Smoke on!, a photo from Bern, West

Photographer's Note

Red Bull Air Race is sort of slalom with airplanes, where the pilots rush against the clock around the complicated race course.

Shooting planes with speeds up to 400 km/h is much of trial and error. Trying to figure out the best moment to shoot and follow the plane with the camera. I think I was lucky catching my best shot of the day of the race winner, Paul Bonhomme with his Zivko Edge 540 as he dives to the last lap of the race final.

130 mm, ISO 400, exposure comp. -0,3.

LuDivine, mossphoto, Dpbours, sleon, kittyhawk, bakes888, vinicio, jwmunro, pboehringer, tzourob has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

LuDivine (90) 2007-08-15 3:05

Hi Kari,

This is a truly beautiful shot, you have been very lucky indeed or just evry good! The colors are awesome too, we can really feel the action, I ove the smoke surrounding the plane!
beautiful and original. Thank you.
LuDivine

mossphoto (604) 2007-08-15 3:10

Kari-

Great capture of a difficult situation. Timing must be perfect at 400km/h to catch this shot. You have even caught the prop well (although as you mentioned, luck definitely plays a large part in that!).

~Vic~

Dpbours (222) 2007-08-15 3:12

Hi Kari,

Wow, great sharpness to this one! So detailed and the background nicely out of focus. And yes, right on time! Wonderful light as well. A pity you don't give a bit more camera settings to this one...

Greetings, Dennis

sleon (9402) 2007-08-15 4:15

Hi Kari
This is an interesting scene - we get a good impression of speed and noise of this low flying plane thanks to the trails of smoke. I like the framing which excludes the sky and helps to convey how close this aeroplane must have been to the crowds.
Regards, Susanna

kittyhawk (1690) 2007-08-15 8:36

Hello Kari,

Another great shot from the Interlaken air race!! I really like how you've captured Mr. Bonhomme with the smoke trail indicating his flight path. It even looks like he has just gotten out of a half cuban before the previous markers. Very nicely captured. TFS.

Friendly,
- Halgeir

crhieatt (5355) 2007-08-15 11:41

Kari,
What a chaotic scene - smoke trails here, there and everywhere. Of course, this adds much more to the drama of the shot - just one plane passing through wouldn't be enough.
Personally, I'm not sure how close I'd want to get to this sort of flying!
Regards
colin

bakes888 (18499) 2007-08-16 0:27

Hi Kari. I have seen these on the TV news and they look really impressive. Great capture. Well composed with good colour and sharpness. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Paul.

vinicio (23415) 2007-08-16 4:17

Fantastic image Kari, compliments, beautiful acrobatic action of the airplane in a beautiful and interesting image, the colored cones are in good contrast with the beautiful background full of green, well done.
Ciao
Vinicio

r021251 (3917) 2007-08-16 4:36

Belle prise de vue, photo nette et précise de sujet en mouvement..super... Réal.

jwmunro (286) 2007-08-16 6:36

Hello Kari -

Outstanding capture. Having attempted to photograph some cycling events without much success I have to take my hat off and give you credit where credit is due. Well done!!! Since the image was captured at mid day under less than favorable conditions you did very well with the light management.

Thank you for sharing.

John

IgorDeleze (585) 2007-08-16 6:44

Hello Kari,
I'm to see a picture of this event. It's must be a great show I think?
This is an excellent shot showing the small altitude of these crazy pilot.
Greetings.
Igor

nivas37 (662) 2007-08-16 10:29

Hi Kari,
Not only did you pick up the winner of the day, but you put up an excellent photograph in the process... NIC OF TIME!!! PERFECTION!
Rgds / Nivas

pboehringer (770) 2007-08-17 7:08

Kari,
yes your absolutely right here. You got the shutter going on at the perfect moment. Everything is right on target. The beauty of digital is putting at such moments the automatic release were can shoot 4-10 images per second. That allows you later at home to choose the perfect moment or as it is called at TE the "decisive moment".
Regards, Peter

macondo (17997) 2007-08-17 17:03

Hello Kari. A superb fast shutter exposure that is full of colour and dynamic movement. It must have been really difficult to get a good shot of the action. The clearly defined trail of smoke makes a good horizontal against all those vertical windsocks. You have ended up with a truly exciting shot, one of which I am envious as I usually don't have much success with these.
Regards,
Andrew

kiks (11405) 2007-08-23 2:27

Hi Kari,

great image and difficult to get. You manage it just perfect getting agreat composition and sharpnes. I always get the thrills when i look at a Red bull Air Race!
TFS
KIks

sothy81 (9532) 2007-09-01 12:20

More than anything else, you captured the beauty of the smoke very well here. Very nice one. Sothy

bruce_wayne (1507) 2007-09-07 3:24

Hello Kari
this is a great shot! Colors and clearness are very good, you taken right moment...well done

ALessandro

marietom (34603) 2007-09-24 2:01

Hi Karl,

Impressionnante, ton image.
Belle compo et belles couleurs.
Marie

clic (11295) 2007-09-24 5:14

Hello Kari
Such a thrilling air show!! It appears as a practice to fly between the steeples of a cathedral or the pillars of a bridge!
Backlight enlights beautifully the white fumes over a darker background.
Thanks for this exciting moment.
Best regards.
Robert

Voltri (1771) 2007-09-25 11:27

Kari, fantastic photo! I can only imagine how difficult is to take flying plane photos! Quality is superb and the dynamism of the situation is very well shown.