This past weekend was the annual Abbotsford Airshow, just down the road from here at Abbotsford International Airport. It’s always a good show; they were flying from about 10.30am until 6pm this year which is pretty great value.
The weather wasn’t too great this year, hence the white background above. It was fun though, with good food, lots of entertainment and friendly people. I just wish there were more big airshows within driving distance of Vancouver.
There are lots of reasons I like airshows, but the main one is photography. There’s just something that absolutely grips me about taking pictures at airshows, and of aircraft in general. It’s pretty challenging on a few levels; first is just putting together your equipment, getting a decent body and long enough lens to capture real detail on the planes. Next is the technical challenge; panning, focusing, exposure and timing are all vital. After the picture is taken, post-processing is something you should do to every photo, and these will be no different. The final and most difficult thing to master is the artistic challenge. It’s not enough these days (if it ever was) to just take a sharp, well exposed picture of an airplane. After some amount of time you’ll master the technical aspects and from then on, it’s all about finding something different to show; unusual events or a new angle, to take simple examples.
I’m going to make a series of posts over the next few days talking about all of these aspects, from the perspective of the enthusiastic amateur. Anyone should be able to get something out of it, I hope. You don’t need a $2000 setup to shoot an airshow! One of my favourite shots was taken in 2003 with a Canon G3 4MP point and shoot.
For now, if you want to see more of my Abbotsford shots, I have a Flickr gallery here.