Silverstone 2007 Photos...

[IntheTin]

AFCSoff.

Fantastic pictures. What a great eye you have. All the photos are brilliant, but I think the 109's are really good. Thanks for posting.

[Perro Rojo]

AFCSoff,

You mean to tell me you were at the F1 race at Silverstone and all you took were helicopter pictures? Helicopter pictures? What about all the girls with the big air bags and the F1 cars? What a waste of film. I see helicopters everyday at work.

[Agusta]

What about all the girls with the big air bags and the F1 cars?

I don't know about them, that about pictures of us hard workers on the ground... not them doing the flying, I'm talking about the ones who had to drive in at 'O' silly 'o' clock and put up with the drunks when they were coming out lol.

Good work by all the handlers... especialy on gate 10!!

[AFCSoff]

Silverstone miscellaneous shots...

You mean to tell me you were at the F1 race at Silverstone and all you took were helicopter pictures? Helicopter pictures? What about all the girls with the big air bags and the F1 cars?

Ah....you speak too quickly....Here's an F1 girl...(my wife).....and some F1 cars. Apologies for this being slightly off-thread (I'll post some more appropriate helicopter pictures this evening) but since my motives were challenged....here you go.

I don't know about them, that about pictures of us hard workers on the ground...I'm talking about the ones who had to drive in at 'O' silly 'o' clock and put up with the drunks when they were coming out lol.

I don't know if this guy was a marshaller or what....but I liked his hi-vis. Maybe it helped when dealing with the aforementioned drunks.

[anotherwirestriker]

Nope, that guy is a pilot!

[fluffy5]

Glad to see my hi vis humour gets around, I did alot of them, should really copyright but hey such is life. I gave one to my mate, which said "you want me to do what ! good god man do you have any Idea how much experience my beard has got !" or " learn how to handle a chopper " I used to give that one to the female solo students, it used to put them at ease .

[J32/41]

Apologies for not being up to speed on the heli types but do you have any more of the Air Force Merlin? (I think it is).

Thanks

[OFBSLF]

Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED
Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D
Nikkor TC-20E II 2.0x AF-S Tele converter, so I lose two stops, only ever used with an f2.8 so we still win.

Sorry for the thread detour...

I thought that the teleconverters only work with AFS lenses? Or is that only the TC-17? I've also got the 80-200mm and am looking at getting a TC. What I really want is the 70-200 VR, but the Minister of Household finance would take a dim view of that...

[Brilliant Stuff]

Fluffy I love those Hi-Vis jackets it makes them less of a thorn in my eye and it might even convince me to wear one.

[blave]

Now you've done it..

AFCSoff,

You, sir, just cost me USD$550. I have avoided the DSLR thing for the last ten years, but a combination of my friend's awesome D200 pics of an R44 tour that I gave him in Hawaii last year, and especially your stellar D70 Riverstone pics, have forced me to put my teeny Canon SD330 point 'n shoot camera away and get something that definitely won't fit in my pocket: a Nikon D40. It's no D70 or D200 but I suspect it might alow even me to take some acceptable snapshots. I can't wait for next year's Vertical Challenge airshow (San Carlos, CA) to attempt to take the kind of shots that you have shown us. I guess I need to get that $1500 80-400mm VR lens, though... ouch.

I hope your cheque is in the mail,

Dave Blevins
USA

[AFCSoff]

Bristow EC155...

All,

After getting through my initial backlog, I'm slowly starting to get some more of my shots from Silverstone processed. Apologies for taking so long to share these additional ones. I'm in the middle of a home move right now, so I've had to shift all of my stuff over to my laptop....

I should have more shots trickling in over the next few days/weeks.

[AFCSoff]

Merlin at Silverstone...

Apologies for not being up to speed on the heli types but do you have any more of the Air Force Merlin? (I think it is).

This is the only other half decent shot I got of the Merlin....It was backlit on its approach, and I left the circuit before its departure...

From what I read in other threads, I'm sorry I missed it...Supposedly said departure may have been something that would have been worth documenting...

So, not exactly a keeper, but since you asked...

[AFCSoff]

DSLRs...

You, sir, just cost me USD$550

Dave...

Good for you. There's a whole world of difference in shooting with an SLR. The D70 was my first and I've completely taught myself since. With a large enough card in most modern bodies, you can easily get several thousand shots (I have an 8GB card in mine currently - which gives me 4500 "normal" quality .JPGs), and at 3-5 frames per second, you really can go on and on snapping (like I did at Silverstone.) If you take enough pictures, simple statistics will dictate that you'll get some good ones. Being able to do that gives you a lot of freedom to mess with camera settings and experiment with what works rather than worrying that each and every shot is critical.

I guess I need to get that $1500 80-400mm VR lens

Yes, the lens in question definitely helps, although the 80-400mm specifically isn't optimized for the applications I use it for. The autofocus is way too slow (non AF-S), and not being able to stop down further limits you in low light (although the VR makes up for that a little). The 80-400 is really the ticket for wildlife and things that aren't moving too fast, and trying to capture an aircraft moving at you at a hundred knots isn't its forté. However, it's the only telezoom that goes out all the way to 400mm and is still a reasonable price. Nikkor does offer the 200-400mm f/4, but I consider that an "exotic".

I don't know for sure what this one is below (probably a 400mm f/2.8), but one of the official F1 photographers was using it (notable because most "sports" shooters use Canon)

Wow.

[AFCSoff]

Silverstone AS-350/355s

Here's a smattering of A-Stars....or perhaps I should say "Squirrels" for you European types...





















And one small indulgence here...this is obviously not from Silverstone, but
taken as Ascot a couple of weeks ago....Just wanted to share it now that I have an audience who may appreciate it.

[Sioux4D]

Dear AFCSoff,
I'd like to reiterate everyones compliments and thank you for the fantastic pictures, as a helicopter fanatic each and every one of them has caught my attention, not just because of the content but also because of the clarity! I know nothing about photography, but I can appreciate quality when I see it, well done!
As an aside, for J32/41, here are a few pictures taken at RAF Fairford last year of a Danish SAR EH101 (merlin) built in the UK, an aircraft that I have had the extreme pleasure of flying in! (albeit it for precious few hours). I hope no-one is offended by me crashing the post, just thought you would appreciate them. They are by no means up to AFCS' standard and only taken with a pocket digital camera, but hope you enjoy, particularly like the profile of the awesome BERP blades!




Please continue with your posts AFCSoff as you are making alot of aviation enthusiasts very happy viewing the results of your hard work!
P.S the eagle eyed amongst you may notice that the Silverstone Heli-port is not quite as busy as it once was, but that's a different story!

[AFCSoff]

More random Silverstone shots..

Gents...

Here are some more shots taken at Silverstone. I've been pre-occupied with an overseas move over the last two weeks so apologies to everyone for taking so long to add these or if I've included any duplicates from those previously posted.

[Helilover]

Thanks

Hi AFCSoff,

I'd like to say thank you for sharing some really great photographs! I was particularly impressed by the close up of the crew members leaning out the back of the RAF Merlin - it's such a crisp photo!

A great variety of helicopters included. I've really enjoyed viewing this thread so far!

Thanks again

Helilover

[AFCSoff]

A great variety of helicopters included. I've really enjoyed viewing this thread so far!

I'm glad you've liked them! I'll slowly be adding more as I get through processing them.

Cheers!

[Darren999]

If anyone can show me that link to the screen saver for this again, my computer took a dump, so have to reinstall it
I did try and search for the link but to no success. These aren't really my forte
Thank you in advance

Darren

[LFCI]

Where were the Sticky Buns?

Great photos - well done - but where were the 61's ?

Checker Checker 19
Pink Pink 7
Etc etc...........