Offutt Air Force Base Air Show 2010
The annual Offutt Airshow this year was on August 28th and 29th. I went on the 29th with @Rossnelson and had a great time. Security was really tight, we had to go through metal detectors and then most people were wanded after, they did not give second chances of removing more metal to go through again. They were also not allowing bags in so I had to carry my camera around my neck the entire day and only bring one lens. I brought the 70-200 and was glad I did. One last thing about the security was that Ross was wearing a t-shirt from the band Bad Religion and he got a talking to going through security about it. The guard thought he might be trying to make a political statement and said he may have to turn it inside out if asked to do so. Luckily other service men knew of the band and let us through. Security was nearly as tight as an airport. I guess this was because we were on an active air force base.
The day was long and hot, people took cover as the day went on under the wings of aircraft. I loved seeing people sitting in lawn chairs under the huge wings of a B-52 or under the fuselage of a B1. We walked around and saw all the static planes which were too many to list. We then watched the aerial show which was good. My favorite by far was the F-22 Raptor. It was such an impressive fighter plane. The thrust vectoring really made it very maneuverability and agile. It also was so stable at any speed it seemed.
This was the first time shooting anything similar to sports on with my Canon 7D. I used Al Servo and a combination of Auto focus Expansion when on the center point. It put emphasis on the center point (or where ever you wanted it) but also included one above, below, left and right. It worked well. for slower moving planes. For the really fast ones I used the new zonal function AF selection and choose the center group. This grabbed the center 11 points and used them. As long as you kept the points on the object and the AF drive engaged (I did this manually with the AF button) it worked well. I was amazed at how well it would track planes coming at you quickly or going away from you. The hardest part was panning quick enough to keep it in frame. For sports this camera is a huge step up from my old Canon 20D.
Here are a few photos from the day more can be seen at Flickr in this set here.
More can be seen at Flickr in this set here.
Washington DC Day 1
I made it to Washington DC last night after both of my flights were delayed. The good thing was we made up almost all of the delayed time over 1.3 hours. Today Ryan and I went to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving where US Paper money is printed. Sadly photos are not allowed inside the building. We then spent the remainder of the day at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum where we saw tons of great aircraft and space craft.
US Capitol Building
German WWII V2 Rocket
Apollo 11 Module
X-15
Washington Memorial at Sunset
Be sure to check back tomorrow for more.
Lincoln Zombie Walk 2010
The Lincoln Zombie walk was this past weekend on 8-28-2010. This year was bigger than ever as over 1200 Zombies participated in taking over downtown Lincoln. The event was moved to be earlier in the month this year and it was a great success. The weather was fantastic with highs in the mid 80's compared to last year when I remember wearing my winter coat and gloves. The time was also moved to a little earlier which made photography much more enjoyable. The zombies were suppose to do the Thriller dance at the Union but at the last minute decided not to for an unknown reason. In the end everyone gathered outside of Pershing Center for a street dance. I met several Lincoln Flickr and Twitter people for a Flickr Walk and Tweetup. It was great fun. See the photos below.
See more photos on Flickr Page http://www.flickr.com/photos/eos_liquidretro/sets/72157624728841511/detail/
Manual Lens Portrates on a Canon DSLR
I have gotten very interested (With the help of an influential friend) in some of the older classic manual lenses, so I now have a SMC Pentax 55mm F2 Type K in Pentax mount and a Jupiter 9 85mm F1.8 M42 that I have been mounting on my 7D and I wanted to try them out so I went out with a friend and had some fun around town. The 85mm is hard to focus because it has such a small DOF and its goes through 2 converters to mount on my camera so its no perfectly tight. The lens is also a bit stiff, but optically its good. I need more practice. The Pentax is a great lens & I am getting the fever for more. Its very sharp and extremely mechanical. Great little lens. Thanks to my model Megan for the great job, I could not have done it without you.
Pentax 55mm
Pentax 55mm
Pentax 55mm
Pentax 55mm
Sigma 10-20mm
Jupiter 9 85mm
Jupiter 9 85mm
Jupiter 9 85mm
Canon 50mm F1.8
Canon 50mm F1.8
To see the full gallery Click http://liquidretro.net/photo/gallery3/Megan1/
Lincoln, NE 4th of July Fireworks 2010
Better late than never right? The city of Lincoln's annual firework display was postponed one day due to the large amount of rain on the morning of the 4th of July. The evening of the 5th was perfect weather wise. I met up with some of the #LNK tweeps out at Oak Lake Park to watch the display. It was a nice time and I got a few good photos that I will post here. This was my first time watching the fireworks at Oak Lake Park and it had its pros and cons. The space is better for the amount of people that come, parking was fairly easy and emptied pretty quickly. However the background they shoot the fireworks against has too many lights, and is pretty industrial. In that regard Homes Lake was better, and much closer to my home. Hopefully someday they will decide to move it back to Homes Lake.
For more photos see the gallery http://liquidretro.net/photo/gallery3/LNKFireworks2010/
Lincoln’s breath taking sunset 5/30/2010
I have a soft spot for sunsets of all types. I am not sure what it is, maybe the intense colors or cool clouds that often occur. Lincoln has a great sunset every once and a while, especially when storms are rolling in. Sunday May 30 2010 this exact thing was happening and I just happened to catch it out the corner of my eye. I grabbed the camera and went out on the deck and snapped a couple of photos. I then decided to drive to Holmes Lake. Unfortunately the lovely pink had disappeared from the sky and the clouds had rolled in more. I still got a couple of nice photos though.
More photos of the trip will be posted over the coming weeks. I am going to make a real effort to keep this blog updated. We will see how that goes.
Granada – Al Alhambra
Wednesday we went to visit Al Alhambra. Al Alhambra is a Moorish military post that includes an impressive palace and grounds. We visited the gardens first and they were very impressive. The entire complex has water features all over it which are feed from the melting snow up on the mountain top and brought down to the palace and grounds by an aqueduct system built by the Moors. Water in the Arabic culture was one of the most important things to the existence of life. Al Alhambra and the gardens feature a great deal of water, many fountains, basins, gutters, to harness the power of water. That evening we went back to tour the main palace. Inside was very detailed and amazing carvings and decorations and many of the rooms had fountains in them.
Health Update: The guys are on the mend but still feeling it a little bit of the bug, the girls on the other hand are feeling the worst of it, and are staying back at the apartment while the guys go out and explore Sevillia. We hope tonight to take in a Flemenco show in Sevillia.
Toledo Part II
Here is a quick update with a few more photos from Toledo. We summed it up pretty good in the previous post about what we did, but here are a few photos from the ride around the city. The train station in town is very impressive. All of its windows are stained glass and much of the inside is decorated with detailed colorful tiles and woodwork. We are currently in Granada and the last photo of this post is from the train ride from Madrid to Granada. Time provided I will be posting a blog update about Granada in the next day or two.
An update on the health of the family. Steve and Jon are both getting better with antibiotics. The girls in the family think that they might be catching it too but only time will tell. Right now we are all trying to get lots of sleep in between sights.
