23 August 2004
2004…the year I got my first DSLR. I’d been diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year and during treatment decided to cheer myself up by banging a Canon 300D and on my credit card (£724.99) after seeing it in an advert. I hadn’t even realised you could get digital SLRs before then! It was a thing of wonderous beauty and really took my passion for photography to another level. Until I just looked back now I’d forgotten it was a grey import hence getting it for £724 with lens and 512 mb CF card, bit of a bargain at the time. I had the kit lens that came with it for statics and then my old 75-300mm zoom for the flying. Again, still had no idea what I was doing but digital really gave me the opportunity to experiment a bit. Absolutely loved that camera! There are nearly 300 photos in my Elvington 2004 folder, bit of a step up from the 36 I took at Elvington in 2001. Much of what I took was rubbish but there were a few keepers in there. I think I went with my girlfriend and my mate but I’m honestly not sure which is pretty terrible of me but it was almost 20 years ago!
I remember being super excited to be getting really close to lots of aviation on the ground and shooting with the new camera. Elvington was such a relaxed environment, a really open and friendly airshow where you could get to see everything without too many crowds getting in the way and the runway was really close to the crowdline – different times!
It looks like the first item I photographed was the ground running Victor they have there which I believe is/was owned by Andre Tempest. The Victor did some great fast taxi runs which included the deployment of the drag chute, always a crowd pleaser.
The first flying item I shot was the T28 Fennec. This particular example saw service in Algeria with the French Air Force. This is the only half decent pic I got of it. Interestingly I was shooting at F16, 270mm focal length at 1/200 sec ISO100. F16? Not sure what led me to want that level of DoF but again I was just learning.
Next on my flying shots was Hawk XX261 which had a sporty little stylised Union flag on its tail, it must have been flying very close to the crowd for me to get a nice topside shot like this
Next up two dirty great big piston engined carrier borne torpedo bombers from the US of A
There followed an impressive display by an Extra300 which I got some shaky, out of focus photos of – the below shot is about the best of a bad bunch
After the Extra I shot the BBMF which sent Spitfire LF IX MK356 IN D-Day stripes, Spitfire Mk IIa P7350 and the Lancaster
Next up, an aeroplane I always liked but I still think I vastly under-appreciated – if I could just go back in time and see it again! The RAF sent Tornado F3 ZE812 to the show and what at the time probably felt like a subdued paint job now seems like an explosion in a Dulux warehouse compared to the current in service aircraft with the RAF. Photos 2 and 4 I think really convey that feeling of being there …it’s coming for you…. the momentary silence before the noise catches up and hits your eardrums. The F2 and F3 really were stunning aircraft in my opinion, much cleaner lines than the GR1/GR4. Halcyon days reading about the F3 coming into service in Take Off magazine and now it’s ancient bloody history, a bit like me.
After the F3 came the Jag and perhaps an example of an aeroplane even more under appreciated during its time in service by yours truly. Walking along the North Yorkshire Moors I’d often see a pair of Jags come blasting overhead and whilst I certainly got excited, there was a certain ‘another pair of Jags’ feeling, secretly hoping it would be something more exotic and preferably American. F*ck me they used to fly low though! Lower than the JPs, A10s and Harriers IIRC.
The Jag at Elvington 2004 took off and presumably did a display but it seems I only got pics of take off and landing so I’ll give you one of each and for added authenticity the latter has part of the arse end missing, What a proper little sports car the Jaguar was. The first picture I saw of it was in my ‘What Plane is That’ book I got when I was very young and it blew my tiny mind even back then that it had OVERWING SIDEWINDERS!
The final jet I photographed at Elvington 2004 (presumably it was closing the show) was a Harrier which was often the closing act back in the day, wowing the crowd with V/STOL etc. This Harrier was ZD408 which subsequently crashed near Cottesmore, writing the machine off but thankfully the pilot safely ejected.
Elvington 2004 definitely reignited my passion for airshows with the new camera. Now I could get home and immediately get disappointed at my photos rather than having to wait a week to get them developed then cry over how shit they were. And of course now there were hundreds rather than 36! I got a couple printed in A3 and stuck them on the wall at work. Whilst I wasn’t around a colleague asked another guy (keen photographer) at work if they were good pictures. “They’re crap” he replied. The message was gleefully relayed to me :-D. To be fair, I did get some good shots among the garbage and I began to want to understand how I could improve my digital photography which meant numerous posts on forums and a lot of experimentation. Getting the magic balance between focus, light, depth of field and sharpness is a constant battle where skill is a huge part of the equation but let’s not forget it does help to also have expensive lenses. An L series 100-400mm Mk 1 was the limit of my budget – it was a massive step up from the really old 75-300mm previously used on my film SLR but then it’s another step change again to L series 500mm or even 600mm which will open up another world of options to you. But an L series 600mm would be worth a lot more than my car!
There were more Elvington airshows to come and as you will see in subsequent posts they became bigger, better and with an added dimension from my perspective! Keep ploughing through the Elvington posts to find out more dear reader!