Right, I noted in the other thread that I have been busy this weekend at the Royal International Air Tattoo, but here are the final figures-

Total pictures taken- calculated from file numbers- 3407

Total pictures deleted on the camera- 310

Total pictures transferred to PC- 2097

Total pictures deleted on first cull on PC- 253

Total pictures remaining- 1744

Some of the pictures were never meant to be kept and were taken while experimenting with exposure settings for example. At a flying display, there was bound to be a huge number of pics that weren't going to work out and when I was panning while taking 6 shots a second, I did get more than a few with heads in the way. A lot of pics were spoilt on Monday (plane departure day) by the heat haze from a B1 bomber parked near the end of the runway where I was located and many of course were simply too shaky or too far away to be worth keeping.

A lot more were spoilt (AGAIN) by the white clouds which with dark aircraft often came out almost completely washed out and I don't think that they can be saved but I have kept a few of the better ones to see what can be achieved. A lot of shots are only of the underside of the plane and unless there is something special about the shot, I've binned a lot of those as well.

What's your record for a day/weekend/week/holiday's worth of photography?

700+ in about 3 hours.

Dunno - probably around 3.5k over 4 days at Waddo/Coningsby the other week.

Al

That's interesting. I did take about 90 photographs of the first aircraft of the day on Saturday, so easily could have taken a lot more, but for the restrictions of storage (19GB) that I had with me. Once I had my eye in, I tried to avoid those shots that were almost certainly a waste of time but some of the most dramatic turns that aircraft make at shows are some distance away and I had to give them a try- I've kept some that are OK, but certainly not prize winning.

What I have found is that there are quite a few gems in the midst of otherwise average photographs and some will be on Flickr soon, but I got more or less what I was expecting with many- technically OK, but otherwise dull.

What has spoilt the pictures quite a lot is the ISO400 setting that I had to use to get a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second to try and minimise camera shake at 300mm (480mm equivalent) and still some of the photographs were shaky. Those that aren't are still noisy. I've got some pictures from previous years where you can read writing on the side of the aircraft, despite the letters being only about four inches high, but this year many are too noisy or shaky to be able to read the smaller writing.

When the sun came out, I did manage to drop the ISO to 200 and I am not think that has improved matters a little but there are many pics where I should have used an even faster shutter speed. I am going to buy or hire a long, fast lens for my next airshow and see where that gets me.

I did say to the wife- if I get one photograph that I am really proud of, then I will be happy. I'm not sure whether I've found it yet, but there are certainly many that I am pleased with.

I try and not stray above ISO200 if I can possibly avoid it but opening up the aperture obviously moves you further away from the lens' sweet spot. I usually try and shoot as fast as I can then slow down during the display as I get my eye in. The only time I go into 'machine gun' mode is where aerobatic teams do crossover stuff. I did borrow my mates 300mm F2.8 lens for a bit whilst we were on the mound at Coningsby - I really want that lens and a 1.4x convertor

I'm just starting to process my Waddo pics and some were done on the lappy and others at home. Not entirely happy but then again - I never am

Al's Waddo pics here

Al

There's a famous photographer whose name escapes me ( ) who said "My best photograph is the next one I take".

I suppose that I am rarely truly happy, but there are a couple of reasons for this as far as I can see-

1. I don't have a truly artistic bone in my body and as a result, I don't recognise something that has really worked in an arty sense, even if I like it. Others will look at my photographs and think that they are great- but are they really or do they simply compare well to their own, taken with compact cameras and those Fuji things?

2. As I don't need a particular photograph for a particular reason, it's hard to know if it's hit the spot. Only by submitting yourself to the criticisms of others will you find out if there is something special in a picture that you have taken.

Regarding the air show, what I really wanted was clear, sharp pictures of planes in the air, hopefully at interesting angles. I have some of those and they're OK but until I think that I could sell them, or that they might be used in next years program, then they won't be as good as I would like. I'll settle for one really good picture that I would be happy to frame and put on my wall.

Some photographers bang out hundreds of pictures and whittle down the selection to a quality few. Others are able to point the camera, press a button and they get the picture. Digital cameras really make it so much cheaper to do the former, while the economics of the latter forced possibly a more contemplative approach. I know I will take a good 3 or 4 pictures using various settings and pick the best one. I’ve not taken thousands in one week end, though.

I’m on holiday in a week or so. I’ll be taking the camera and the lappy as a holding ground for any pictures. Who knows what images I’ll come back with.

I've so far whittled the selection for the entire weekend down to half. I've done show day and I am working through the pictures from departure day. Seeing as how these are all aircraft leaving straight and level, I may have shot as many as a dozen of each, but will only be keeping a couple, probably.

I've got 108 from Longleat on Sunday, but I know that some of the carnivore pictures (through glass) will be going out second time around.

I would say that I will be able to find quite a few that I am happy to show on-line, but I haven't looked that hard yet, only eliminated the dross and those that won't work out. Many may actually be more technically OK, rather than truly exciting.

I am going to have to have a look at the airshow pictures taken with my 35mm- when two or three rolls of film would probably last the day- and see what those are like out of interest. If I've got some corkers, I'll scan and post those next month.

I've never shot this many before on digital and it was only in the hope of obtaining the perfect shot in the perfect position that I took so many. Ironically, if I had concentrated on getting the one, good photograph things might have turned out better for a lot less effort.