Always Be Prepared OR Valuable Lesson Learned

*Leaf Fan* · 07-15-2009, 07:26 AM

So I'm in the back yard with my family on the weekend, enjoying nice weather and some drink. Naturally I've got my camera with me and I'm fooling around with different lenses, different settings, just generally learning and getting more comfortable with my gear.

All of a sudden we hear this screaming roar (that's the best I can describe the loudness of this sound). Just to give some context, we live near Lester B. Pearson International Airport and are frequently seeing airplanes overhead, but this sounded VERY different. I've lived near the airport for all but 8 of my years on this earth, so I've gotten pretty used to the sounds of various aircraft, including the concorde, the new A380, and several military aircraft, but this was louder.

I've got my K20D with the FA50 f1.4 around my neck. Before I could even figure out what the sound was, 3 F-18 fighter jets go screaming over our house. I've seen many military aircraft, but the Snowbirds are the only ones we've seen go over in formation, and they are relatively quiet jets. Well, immediately I knew the FA50 wasn't going to be enough length, but no time to do anything but raise the camera to my eye, hold the shutter button down and hope for the best. I didn't even know what it was set to, Av, Tv, M, ?????

Well, here's the ONLY shot I got. Not a great shot, but I learned something that day. I should always be prepared and always have a rough mental image of what my camera is set to.

We later found out that it was the start of the Indy in Toronto, and these must have been the starting flyover. Had I known they would be around, I would have at least had a longer lens attached to the camera near the start of the race.

Thanks for reading.

*daacon* · 07-15-2009, 07:55 AM

Don't be so hard on yourslef - we can't prepare for everything. I am sure we all have similiar stories. I had a DA* 16-50 at my Dad's place taking a picture of his new dog and bam a humming bird comes by and actually hovers for a few seconds to offer the perfect picture ! the Sigma 105 and Tamron 70-200 and DA* 50-135 all sitting in my car in the driveway... whatca gonna do ?

The reverse is true as well. On my deck I had the Bigma on and a bee lands beside me and seems to rest for a while waiting for his picture to be taken, eventaully gives up on me and bam off to polinate or something.

It is good advice though. I always TRY to remember to check the card in camera (I usually offload my images immediatley so I confirm that I have done this and then format the card) , White Balance , ISO, metering, Focus setting, and mode before I start. I am getting better at this but it is still not second nature so to speak. Another thing I try to help with this is always check the first shot. That also tells me I actaully have a card in there (been there done that) and what settings were used.

Dom · 07-15-2009, 08:55 AM

I wouldn't worry about it at all. Unless you have more money than sense and want it spent it all on five or six bodies and a collection of lenses to cover the entire focal length range.

Having said that you could probably get a half decent close crop of the original image.

*reeftool* · 07-15-2009, 10:03 AM

Thats a event you really can't prepare for with a DSLR unless you stick with just 1 lens, like an 18-250 and leave your camera in auto all the time. That of course defeats the purpose of owning a DSLR in the first place. Sometimes we just get lucky and can get a shot like that but often we will miss it. Even having the camera close and ready is no garuantee. I was paddling my kayak on Lower Saranac Lake one day with my camera around my neck and ready. I was also doing some fishing. I head a screech behind me and and turned to see an eagle take a fish out of the lake about 50 feet away. Before I could drop my rod and take the shot, he was gone.

*Leaf Fan* · 07-15-2009, 12:43 PM

Thanks everyone. I guess I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself lately, I really want to improve my photography after seeing all the stunning images taken on here (so I know that the equipment can do it - now we just need to train the operator).

But. I'm loving the learning and I've never used my camera as much as these last 6-8 months.

*k100d* · 07-15-2009, 01:24 PM

if you're into taking pix of planes, u should pm MightyMike

K McCall · 07-16-2009, 02:58 PM

I don't think you should worry about "missing" that shot at all.

You were already doing more for your photography skill by playing around with your lenses and settings. We can't prepare for everything, but what we can do is learn how to use what we have so that we can take the shots we want to take.

Life's too short for regrets. Come on, show us some photos that you did get that day. A cool photo of the food? How about the patio table? Did you learn something that day about your camera? Because if you did, then it was a day well-spent

Dr_who · 07-17-2009, 03:28 AM

I honestly don't know what kinda planes these are in this photo I took today but some planes flew over the Edmonton Capital Ex Parade. I was only lucky to get it as they made 2 passes. IMGP08520001 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I think the hardest part is that they go so fast by the time you hear it and even try to figure out what direction its even coming from its gone by.

*James S* · 07-17-2009, 03:46 AM

Originally Posted by Dr_who

I honestly don't know what kinda planes these are in this photo I took today but some planes flew over the Edmonton Capital Ex Parade. I was only lucky to get it as they made 2 passes. IMGP08520001 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I think the hardest part is that they go so fast by the time you hear it and even try to figure out what direction its even coming from its gone by.

They are F 18's.

*graphicgr8s* · 07-17-2009, 06:57 AM

Practice I started doing was after I finished my shots I will put it on Auto. This way I can at least get the shot. And it will be close enough that I can usually tweak it. The long lens well not much you can do about that.

*Leaf Fan* · 07-17-2009, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by K McCall

Come on, show us some photos that you did get that day.

OK, you asked. And I did learn something, I was practicing manual mode and metering off different parts of the scene's. These are the best ones from the afternoon (although I'm not 100% pleased with them). I think I could have benefitted from a CPL and maybe a little more PP to tweak some white balance. The last one is shot RAW and cropped/adjusted by me in PP, the rest are JPG out of the camera with some minor PP to lighten some shadows and push the saturation slightly.

All with the K20D and Sigma 70-300.

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

interested_observer · 07-17-2009, 08:35 AM

I know that this might be on the edge of the spirit of posting Pentax images, but on the topic of "Always being prepared...", this I found this interesting.....

Picture This: F-18 Buzzes Detroit Apartment | Danger Room | Wired.com

and ... (a few words from the photographer)

Video

*Duck Dodgers* · 07-17-2009, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by interested_observer

I know that this might be on the edge of the spirit of posting Pentax images, but on the topic of "Always being prepared...", this I found this interesting.....

Picture This: F-18 Buzzes Detroit Apartment | Danger Room | Wired.com

and ... (a few words from the photographer)

Video

Quote from the news guy, "...the power of the lens."

Well, there ya go. Just the fore-shortening characterisic of a telephoto lens. Of course, the pic in the paper gave people something to complain about.

*LeDave* · 07-17-2009, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by Duck Dodgers

Quote from the news guy, "...the power of the lens."

Well, there ya go. Just the fore-shortening characterisic of a telephoto lens. Of course, the pic in the paper gave people something to complain about.

I've been reading all the comments and they're arguing whether it's fake or real. I saw a comment where the guy say it's real because he copied it into Photoshop and checked. How do I know if a shot is real or not just by using Photoshop?

sebberry · 07-17-2009, 08:36 PM

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Superman!

I was taking some photos of swans one day. I was waiting patiently for some of them to do something interesting, but it was the ones out of the frame that would flap about or whatever. Everytime I would move to the ones that were doing something, they'd stop and the others would do something.

Can't always catch it all