The sound of propeller engines filled the air early in the morning during the last couple days, reminding us that the world’s largest airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin is coming up next week. As every year a number of historic airplanes are at the Dubuque Airport the week before, with the pilots training for the big event.
I went out in the afternoon and the weather conditions were just great for some aviation photography. Some big puffy clouds made for a nice background. As every year, there were a number T-6 Texans and some other airplanes parked but a few did still their practice at my arrival. The runway they used for starts and landing today is not far from the observation deck and I tried my luck with the planes coming in for landing out of the southeast.
There were two things I tried to accomplish. First it is nice to have a little bit of blue sky in the frame, not just the white and gray of the clouds. That of course was not always in my control. And second the props of the planes had to be blurred for a realistic sense of motion. To get there the shutter speed should be between 1/40s and 1/250s. The last was almost too fast for some pictures because the speed of the propeller plays also a role here. I can tell, my panning technique with the long lens was not superior today, I had a lot of misses. I definitely need more practice…