Tigers, Taipans and Hornets run amok in Brisbane CBD…

[Dennis]

On Thursday and Friday, Army Aviation and the RAAF performed their practice runs for Riverfire, deploying ARH Tiger & MRH90 Taipan helicopters and F/A-18F Super Hornets respectively along the Brisbane River.

After the relatively predictable helicopter flight paths, it was a bit of a shock trying to get the fast moving jets in the viewfinder. :)

Cheers

Dennis

[MortonH]

Love #8

[h0ughy]

wow they are brilliant, i can appreciate the effort here

[CJ]

Most impressive! :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Incredible work Dennis! 7 and 8 are amazing :eyepop:
Would be good to see some technical details?

[RickS]

Great shots, Dennis!

[Dennis]

Thanks Rob, here’s some BG.

The helos were my 1st time shooting rotary wing aircraft so I went for shutter speeds (ss) of between 1/1000 and 1/1600 to avoid camera shake (100-400mm zoom). Once I had grabbed a few keepers, I then dropped the ss progressively to get some rotor blur, from 1/125 through 1/80 all the way down to 1/25 when the Tigers or Taipans were hovering. The IS on the lens definitely helped here – you could see its effects in the viewfinder.

I set the exposure to manual so that the meter wouldn’t be fooled as the helos flitted from bright sky BG to being framed against the darker buildings.

For the F/A-18F Super Hornets, I shot with a prime 400mm and a 70-200mm lens as I couldn’t reliably pull the zoom and frame fast enough on the 100-400. So, for the 1st pass, I used the 200mm for the fly by shots and when they came around on their 2nd run, I used the 400mm for the approach and recede shots. I think I was shooting at 10 frames per sec. for some of the bursts. I had a lot of failures but occasionally, a keeper turned up.:)

The jet against the building was with the 400mm whereas the cockpit view was with the 200mm (the whole airframe didn’t fit in the view).

The jets were flying into the sun for some of the angles so again, I set everything manually (1/3200 or 1/2500 at ISO400 F5.6) so the meter wouldn’t be fooled.

The choppers ran through their practice routine on Thursday at just after 2:00pm and I was able to place the sun over my shoulder, whereas on Friday, the jets came through at 12:30pm finishing their run into the sun towards the Storey Bridge.

It definitely pays to have all your setting thought out prior to the event (I also had practice from 2015 & 2014) as it is all over so quickly, making it hard to review your shots and make any necessary adjustments, although the helos did hang around for 3 or 4 mins, so that was less crazy.

You have to ignore the thunderous noise and crackling vibrations reverberating in your chest cavity as the jets roar by.:)

According to the RAAF information, “throughout the flypast, the Super Hornets will travel at speeds of up to 1000 kph (550 knots)."

Cheers

Dennis

[RobF]

Wow. Most appreciated.
Quite a technical feat. Little luck in those shots :)

[Dennis]

Thanks Morton, David, Chris, Rob & Rick – I appreciate your comments.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Derek Klepp]

A great day Dennis and thanks for the technical info.

[Dennis]

Thanks Derek, Brisbane weather at its best!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[gary]

Hi Dennis,

Well the keepers are breathtaking!

Despite IS, your hands had to be as steady as the pilots!

Best Regards

Gary

[multiweb]

#8 is unreal. So sharp. I can't remember ever seeing a picture of a jet that compelling. Unreal. :thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Crackin' shots Dennis :eyepop:

[Dennis]

Thank you Gary, Marc and Bob, I appreciate your comments.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Regulus]

An excellent collection. Thanks for sharing them.

Trev