Some more pylon photography

[wingman]

So how do you make T-6 Class photos exciting? They are all much the same size, and tend to rumble around the course in trail.

One thing about the T-6s is that they get an air start from the West and are often very closely matched in speed. This means that very often they are in a clump for much of the first lap. This can make for some very cool photographs if you are watching for it.

This is the start of a Bronze race on a threatening Saturday afternoon. Shot from Pylon outer 2, with members of the pylon press contingent in the foreground. It was always interesting how often (most of the time, actually) I was standing somewhere away from the crowd of photogs. I wondered, sometimes, what they knew that I didn't.

That's our long time friend the late Jim Good jumping into the lead in Race 77 (a very good number, IMHO). Jim loved this photo.

Neal

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Some more pylon photography





I thought I had more, but it appears Flickr has eaten a large number of images I uploaded.

Will

[wingman]

Re: Some more pylon photography

Mountain jewels...

During the early 2000s RARA began taking Press to T-6 pylon 4, at the back of the course. Not the greatest place for individual airplanes, but quite wonderful for starts sometimes. Pylon 4 is unusual in that it is at the end of a straight, These very long lens shots show the racers after release, jockeying for position into the first lap.

[wingman]

Re: Some more pylon photography

The Racers resolve as they head down the straight, and then assemble into a great racing photograph. These were done with one of those 300mm F2.8 lenses borrowed from Nikon with a 1.7x teleconverter attached -- so basically a 500mm lens. The image has been further cropped quite a bit for dramatic effect. With a shorter lens the airplanes would be banking into my pylon and it would have been a very different photograph.

Neal

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Some more pylon photography

The Racers resolve as they head down the straight, and then assemble into a great racing photograph. These were done with one of those 300mm F2.8 lenses borrowed from Nikon with a 1.7x teleconverter attached -- so basically a 500mm lens. The image has been further cropped quite a bit for dramatic effect. With a shorter lens the airplanes would be banking into my pylon and it would have been a very different photograph.

Neal

I wish we could shoot from those locations. The head-on shots are awesome. It seems like back in the day, you guys got to shoot from all kinds of great places. Being limited to P2 and 8, with the special drawing of 4, sometimes 5, makes shot selection critical, and really forces some creativity so your shots don't look just like the 10 guys next to you shots.

Personally I like having some background to blur.

Will

[CJAM427]

Re: Some more pylon photography

I really enjoyed shooting the T-6 class. The start is definitely one of the best sites to photograph I think.

CM4_4713 by Connor Madison, on Flickr

CM4_4717 by Connor Madison, on Flickr

CM4_4723-Edit-2 by Connor Madison, on Flickr

[wingman]

Re: Some more pylon photography

Yeah, T-6s are fun from the pylons. That last shot is especially nice -- those opportunities do not happen very often. At least you were not focussed on the black airplane -- that seemed to happen to me a lot, and the resulting photograph is not as satisfying as this is.

Here's a somewhat similar shot from long ago of Papa Goss trying to get past the former owner of #43.

Neal