RIAT in the Rain 2012…. (and the sun)

Well, at the weekend, it was that time of year again – RIAT.

RIAT, properly known as the Royal International Air Tattoo, held at RAF Fairford, which isn’t that far down the road from me, is listed as the worlds largest military air show, and as a fan of technology, and the challenge of photographing the fast moving jets, attendance is almost mandatory.

It’s also a time to meet up with friends, some of whom I see relatively precious little of.

This year, two sets of people made some really strange decisions.
Silverstone/FIA, and RIAT organisers – they made the British F1 Grands Prix and RIAT fall on the same weekend – eh what ????????
So people like me had a choice – go to one or the other, sorta.

I could have gone to the GP itself on the Sunday, and RIAT on the Saturday, but, as my friends wanted to go to RIAT on the Sunday, that is missing the GP.

It also happened to coincide with the first time a Briton has reached the Final of the Mens Singles of Wimbledon. (Pity he only won the first set – but let’s face it, he was up against Federer, arguably one, if not, *the* best in the game of all time)

Please FIA/Siverstone and RIAT – don’t so this in 2013.
(At least RIAT already has it’s dates for 2013 – so I guess this is directed at FIA/Silverstone to NOT hold the F1 GP on 20-21 July)

Back to RIAT……

Last year I bought myself a 6 day FRIAT ticket (MACH 3 it’s called) , which gave me entry to the first 3 days – Wednesday->Friday, where a lot of the aircraft arrive at RAF Fairford, the two days of the actual air show, and then the Monday where all the aircraft depart.

THe FRIAT MACH X tickets are an expensive way of getting in, but well worth it – the seats in the FRIAT enclosure provide you with a damn good view of the action. (which last year I didn’t use on the Saturday, as my friends only had general admission tickets, so I stayed with them).

Just to highlight that – I got a lovely shot of a Panavia Tornado GR4 taking off on full re-heat, with a nice cone of flame out of the rear.

This year, however, I decided not to do that, and also as I was properly disorganised with tickets for everything this year, missed out on a 2 day FRIAT ticket as they were all sold out.

I therefore went with a 2 day ticket to the air show itself, and the Friday arrivals, and the Monday departures.

Why go to both days of the air show ?
Simple – last year it was rather wet on the Saturday, and the display’s started very late, and therefore there was less of a display, and I didn’t want a complete wash out, so, both days is a kind of insurance of one day being poor weather.

Well, it’s now Wednesday evening, and I haven’t really had the chance to go through all my photographs of the weekend yet, and process them ready for any kind of publishing.

The only photographs that I have had processed, were literally processed, the old-fashioned way, chemically.

Yes – I used film.

…..
…..

Now you have picked yourself up from the floor, and gotten over the shock – you may be asking yourself why I chose to take some photographs using such an “old” medium of film.

Well, I do have film cameras, and have had since my father passed away.

I inherited three 35mm cameras from my father, as well as a 110 type film camera, 2 medium format cameras (6×6) and a digital camera.

I do run film though all the 35mm cameras, and as two of them are identical Minolta X300’s, I actually have black and white in one, and colour in the other, to give me some creative opportunities.

The “problem” I have with all the 35mm cameras I inherited from my father, is that they are all manual.
Manual everything, including focus.

Now, I love this when doing something like flowers, sunsets, and maybe even subjects that move relatively slowly, like my daughter, but……. with something travelling at well over 200mph – yeah, I’m not quick enough to focus.

So, wishing to get the joy out of film, and also to try and force myself to slow down, and enjoy the moment of taking, I looked for, and purchased a new film camera.

Well, I say new, new to me, it was second-hand off that well-known auction site, Ebay.

Having said that it wasn’t new, it may as well have been.
It’s in immaculate condition, and first thing I have done is pull my 24-70 f/2.8 L off my 7D and plug it on.

What did I get ?
An Canon EOS 1V HS.

It’s gorgeous, I love it.

The first film I have run through it was to prove that the camera actually took decent photos, and I used an old film, so the colours on the results are a little “off” – but I have actually proved the camera works, and that ignoring the slightly odd colours on the film, it takes good shots with my 24-70 f/2.8 L.

I went for a Canon EOS EF device, so that I could use my existing lenses on the body (most of mine are EF, not EF-S – the only EF-S is the 18-200mm which lives on the 50D), and was initially looking for a EOS 1-N, but the 1V is newer, so plumped for that one.

Now, going back a second or two, I said I bought the film camera to slow me down, but I also said that for fast moving objects the fully manual cameras would be potentially inappropriate.
(yes, I know that I could use the film cameras on fast moving objects, and in fact I have done – shooting F1 cars – but definitely need lots of practice there due to the requirement of fast fingers for the focussing.)

There are two slow down drivers.

The first, is the fact I can’t see the photograph I have just taken until the film has been processed, so the result is unknown.

The second, to a lesser degree, cost of processing.

The first slow down is the most important for me – the not knowing.
This focusses my mind on making sure that the photograph I am taking is “right” – first time.

For static objects, this means making sure what I want is in focus, and looking at interesting points in the view to focus on, checking, and adjusting the depth of field, the framing, perspective etc.

For faster objects, like cars and planes, the autofocus has freed me of the worry of screwing up the focussing with the manual X300’s, and has allowed me to practice things like panning, and choosing the moment for the shot, rather than relying the high speed continuous shooting mode to take a sequence of shots, some of those in the sequence might be bad, but the sheer number of shots that you have taken means that there is a high probability that there will be a good shot somewhere in that sequence.

All in all – another step towards more fun.