grand vistas with large depths of field. While I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I would have liked, the time I had afforded me enough time to learn quite a bit.
In Minnesota, with very little variance in terrain height and often tall vegetation, my wide-angle lens has been my favorite, but in the hills more often I reached for my 24-105mm and used it at the 105mm stop. While walking or driving along the ridges I would see a photograph on a hill across the valley but the 105mm would not allow me to crop the scene down to the photograph that caught my eye. During one of my few weekends home I was able to purchase a 70-200mm lens and on the following trip I was able to make some of the pictures I had found on previous trips. By zooming in further, I was able to isolate only the elements of the scene that I wanted, without resorting to excessive cropping in post-processing. I wish I would have spent more time experimenting with my wide angle, the times I did, I wasn’t able to find good forground subjects. Next time I guess.
