Yes, the weather. The wind. The piddly showers. No-one wanted to pull barrel rolls, stalls, or 9G turns in front of me when I had the new Nikon Coolpix P1000 camera at the airport viewing platforms. The commercial pilots at Perth were using another runway and the students at Jandakot were all inside drinking cocoa. I had to make do with the ground staff and the Flying Doctor.
I suspect the RFDS would probably take off and land in a typhoon, possibly sideways. They fly over our house despite the thunderstorms of winter and the dark of night. Never pass by an RFDS collection tin without putting something in. If we put enough in they are going to have an aerobatic team with folding gurneys...
The main N0. 3 runway at Perth Airport had a small jet stuck in the middle of it with people poking at the wings. I suspect it was towed in rather than run under its own steam. All the biggies were off at the other runway, so the spectacular landing shots will have to wait for another day.
But have a look at the range of view available with the lens on the Coolpix P1000. Full wide to full tele. Two shots right after each other.
Jpeg only today - the NRW raw file isn't catered for by my Lightroom or Photoshop at present.
Distance shots are the forté of this camera, but distance and atmosphere can fight back.
I was surprised at the amount of heat shimmer and disruption there was on such a cold day - perhaps it's the effect of the tarmac surfaces throwing heat up. Jandakot was cleaner.
But not that clean, once you really zoomed out.
The real shock was shooting the helicopter student as he hovered . I have deliberately not shown you the full zoom because it is right inside the cockpit canopy and quite frankly I felt like I was intruding. This is
SOME lens...
