Flying in style

One blustery day in July we joined a group of friends from our local camera club for a photo day at Duxford’s Imperial War Museum, exploring some of the commercial aircraft. What a fascinating day it proved to be. Our tour guides had a tremendous knowledge of the aircraft and their history and we were allowed free reign to stick our lenses into every nook and cranny of them!

I found myself fascinated by the smaller details, especially on the flight decks where there were lots of atmospherically lit corners.

Kevin’s grandfather worked for Airspeed during World War II so we had to have a photo of Kevin beside the Airspeed Ambassador, even if it was a bit blowy!

The view from the navigator’s seat…

Enjoying the pilot’s seat

Many of the aircraft had been decorated with period features, such as crockery for the in flight refreshments.

Aboard one of the Queen’s personal aircraft

Buttons and dials everywhere on the flight deck of Concorde.

Photos taken 21 July 2023

Taking to the skies above Duxford

It’s been a long while since I had a proper chance to test my aviation photography skills but late in July one of the flying displays at Duxford coincided with some a dry day. The sky was grey but with some texture in the clouds and this set off the colours of the aircraft well.

Photographing aircraft in flight is always a balancing act. You want a slow enough shutter speed to capture some movement in the propellers, but if you go to slow it becomes difficult to keep the camera still enough for a sharp photo. I usually begin with a faster shutter speed and then gradually reduce this as I get back into practice with my panning skills.

A trio of different Spitfires…

Spooling up for take off.

Happy landings.

The Mustang ‘Miss Helen’ readying herself for the skies

Photos taken 29 July 2023

Inside Sally B

While it’s so cold outside I thought I’d look back to a hot summer’s day when we visited Duxford. Kevin’s been a member of the Sally B Supporters’ Club for over thirty years now and one of the perks of this is being able to take a tour inside Sally B, the last airworthy B17 in Europe.

The last time we did this was one winter when she was still inside the hangar, so it was lovely to see her in the sunshine this time.

I’d taken my little Fuji camera with me (handy to have a small camera in the tight confines of an aircraft) and focused on capturing some of the details I saw around us.

Photos taken 7 August 2022

Unlikely subjects

There are certain subjects you expect to make good pinhole photos, but aviation photography is not an obvious choice. When we visited Duxford over the summer, rather than taking a digital camera with a long lens, I plumped for my large format pinhole camera. I knew this would severely restrict my options but that wasn’t going to stop me!

Sally B was out on the concrete apron, surrounded by people so I set my tripod up over the fence and took a slowish exposure. This meant the people blurred as they milled around, creating a ghostly effect.

Elsewhere on the airfield the two seater Spitfire was being readied for flight so, once again, I took the opportunity to capture a sense of movement in the human element in the frame as the passenger slipped into the cockpit.

Another Spitfire, albeit one made of fibreglass, which is why I was able to get quite so close!

Photos taken 21 August 2022

Up, up and away!

We both celebrated our 50th birthdays during the restrictions of 2021 so the adventure we had planned to mark the occasion was fashionably late, in May 2022. We headed off to the Old Warden airfield in Bedfordshire for a flight in ‘Wacky Wabbit’, a WWII Harvard aircraft.

We weren’t allowed to take anything in the aircraft with us, but that wasn’t going to stop me catching some photos as Kevin went on his flight.

Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.

Coming back in to land…

Our day also coincided with one of the regular Shuttleworth Collection air shows, so naturally we stayed on to watch and catch some photos!

Photos taken 1 May 2022

Duxford on film

Back in August I spent some time using my diminutive Rollei 35S film camera, getting to know it better. It’s a tiny camera, with an amazingly sharp 40mm lens so it’s great to keep in your pocket for impromptu photo outings.

Work in progress in the restoration hangar

Light levels tend to be quite low in the old hangars at Duxford, but the Rollei coped with this easily and I enjoyed finding compositions which suited its lens.

Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.

Photos taken August 2022