Citoyen européen Ray Hindle ✔️
@rayhindle@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

DH 87B Hornet Moth seen at Cranfield in the 1990s. #Photography#PhotographyOnMastodon#Aircraft#Aviation#Cranfield#PFARally

A restored de Havilland DH.87B Hornet Moth, registration G-ASLB, sits poised at Cranfield in the 1990s under soft afternoon light, its red fuselage gleaming with silver trim and white accents. The aircraft’s distinctive cabin biplane design features side-by-side seating beneath a curved canopy, evoking 1930s elegance and touring comfort. Squared wings with minimal stagger are supported by slender interplane struts, while the silver tail bears a subtle emblem, adding a touch of vintage charm. In the background, a scatter of other classic aircraft suggests a lively aviation gathering, framing the Hornet Moth as both centrepiece and survivor of a bygone era.
A restored de Havilland DH.87B Hornet Moth, registration G-ASLB, sits poised at Cranfield in the 1990s under soft afternoon light, its red fuselage gleaming with silver trim and white accents. The aircraft’s distinctive cabin biplane design features side-by-side seating beneath a curved canopy, evoking 1930s elegance and touring comfort. Squared wings with minimal stagger are supported by slender interplane struts, while the silver tail bears a subtle emblem, adding a touch of vintage charm. In the background, a scatter of other classic aircraft suggests a lively aviation gathering, framing the Hornet Moth as both centrepiece and survivor of a bygone era.
A restored de Havilland DH.87B Hornet Moth, registration G-ASLB, sits poised at Cranfield in the 1990s under soft afternoon light, its red fuselage gleaming with silver trim and white accents. The aircraft’s distinctive cabin biplane design features side-by-side seating beneath a curved canopy, evoking 1930s elegance and touring comfort. Squared wings with minimal stagger are supported by slender interplane struts, while the silver tail bears a subtle emblem, adding a touch of vintage charm. In the background, a scatter of other classic aircraft suggests a lively aviation gathering, framing the Hornet Moth as both centrepiece and survivor of a bygone era.
activity timestamp 6 days ago

The Red Arrows

At the start of the year, in my annual birthday post, I outlined my shooting goals for 2025. There were only two: photograph some fireworks, and photograph a Red Arrows display. I had expected to put a small amount of effort into travelling to a display of the latter, but as luck would have it, they actually were scheduled for a display on the very last day of our holiday in Swanage this year.

Kit List
Canon EOS R6 Mk II
Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM
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It has been 14 years since I last photographed a Red Arrows display – and 16 years since I last saw them do a display in Swanage. In fact, this is the first aerobatic display I’ve photographed since the Bournemouth Air Festival in 2011 – part of the reason why I wanted to have another go at it, with better hardware and an extra decade of experience (albeit not of actual air displays).

My plan was simple – just use my telephoto lens, because nothing else was going to get close enough, and the telephoto would probably zoom out enough for any wider shots I wanted to capture, like their iconic arrival.

1/2000sec, f/4.5, ISO 100, 100mm

As you can see, it was a bit of a grey day. The weather was pretty changeable, which occasionally made for some interesting cloud in the background.

1/1250sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

Where there were nice patches of blue, the red fuselage of the planes contrasted nicely, as is (probably) the intention.

1/1250sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

Other times, when the planes got a little further away and visibility got a little worse, I resorted to some more interesting editing techniques to make the images pop a little.

1/1600sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

In comparison to that last time I photographed the Red Arrows perform, in Bournemouth all the way back in 2011, we were not positioned as close to the centre line of the display, and they were performing further out into the bay, away from the crowd. This meant that, even with the increased reach of my 500mm, I wasn’t getting as close as I did with my 300mm back then. I have therefore resorted to periodic cropping for the images in this post.

1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm1/1250sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

As I normally would for displays like this, shot multiple frames as the planes flew by, and then picked the best ones for sharing.

1/1600sec, f/6.3, ISO 100, 400mm

As always though, I find I’m not the best judge of my own photographs, so there are a few alternatives in the gallery below.

1/2000sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 343mm

As I said above, quite a few of these shots have at least a little bit of cropping. There’s also a few instances where I’ve cropped from horizontal into vertical, something I’ve not felt compelled to do for many years (I’d like to think that’s because I have a better idea of what I’m doing these days). This next one was cropped into portrait because I felt it looked nicely more dramatic that way.

1/1000sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

I love the shots where the planes are facing forwards and you can easily see their front lights.

1/1600sec, f/5, ISO 100, 223mm

The low cloud cover wasn’t ideal, as the Red Arrows couldn’t do their full height display. The atmospheric conditions also meant a lot of the smoke hung in the air longer without dispersing. It did mean I could add a hint of gritty contrast to some of the shots though.

1/2000sec, f/5, ISO 100, 254mm

The light was pretty changeable too. Sometimes, like in the shot above, the planes looked more in shadow, but in the shot below they are catching the light a lot better.

1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

That said, sometimes the lighting added to the drama.

1/2000sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 300mm

It’s also possible the atmospheric conditions affected the smoke trails coming out of the planes, not unlike how it impacts the exhaust coming from a steam train.

1/640sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

There are a few shots where I should possibly have cropped the images into something other than their original aspect ratio. Some of them, like the one below, have quite a bit of empty sky in them.

1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

On some occasions I tried to solve that with a cropping into portrait.

1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

Occasionally I was blessed with a lone plane to focus on.

1/640sec, f/6.3, ISO 100, 400mm1/640sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

Or smaller groups getting a bit closer to me.

1/640sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

I was positioned towards the middle of the beach, up a hill. The idea was that the display tends to look best – especially if you want photographs that are balanced – if you’re in the midline of the display. In hindsight, it might have been interesting to have watched from Peveril Point, off to the side of the display. Some of the manoeuvres might have looked a bit odd – although potentially from a unique angle – but in some of moves the planes appeared to fly pretty close to the hill on Peveril Point, which might have given some very interesting results.

1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

This particular run was great, this plane trailed blue smoke the whole time, which added some extra colour to the grey sky.

1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

Although the plane trailing red also looked good from this angle.

1/1000sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

When it flew over the Point I edited the shot to enhance its contrast against the sky.

1/1000sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

One of the challenges, in moves like this next one, was finding a balance between getting close to the planes, and showing the manoeuvre being carried out.

1/1000sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 363mm

On a couple of occasions, I was able to get shots of planes with a formation of the other planes in the background, starting with this shot of a plane flying over Peveril Point.

1/800sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

Although I prefer this one, which I have edited to turn the plane into a silhouette.

1/1000sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 500mm

By this point it was starting to rain, to the point that I was sheltering my camera in my clothes and breaking it out only when some planes came by.

1/500sec, f/7.1, ISO 125, 500mm

It didn’t affect my shooting too much, but did make the sky a bit darker.

1/500sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 300mm

As the rain got heavier we started moving towards the end of the display.

1/500sec, f/5, ISO 100, 200mm

Indeed, we were soon greeted with the traditional display-ending fan out.

1/640sec, f/7.1, ISO 160, 500mm1/640sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 343mm1/800sec, f/5, ISO 100, 176mm

And with that, the display was over, and lots of people made a run from the rain.

I think there was an element of ring rust for this one. I haven’t shot an air show since 2011 either, and I haven’t really used much of my gear in that sort of environment yet. The location also possibly meant I didn’t get the degree of closeup I had been hoping for. So although I’m happy to consider this a goal checked off my list for 2025, inevitably I would like to have another crack at it. Luckily, my son enjoyed the display too, so hopefully that means we might be able to figure out another air show of some kind in the not-too-distant future.

I had been hoping to suffix this post with a couple of shots of the Red Arrows flying past my house on their way to Airbourne, the Eastbourne airshow, as they did a couple of years ago. Unfortunately the last couple of years they’ve not come anywhere near as close. I still make sure to check their flight plans every August just in case. Maybe next year.

As usual, there are a few extra shots and angles in the gallery below.

#aircraft #camera #cameras #Photography #RedArrows
Citoyen européen Ray Hindle ✔️
@rayhindle@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

DH 87B Hornet Moth seen at Cranfield in the 1990s. #Photography#PhotographyOnMastodon#Aircraft#Aviation#Cranfield#PFARally

A restored de Havilland DH.87B Hornet Moth, registration G-ASLB, sits poised at Cranfield in the 1990s under soft afternoon light, its red fuselage gleaming with silver trim and white accents. The aircraft’s distinctive cabin biplane design features side-by-side seating beneath a curved canopy, evoking 1930s elegance and touring comfort. Squared wings with minimal stagger are supported by slender interplane struts, while the silver tail bears a subtle emblem, adding a touch of vintage charm. In the background, a scatter of other classic aircraft suggests a lively aviation gathering, framing the Hornet Moth as both centrepiece and survivor of a bygone era.
A restored de Havilland DH.87B Hornet Moth, registration G-ASLB, sits poised at Cranfield in the 1990s under soft afternoon light, its red fuselage gleaming with silver trim and white accents. The aircraft’s distinctive cabin biplane design features side-by-side seating beneath a curved canopy, evoking 1930s elegance and touring comfort. Squared wings with minimal stagger are supported by slender interplane struts, while the silver tail bears a subtle emblem, adding a touch of vintage charm. In the background, a scatter of other classic aircraft suggests a lively aviation gathering, framing the Hornet Moth as both centrepiece and survivor of a bygone era.
A restored de Havilland DH.87B Hornet Moth, registration G-ASLB, sits poised at Cranfield in the 1990s under soft afternoon light, its red fuselage gleaming with silver trim and white accents. The aircraft’s distinctive cabin biplane design features side-by-side seating beneath a curved canopy, evoking 1930s elegance and touring comfort. Squared wings with minimal stagger are supported by slender interplane struts, while the silver tail bears a subtle emblem, adding a touch of vintage charm. In the background, a scatter of other classic aircraft suggests a lively aviation gathering, framing the Hornet Moth as both centrepiece and survivor of a bygone era.