Kowa

Air shows, which allow people to have a close-up look at aircraft, are larger-scale versions of the air festivals held in Japan by the Self-Defense Forces, and are well worth seeing.
Many people have visited an air show once and have then gone on to become obsessed by the attraction of airplanes, intoxicated by the powerful flight of the jet fighters or the aerobatic flying of the Blue Impulse team. Of course I am one of these persons, and every year I travel to bases around the country during the air festival season.
These tours of the air festivals escalated to the point that my destinations now include overseas air shows.
This time I introduce a trip in which I took the PROMINAR 500mm F5.6 FL (referred to below as the PROMINAR 500mm) when I visited The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) in Britain which is said to be the world’s largest air show.

The Air Tattoo is normally held in the middle of July each year at the Royal Air Force's Fairford base in England. Although the scope of the event is tending to become smaller than in previous years, more than 10 nations still participate, centered on various European countries, and approximately 200 aircraft take part by gathering at the base. Although the air show itself is held during a two-day period (Saturday-Sunday), it is possible to take photographs in specific areas inside the base covering the arrival of the participating aircraft and the rehearsals for the exhibition flights from the preceding Wednesday to Friday, and to photograph the return home of the participating aircraft on the Monday after the air show. This allows photographing to be enjoyed over a maximum six-day period, making it the air show that provides the largest number of shooting opportunities in one trip.
The RAF Fairford base, which is the venue for the Air Tattoo, is located approximately 150km west of London. Although visitors from Japan will find it most convenient to rent a car from London Heathrow Airport, it will also be possible to reach the site by a train and shuttle bus connection from London. Travellers who are apprehensive about individual travel may also take part in overseas air show tours leaving from Japan.

This was my fourth Air Tattoo since my first visit in 2002. On my trip this time, I took photographs of aircraft in a total of five locations, including the Air Tattoo, the Royal Naval Air Station, Yeovilton International Air Day, Manchester Airport, and Heathrow Airport. I also took photographs of sea birds including puffins in the Farne Islands. (I will introduce the puffin photographs in my report next month.) This was roughly a two-week trip travelling alone using a rental car.
Each time I travel abroad to take photographs, my biggest concern is always the selection of equipment. To take photographs of aircraft, the minimum requirement is one camera, a 300-500mm class super-telephoto lens, and I also like to have a short lens for photographing planes that are exhibited on the ground. Since I carry two digital SLR cameras, a 17-40mm F4, a 70-200mm F2.8, a 500mm F4 lenses and a 1.4 x teleconverter with me as my basic set of equipment for photographing overseas, the weight including the accessories exceeds 10kg.
Although I take this as carry-on luggage when flying, added to my other belongings including a notebook PC my bags often exceed the weight restrictions announced by the airlines and I always board the aircraft in a cold sweat fearing that my excess baggage will be discovered. The heaviest item of my equipment is the 500mm F4 lens; not only does it weigh nearly 4kg, but it is big and bulky too. By using the PROMINAR 500mm instead of the 500mm F4, the lns weight will be reduced by half, allowing me to move easier. If a 600mm F4 or 800mm F5.6 class lens is used instead of the 500mm F4, it is difficult to take them on board as carry-on luggage. For these users, I would also recommend using the PROMINAR 500mm for shooting overseas.

Although the Air Tattoo took place over a five-day period including the two-day Air Show, I took photographs from inside the venue on three days and outside the venue on two days.
Photographing the aircraft from inside the venue offers good lighting conditions and I always want to try taking pictures from various angles when I have spare time in my schedule to capture images from different viewpoints such as the opposite side of the venue.
As for the details of this year’s Air Tattoo, the schedule was put together making use of each and every minute from 10 in the morning until 6 in the evening centered on European planes that are never seen in Japan, with participation by aerobatic teams including the RAF’s Red Arrows and the Italian Air Force’s Frecce Tricolori. Also participating were jet plane solo flying displays by Typhoons and Tornadoes from Britain, French Air Force Rafales, Swedish Gripens and many others.
However, due to Britain’s typically unstable weather conditions, there were flight cancellations due to rain on the mornings of both days. Despite this, the weather recovered after lunch and many aircraft painted the sky above Fairford.

Here I will introduce several of the styles that I use when photographing aircraft.
Because aircraft move very quickly during flight and usually require the photographer to look up at an angle, they basically require hand-held shooting.
In these cases, instead of standing with the camera in front of me, I hold the camera to my left side so that I can press my arm into my side to form a stable posture.
I support the lens tip with the index finger of my left hand while turning the focus ring with my thumb and middle finger. Rather than focusing on the aircraft movement, it is easier to achieve success by forming an image of where the focus will be and setting it beforehand in consideration of the time lag.
In addition, rather than relying on taking consecutive shots, I anticipate the angle in advance and take one photograph. Although it is not easy to carefully take photo after photo using manual focus, this gives a real thrill that is hard to obtain in autofocus cameras which continually carry out focusing without consideration by the photographer.

The resolution of the PROMINAR 500mm is quite outstanding, and you will surely be able to capture an image that is highly satisfactory.
Although I consider that it will be desirable to close down the exposure by 1 stop to obtain high resolution, because the lens uses a true aperture, as long as the adjustment is limited from fully open to 1 or 2 stops, the finder will not be darkened too much.
Although shooting can be carried out using auto aperture priority, why not take this opportunity to learn the index values for the exposures as well?
In the case of photographing aircraft under front-lit conditions in daytime on a bright day, a suitable exposure for a gray fuselage will be around F5.6 at 1/1000 when using ISO100.
Using this value as a reference, it will be a simple matter to increase or reduce the exposure value by adjusting for the lighting conditions, time of day, and fuselage color.

At the air show this time, sadly the unstable weather meant that I was shooting against a cloud base. This was truly unfortunate, but I enjoyed taking photographs in Britain for the first time in a year. When I had visited this area for the first time I was still taking photographs using a manual 500mm F4.5 lens, so by using the PROMINAR 500mm there I could enjoy taking photographs while remembering the sensation of that first time.