Aircraft Carrier Visits

[Erik]

I will be at the "TR" in November , is there someone who can tell me if I can shoot with IS ( 100-400mm ) aboard the carrier , or is there to much "shaking"

Except for shooting the bow cats from the front of Vultures Row, I found my 70-200 to be just fine. I don't know if they'll let you out on deck in between the cat/deck crew - but then even 70mm might be too much. Not having two bodies with me at the time, I found myself switching between the 28-75 and 70-200 a few times.  A 28-300L would be the ideal lens to have with you I guess. There's just so much to see and shoot around you.

A few pointers:

1) whatever you do, AVOID FOD. Leave all lens caps below deck. Have no pens, coins or whatever in your pockets. Make sure NOTHING can fall out of your packages, from your camera etc.

2) When you're out on deck between the cat-crew, keep a CONSTANT eye on whatever is happening around you. Don't peer through your viewfinder the whole time or you might get a live Sidewinder jammed in your rear by accident. Watch the Shooter who's escorting you all the time. Just like an airbase there are "DO NOT CROSS" lines on the carrier deck, ask the Shooter to constantly point them out to you - they are hard to see sometimes.

3) Just be careful. In 15 years of shooting, I've never been THAT close to landing/catapulting aircraft as on an active carrier deck. Aircraft with live weapons and running Jet/Prop engines are passing just inches from your position - always have a mental picture in your head of what is going on and where you are. Don't just wonder off and make a few step backwards "to frame that shot nicely". You could EASILY run into a TURNING PROP!

4)  Watch out for TURNING PROPS.

5) It's impossible to say "you should go there or there" or "shoot from here or there". You are totally depending on the deck layout - where are aircraft parked, what cats are they using etc. The deck layout is like a stack of cards which get shuffeled during every launch/recovery cycle. The position which was fine in the morning - might put you right in front of a launching Hornet in the afternoon.

6) The carrier is such a huge and heavy ship, waves won't bother you. It's probably the most stable platform you can get while out at sea. Having said that,  the deck and ship will vibrate with aircraft turning or landing etc. No IS helps against that I think. I haven't missed IS.

7) Don't piss anyone off - especially not the Captain or PAO. There are others visiting the TR as well






Any help is more as welcome!!

Mick

Im no expert, but, I can say you will probably have fun.  You are pretty lucky to get the opportunity.  Make the most of it.    

Ask to get to the LSO platform or anywhere on deck... Between cat 1 and 2 on the bow is a rush.

Spend sometime on vultures row.

Walk around below decks, there is a lot to see down there as well.

[/quote]

[MickF4]

@all

Thanks for all the comments!! I hope we will have a great time down there.....

Greets,
Mick

[Erik]

Out of curiosity, who are you going with?

[MickF4]

Hi guys!

we have just returned from our carrier trip to the middle east........CVN-71 

Here are some first goodies

Mick

[A. Dijksterhuis]

Like the colors on the second an third one!

Arjan

[Tonyz]

Very nice!   Might want to post them over in the carrier visits thread as this one is more for tips on how to shoot when aboard.  (And those comments would be weelcome as well!)

[tonyosborne]

Coming back to this idea about long exposures, clamps and tripods, I found neither balancing nor clamping worked because of the vibration of the ship, I was thinking of a small beanbag to place under the camera while on Vultures Row, any thoughts?

[skippyscage]

I have a small beanbag you can use Tony (the only caveat is that I come with it  )

[Erik]

Coming back to this idea about long exposures, clamps and tripods, I found neither balancing nor clamping worked because of the vibration of the ship, I was thinking of a small beanbag to place under the camera while on Vultures Row, any thoughts?

That should work fine. While spending most of our evening on Vultures Row, Kev and I just wedged our camera's against the railing, upped the ISO to 1600, under exposed -2 stops and shot at f/2.8 using a remote control or self-timer. Not the ideal method, you certainly lose a lot of flexibilty but we did managed to get some decent night shots. Of course only of static thing as there's simply not enough light available on the carrier at night to get enough shutter speed to freeze any real form of movement.

Here's an example of a true static moment.



Shooting a bird on the cat ready for launch is very tricky as the aircraft revs up its engines and the entire carrier shares and moves. This shot was taken just a second before launch (watch the shooter bringing his left arm into position for the launch command on the right side of the picture): 



This shot appears less sharp but it's mostly due to the lack of direct light. When viewing this pic at 100%, the NAVY, squadron and Code decals are sharp - but the lack of light and noise makes the BuNo unreadable.

Trying to shoot while the aircraft is actually being launched off the cat or when landing seems pretty dificult as the entire carrier is shaking.

Since you're not that close to the action, the DOF at 28mm and f/2.8 was large enough to get the subject aircraft into focus. At 100% this picture still is sharp with all aircraft details in focus.
Come to think about it...as the 5D has such incredible high ISO performance, I wonder how far we'd get by using a 5D at ISO 3200, -2 stops under and a  f/2.8 or faster lens.

[André]

Coming back to this idea about long exposures, clamps and tripods, I found neither balancing nor clamping worked because of the vibration of the ship

Tony,

sadly you're right about the vibrations the ship causes.

Not sure if you are able to work with a bean big. Somehow one has to fixate the big and camera together at the railing on deck.

I have used a clamp but like you already mentioned the vibration killed 75% of the shots.

I might think of taking a piece of flexible rubber during the next opportunity and attach the clamp on top of it so it reduces the vibration.
A gyro would be fun to use but its a large and heavy too.