Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Here’s the nose of the Handley Page Hastings at Newark Air Museum. It’s a quite colourful mix of silver, orange and red, but these also transfer quite nicely to black and white tones. The paintwork and detail on the fuselage also stand out quite nicely thanks to the light I had.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
Here’s a close-up of the Avro Shackleton that appeared in the wider shot I published yesterday. My dad did some of his National Service stationed in Northern Ireland back in the 60s and told me that he once got a lift back over to to the mainland in an RAF Shackleton.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
Three of the largest aircraft at Newark Air Museum, all in a row. From right to left: A Handley Page Hastings, an Avro Shackleton, and at far left, and Avro Vulcan. There will be further pictures of each of these impressive aeroplanes to come shortly.
Depending on when you visit, it’s possible to go onboard each of the aircraft. I’ve only been aboard the Shackleton (on a previous visit) and, despite the large size, it’s incredibly cramped inside. I managed to work my way all the way down the length of the plane to the nose, but it involved a few places where I had to climb over bulkeads and similar to get there.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
I always found the English Electric Lightning to be a noteworthy aircraft. It’s shape felt distinctive, with it’s nose cone and dual exhausts. It was renowned for its climb rate.
But the reason I have an affinity for it is that I remember seeing (and, more to the point, hearing) them flying low over the North Sea just offshore from Mablethorpe when I was a child. Just north of Mablethorpe there is an RAF bombing range at Donna Nook (it’s also famous for it’s seal population) and I expect that these impressive sightings were part of pilot training exercises.
Sometimes there would be F4 Phantoms and, most impressive of all, Avro Vulcans flying over the sea parallel to the shore carrying out similar exercises.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
I’ve posted about my visit to Newark Air Museum last month here on the blog already, but those posts were mostly about the problems I’d encountered with my large format camera. Thankfully, I also had a second camera with me on the day – my trusty Canon Sure Shot Supreme – and it managed to do a sterling job making pictures, some of which I’ll be posting here in the coming days.
Aircraft – in a similar fashion to cars, trains, and steam engines – are not something that I have an inherent interest in. I mean, they are interesting, and certainly in many cases, impressive, but my primary reason for seeking them out is that they make great subjects for photographs. So a trip to an air museum is not that dissimilar to a trip to a classic car show, or a steam rally in that regard – primarily for making pictures, with some secondary general interest thrown in for good measure.
Today I have a couple of photographs of MIG aircraft – a 23ML and a 27K – both of which went under the NATO designation of “Flogger”.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
This is the last of the four large-format air museum pictures that I was able to salvage. The other four are just too much of a PITA for me to try and remedy the light leaks, This is the only HP5+image that I think passes muster – and it’s the one where the light leak is probably most obvious, despite my attempts to hide it. I still think I somehow managed a pretty good rescue attempt though.
The aircraft in the picture is an Avro Shackleton, a post-WWII aircraft developed for anti-submarine warfare and maritime patrol duties. 185 aircraft were produced.
Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
The photograph presented here today, of a post-war DeHaviland Dove passenger aircraft, is one of the 4×5 frames I shot at Newark Air Museum last Friday.
The eagle-eyed amongst you might have noted that this is not a 4×5 aspect ratio picture. This is because it was affected by the light-leak and the loose tripod column I moaned about the other day. The light leak has been largely recovered using graduated masks in Lightroom. It’s still there, but you’ll prbably only spot it if you look very closely (or know where it is). The composition has been, well, not rcovered, so much as salvaged by way of a significant crop. The full frame has the aircraft nose off-centre by a significant margin and one of the propellers fully in-shot. In the end I decided that this panoramic format was the best option.
It isn’t the picture I envisioned, but it’s better than no picture at all.
Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°
Taken 7 April 2023.
So, unless I make another visit to an airshow or aircraft museum in the near future, this is probably the last aircraft shot for a while. It’s another shot of the Vulcan bomber from yesterday, but this time a profile shot of the cockpit.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 26 January 2019
I’m still not quite done with the aircraft pictures…
This is the Vulcan bomber at Newark Air Museum. While there are no longer any of these still being flown, they were a spectacular sight, whether at airshows or, as I would sometimes see during my childhood, in actual active service. They are still a very impressive sight when on the ground, especially when you are able to walk beneath the fuselage and wings.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 26 January 2019
Told you so.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF & Fomapan 400.
Taken on 26 January 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 