TEEEJ

A cracking sight to see two Harrier GR.9s heading for Cad Pass on the 25 Sep 07. I decided to stay low on the hill for some head on and cockpit shots of anything that came through. It was a hard job keeping sight of the Harriers down in the weeds. I lost the nose on one of them, but quite like the effect. I fluffed the shot before this which had the nose intact! I only managed to get a quick snap at the number 2!

Lead Harrier GR.9 was ZD409 with no markings and the other GR.9 was ZD330 with 801 NAS markings. I believe that both airframes are part of the Naval Strike Wing - although you can never tell even with full markings! If anyone knows, or was the pilot of ZD409, then I would gladly send him high res copies.

ZD409 & ZD330 - Cad West - 25 Sep 07





ZD409 - Cad West - 25 Sep 07









A few blow up variations on the cockpit shot of ZD409







ZD330 - Cad West - 25 Sep 07

nacluv

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - fantastic stuff.


Cheers for posting.

PPRuNe Pop

They are just brilliant. I betcha your PM's base is getting full.

The driver's will like those for sure.

Very well done.

PPP

High_lander

Cracking photos TEEEJ.

Not too bad indeed!

Fokkerwokker

Fanbleedin'tastic!!!!

Quintuple

FW

gareth herts

Absolutely brilliant pictures Tom - thanks for posting.

It never ceases to amaze that these (you) guys have the time to look anywhere other than where you're heading when down in the weeds. Great stuff.

Regie Mental

What is impressive is that his eyes are shut.

Feel the force Luke.....

You Sir, Name!

Harrier pilots don't blink.

dagowly

awesome pics Teej once you finally get Tornado pics, i'll be a happy man

BigBoeing

they are f'in awesome!!! nice one

Flik Roll

Crackin' pics TeeeJ!

TEEEJ

Thanks for the comments! I'm a happy bunny now as the pilot of ZD409 has been in contact and I'll be able to provide him with high res copies.

Flyingblind

As others have said...well done that man! great photo's

Do you have a website?

Geehovah

Just incredible

cdt scopes

as 1 of your biggest fans I would like to congratulate you on some more fantastic pics . P.S, what camera did you use to get that close up of the cockpit?, because its really well focussed.

TEEEJ

Thanks for the comments.

No. Sorry.

I've always thought that the low-level routes would be a good expedition/outing for recruits at the Defence School of Photography?Especially with inside information knowing what was scheduled to come through and at what location. A small group of recruits could cover all aspects of a fly through from high photographic vantage points to low.
The results could be quite spectacular?! Especially on a good day for vapour!

Green Flash

I do hope someone in RAFland has approached TEEEJ with either a) an offer of work and/or b) a ride in one of Aunty Bettys finest sky chariots. OK, so you've got to be in the right place and at the right time but Tom - you've got talent.

TEEEJ

Thanks very much. Too kind. I'm glad that you like them. I get a great buzz out of taking them, and also being witness to the great flying sights and sounds in spectacular scenery.

For those I used a Nikon D2X fitted with a Nikon Nikkor 300mm f/2.8. The lens is exceptionally quick to focus and has built in vibration reduction. You don't have to go to that expense to get good results though. My second camera is a Nikon D70 fitted with a Nikon Nikkor 100-400mm zoom.

All those images were shot on shutter priority at 1/1250th where the camera automatically selects the aperture. In all those cases I was lucky with the available light and it registered f/2.8.

After much trial and error I never drop below this speed for fast movers. For props and blades I set it at 1/320th. You can go a lot lower with shutter speeds, but you need perfect panning. The weight of my camera/lens is quite substantial and with only a limited number of fly by opportunities I would rather go for keeping the shutter speeds high.

I mount the lens and camera on an old tripod head with a homemade pistol type grip. The extension tube of the tripod mount runs underneath and horizontal to the lens with the pistol grip right at the end. When I say a pistol grip it is just a bolt covered with bubble wrap and duck tape at the moment! The idea came to me on one of those long days spent on the low-fly routes.

Thud_and_Blunder

TEEEJ,

That second lens, would it be the Nikon 80-400mm like the one the police heli crew here in Dorset carry to back-up the 18-200mm? I've been trying to persuade Domestic C-in-C/ Comptroller Fun&Finance that one of these would be a seriously useful addition to the household inventory (even I blanched when I saw the price of the 2.8/300...).

Fully concur with all the comments re the pictures - almost worth venturing into Taffeban territory if you can see this sort of thing. Good skills.

TEEEJ

Thud and Blunder,

Thanks. I would presume so in ref to the 100-400. I think you can get them with and without vibration reduction? The following I took when I was starting out in low-level. These were all taken with the D70 fitted with the 100-400. You can get acceptable results with even cheaper kit and good practice. Even a 200mm lens at Cad Pass from the positon where I was standing would suffice.

D70/100-400 results

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=285985