Vintage Wings & Wheels Day 2015

Local airfield; The Fenland Aerodrome hosted a car and plane display recently. Entrance was a decent price and the weather was pretty good (in the afternoon it was anyway, I had a photo shoot in the morning and it rained!!!!!).

There were plenty of visitors on the day and as the afternoon went on and the weather got better im sure more and more arrived.

Muscle cars seemed to be a major flavour of the day as well as some vintage British cars and the odd 'one of a kinds' such as a car that appeared to have been built around a lorry cab chassis? it was massive.

As a child I loved planes and I have to admit when I hear a low flying plane I still run to the window to have a look. The planes on this day were all, what looked like to me, small private pleasure/hobby type planes that people may fly at the weekend. Sounds like a good hobby to me!

A Spitfire had a scheduled flypast; which I had to run to my car to get my DSLR and 70-200mm lens in order to shoot before it was too late, it very nearly was, if I had not run I would of missed it coming over.

On to the photos

Just a walk in the park

I was dog sitting Ella again and just fancied grabbing shots.

We took a walk over too and round the Memorial Park in Sutton Bridge.

I'm liking the way I've started to shoot faces of both people and animals. I'm filling the frame with natural poses.......don't smile!!! So I needed to capture my borrowed mans best friend in this way.

And for once she wasn't the obedient dog she usually is. She just would not look at the camera.
Luckily I caught her eye for at least a quarter of a second before shed look over my shoulder again, she really liked my shoulder; every time I moved to try and get in her eye line she would then alter it again.

And to top it off.....that tongue!

She's a beaut.

ISO640, 157mm, f/4, 1/400



My favourite subject when on a photo walk seems to be benches. Why I photograph benches I don't know. I just love a good bench.

This once a good'un too as it sits right at the back of the back in the trees. Light is diffused in between the branches. Its a very quiet place and the bench is very simple. Simply peaceful.

ISO640, 147mm, f/3.5, 1/200

 Just behind the bench lives a tree with vines growing up the side of it. Very photographic.

ISO2000, 70mm, f/5.6, 1/125

Finally behind the tree above in a section called 'Devils Circle'; I don't know why its got this name, it was just known as this when I was a kid so that the name has stuck with me. I'm not sure who named it this, why or when, is a 'zebra' tree.

 

I'm sure its one of a kind.

ISO2000, 70mm, f/3.5, 1/125

 

Flypast

When I was a young boy I loved planes, I remember visiting an air show at the age of 9 or 10, I think at RAF Mildenhall (at least I think it was there). I wish I could remember more about the day, I do remember sitting in various cockpits and vehicles and I remember how loud a Harrier jet it when its hovering above the ground.

On to the subject of this post, I heard a BBMF (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) plane was to fly over Sutton Bridge on May 25th. The place I gained this information........facebook! I had to work Sunday, in the back of my mind all day I wondered if I had missed the event.

When I got home I got my camera out and put it on the side in the kitchen in case I hadn't missed it. Laura and I went out on our bikes about 3pm, id only been on my bike 30 seconds before I heard the plane coming and so I missed shooting the first flypast but instead at least I enjoyed seeing it with my own eyes instead of through a viewfinder.

By the 2nd flypast I had managed to get my camera out of the bag, I quickly dialled some settings in and shot away. It flew over and then came back again, I only had time to alter the shutter speed before it was back over head, click click.

I wish it had gone over again as I would of slowed the shutter speed again enough to of captured some movement in the propellers. I should of been better prepared, damn.

I had a basic idea of what I wanted shots to look like though; I wanted to include ground objects in each shot so that a viewer can appreciate how low the plane was as it flew overhead.

The plane itself after looking on the net is a Douglas C-47 Dakota, a transport plane used during WWII, which was built in 1942.

Dogfighting with a bird

My favourite shot

Flypast done

All shots taken at f8, ISO 200, shutter speed's; way too fast!