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It all seemed so promising if the weather forecast was to be believed, with cloud to clear being replaced by something called the sun. Even on arrival it looked promising for the five of us who had come to watch the action. But from there onwards, weatherwise it was all downhill with the low hazy cloud returning, a bitterly cold wind and the added 'extra' of only one Chinook flying mainly to the north west of our position. By 2PM, everyone else had left, leaving only one cold fool to watch the low dark hazy clouds scuttle across the bleak moor.
But, oh boy, was I in for a really pleasant afternoon of some brilliant low level action by the RNlAF Cougar and two Chinooks. It really was awful weather for photography, all colour was muted, foggy haze affected distant shots, and light levels were relatively low - excuses? You bet. By the end of this session, most of the images are better as B&W.
Just to give an idea of the conditions
The reason for standing in this spot - to see the helicopters using the gorge so that we can photograph them from above or to the side
This Cougar helicopter pilot was excellent - flying either side of me about 15 times to give me the chance to try out different settings and practice my panning (not good!!) - it doesn't get much better than this apart from the terrible lighting conditions. The weather was fairly dark so it was difficult to catch detail in the helicopters, but despite being gloomy, the cloud is a relatively bright background to a dark helicopter and colour is all but useless in these conditions, so not ideal.
Even the Chinook tried to help make up for the poor weather
The icing on the cake for me was this amazing very low level jinking, twisting, evasive run into 'enemy territory' by the Chinook - it like watching an HGV being taken around a race track, awe inspiring, and if you look carefully, you'll see chaff being emitted from the rear of the helicopter to confuse any 'enemy missiles'
Moral of the story - don't give up, enjoy the hobby and then even a bad weather day can turn into one of the best days! This will take some beating, even though my photos weren't brilliant, and I would happily have given those Dutch pilots a big kiss!!
BTW: This was an interesting debut for my new Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 lens, but it did all that I could hope of it. Let's hope for better light in its next test.
Regards
Chris
But, oh boy, was I in for a really pleasant afternoon of some brilliant low level action by the RNlAF Cougar and two Chinooks. It really was awful weather for photography, all colour was muted, foggy haze affected distant shots, and light levels were relatively low - excuses? You bet. By the end of this session, most of the images are better as B&W.
Just to give an idea of the conditions
The reason for standing in this spot - to see the helicopters using the gorge so that we can photograph them from above or to the side
This Cougar helicopter pilot was excellent - flying either side of me about 15 times to give me the chance to try out different settings and practice my panning (not good!!) - it doesn't get much better than this apart from the terrible lighting conditions. The weather was fairly dark so it was difficult to catch detail in the helicopters, but despite being gloomy, the cloud is a relatively bright background to a dark helicopter and colour is all but useless in these conditions, so not ideal.
Even the Chinook tried to help make up for the poor weather
The icing on the cake for me was this amazing very low level jinking, twisting, evasive run into 'enemy territory' by the Chinook - it like watching an HGV being taken around a race track, awe inspiring, and if you look carefully, you'll see chaff being emitted from the rear of the helicopter to confuse any 'enemy missiles'
Moral of the story - don't give up, enjoy the hobby and then even a bad weather day can turn into one of the best days! This will take some beating, even though my photos weren't brilliant, and I would happily have given those Dutch pilots a big kiss!!
BTW: This was an interesting debut for my new Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 lens, but it did all that I could hope of it. Let's hope for better light in its next test.
Regards
Chris
This results often in requests of the photos taken for in the crew rooms at their base at Gilze-Rijen on our Forum EWAS.nl or they just come to us and asking for it to send it to them by email. At GLV-V we have a fixed spot were we are aloud to stand now a days and where we are not interfering with the exercises from the army and Air Forces Helicopter Group.
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