100 Shots - Day 1 Bray Air Display - Updated

July 24, 2016 • 3 Comments

Yesterday, I posted some tips for shooting the Bray Air Display based on my experience from the 2010 Display and the 2013 Dublin Flighfest. So how did I get on? Well, my 100 best shots from the day are posted below, culled from 1,410 taken! This eats a lot of time . . . especially when you add cropping, 100% zoom check for focus, and processing. Thank goodness for Lightroom’s ability to copy and paste edits!

And what did I learn?

Start Time: -The show doesn’t start at Noon – it starts at 2pm! That’s when it’s licenced by the Irish Aviation Authority BUT if you want to be there on time GET THERE EARLY and USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT! Or cycle as I did! It’s likely to be a lot busier today.
Breaks: Given the shorter schedule, the breaks between acts are quite short.
Weather: The forecast is for sunnier weather today- after this morning’s cloud. Hopefully it’s right – it’s hard getting really crisp shots in dull conditions – I used lots of Lightroom’s Dehaze feature - 20 or even 30% to add a bit of drama.
Location: The centre of the beach in front of the VIP area. I was just north of the blocked off area but if you want to get good shots of the parachutists coming in, it may be better to be just south of it to have the light behind you. Either way, this is the best place to get “peak stunts”. I had thought of going up on Bray Head but other photographers told me they had tried this in previous years and it too far away for the small planes. So, much and all as I would like to get an airliner low, over Bray Harbour, it’s not worth it for the rest of the show.
Distance: Some of the planes stay a bit far out – for safety reasons I presume. These seem to be the faster, less manoeuvrable and older planes.
Shutter Speeds: it’s very difficult to get two planes flying towards each other sharp, especially jets. Today, I will try 1/8000^th of a second – and even this may not work 100%. Of course this will mean that propellers will be frozen. The other option is to slow down your shutter speed so that the plane you are following is sharp and the other one in blurred to convey the action. I’ll be experimenting with this today.
Anticipation: To catch planes passing each other, you have to start shooting BEFORE you see them pass in the frame. If you shoot in RAW you need to judge this unless you have a top end camera that can shoot RAW continuously such as a Canon 1DX . On my Canon 7D Mark II, the buffer locks up after a second or so of 10 frames/second. Or switch to JPEGs, where you will get a much longer burst – I think my camera will shoot JPEGs until the card fills!

That’s it – time to get ready for today’s show! And if you have read this far, you will see I lied – it’s actually 101 shots. After culling out 1,309 shots I thought I was due a break!

27 July - I updated this post with the names of and links to the flying teams.

Defences Forces Black Knights parachute team.

Fougas of the Patrouille Tranchant team from Brittany

Air Corps Pilatus PC-9M trainers.

Air Corps Cessana surveillance planes.

Trig Aerobatic team flying Pitts Specials

Team Raven flying home built RV4 & RV8.

De Havilland DH84 Dragon "Iolar" - Aer Lingus's first airliner in 1936 - flown by the Irish Historic Flight Foundation.

Irish Coastguard Sikorsky S-92 Rescue helicopter with RNLI lifeboat.

Breitling Wingwalkers.

Irish Parachute Club.

CityJet's Superjet SSJ100

Spitfire and Seafire (carrier version).

Frecce Tricolori - Italian Airforce aerobatic team.

Keywords: , Seafire, , Spitfire, "Superjet SSJ100", "Team Raven Aerobatics", "Trig Aerobatics", aerobatics, helicopter, "irish Coastguard", parachuting, www.johncoveney.ie, Aeromacchi MB 339A, Air Display, Black Knights, Boeing Stearman, Bray, Breitling Wingwalkers, Cessna FR172H Reims Rocket, Cityjet, Co. Wicklow, DH84, De, Dragon", Fougas, Frecce Tricolori, Havilland, Iolar, Ireland, Irish Army Air Corps, Irish Aviation Authority, John Coveney Photography, Patroille Tranchant, Pilatus PC-9M, , RV4, RV8, S-92 Sikorsky

Comments

John Coveney Photography - People Places & Wildlife

Shirley, & John thanks for the comments. John, Magnolia Warbler, Firkeel, Sat 9th Oct!!

John Lynch(non-registered)

Fantastic shots. I just had s thought! There's more technology in your camera than some of those planes. Hope to catch up soon. John.

Shirley Burne(non-registered)

Thanks for Sharing your fabulous photos John

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