Long, hot weeks drag into short, hot weekends. By Sunday afternoon, we were hunting for an excuse to get out of the house and out of town before heading back to our jobs on Monday morning - and with my husband sporting a new DSLR camera that needed a thorough testing, we gave in and went planespotting again. I had done some research this past week on my own camera (albeit an EVF and not a DSLR), and discovered that Fuji thought it would be an awesome idea to make high-speed focusing an OPTION that can be turned on or off, as opposed to a standard fixed feature. After some re-arranging and testing on the freeway while en route to the airport, I discovered not only that the high-speed focusing function on my camera was going to make life a LOT easier, but also how exactly my camera auto-focuses. I am rapidly discovering that focusing ability is paramount in planespotting, while following hotly on its heels is shutter speed.
We arrived at KLIT arond 1:15PM, and while on the way to the airport saw no fewer than two Southwest 737s either arriving or taking off in our airspace. Nice! This turned out to be a sign of things to come - as today turned out to be our most successful spotting trip to date - and we succeeded in actually capturing some of the images we were hoping for. The only issue we experienced today that was less than perfect was the weather - we were under an excessive heat warning, and there was nary a cloud in the sky. The sun beat relentlessly down, and this actually caused heat haze distortion on a lot of our close-to-the-ground shots. As successful as today was, we may have to re-think successive planespotting trips until the weather seriously cools off.
We arrived at KLIT arond 1:15PM, and while on the way to the airport saw no fewer than two Southwest 737s either arriving or taking off in our airspace. Nice! This turned out to be a sign of things to come - as today turned out to be our most successful spotting trip to date - and we succeeded in actually capturing some of the images we were hoping for. The only issue we experienced today that was less than perfect was the weather - we were under an excessive heat warning, and there was nary a cloud in the sky. The sun beat relentlessly down, and this actually caused heat haze distortion on a lot of our close-to-the-ground shots. As successful as today was, we may have to re-think successive planespotting trips until the weather seriously cools off.
N678AE on short final to rwy. 4L gives me my best jet photograph to date! My new camera settings, coupled with the slower pace of arrivals coming in over our heads on 4L make for prime jet photography! This is one of the few jets I have seen since getting involved in plane photography that does NOT have winglets.
Another American Eagle follows closely, coming in on 4L also. This was the first image that showed me we were having heat distortion problems. The white hulls of the AE jets make for maximum UV reflection, great for the PAX - not so great for the sun-dried, oven-baked, white-clad spotters on the gravel below!
Hello, beautiful! N449WN sidles out from the terminal and overjoys us by rolling on down our way. Yes!! We shifted runways between the last image and this one, because we saw that departures were indeed happening on 22L today again.
N449WN thunders down the runway on its takeoff roll. I'm still having issues with framing fast-moving jets in the shot, and in addition to that - my camera decided that it does not like focusing on subjects within the range of between 310deg. and 350deg. from my perspective. This is mildly irritating, to put it lightly.
N449WN at rotation departing 22L. High-speed focusing, 1/1000th shutter speed and ISO 200 allowed me to capture this image, which I am a little proud of.
N449WN raises its landing gear and leaves the hazy, searing runway for cooler climes (at least until they land again). Beautiful!As much as I hate to mark my posts with this - all images are © Karen E. Politte, 2010, and any unauthorized use is prohibited. Please contact me if you wish to use my images. All images are available.
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