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Pictures Of The Week
Week 44, October 2011
Clockwise from top left:
Taken during early September, Hans was lucky enough to capture this Qatari Air Force Dassault Mirage 2000-5(E)DDA participating in the NATO led Operation Unified Protector over Libya. Usually based at Doha IAP in Qatar, the aircraft are seen here at NSA Souda Bay, Crete. The Qatari Air Force sent four Mirage 2000s from 7 Squadron, 1st Fighter Wing to support the operation. Working closely with their counterparts from the Armée de l'Air, they flew under "Opération Harmattan" - the codename for the French participation in the 2011 military intervention in Libya.
Image © Hans-Juergen Breuer
Canon EOS 400D + Canon EF-75-300mm lensAlways a very welcome sight to any visitor to the infamous Mach Loop in North Wales is the F-15E Strike Eagle from RAF Lakenheath. This particular image is the Wing Commander's jet, 01-2004, from the 48th Fighter Wing. It's marked out by the four colour tail flash and the emblems on the side of each conformal fuel tank representing the Liberty Wing's four squadrons - the 494th FS, 493rd FS, 492nd FS and 56th RQS. It was one of an impressive eight Strike Eagles to go through the loop on that day and Steve has captured the powerful beast brilliantly.
Image © Stephen Thomas
Canon EOS 40D + Sigma 300mm lensSeen during the recent Joint Warrior exercise at RAF Lossiemouth, we have a head-on pose of an RAF Tornado GR4. Paul's excellent shot is certainly made better with the aircraft being "bombed up" with a single Paveway LGB and targeting pod seen underneath the aircrafts fuselage.
Image © Paul Cameron
Canon EOS 50D + Canon EF 300mm ƒ4 prime lensWe've seen some fantastic images posted from North Weald's recent night shoot. Much to Dean's surprise was this Lim-5 - the name for MiG-17s built under licence in Poland - which made an unexpected appearance at the event. Don't forget to check out the UKAR review of North Weald's 'Flight Night' photoshoot.
Image © Dean West
Canon EOS 550D + Canon EF-S 18-55mm lensNot the sort of sight you'd expect to see when you go to the footie. Taken at the Greenhous Meadow stadium, this Griffin from nearby RAF Shawbury was delivering the matchball for the Shrewsbury Town FC v AFC Wimbledon game, to launch the Shropshire British Legion's 2011 Poppy Appeal.
Image © Wes Howes (Full Throttle Photography)
Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS lensOur second image from "Operation Unified Protector" is this US Marine Corps CH-53 Sea Stallion seen at Luqa in Malta. This Sea Stallion image was taken just before the formal end of combat operations over Libya.
Image © Malcolm Bezzina
A little bit of history in this shot. It was the recent farewell passenger flight for Martinair, whose retro painted Boeing 767 flew with special markings, thanking everyone for flying with them in the past. The aircraft flew a round trip around the Netherlands, operating out of Schiphol-Amsterdam with fly-bys at Eindhoven Airport (where this picture was taken), Groningen-Eelde Airport, Rotterdam Airport, Lelystad airfield, before recovering back to Schiphol. Martinair will now focus solely on freight operations.
Image © Antoine Bosboom
Canon EOS 7D + Canon 100-400mm L IS lens
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Pictures Of The Week
Week 43, October 2011
Clockwise from top left:
Steve Vonlanthen takes top spot this week with a totally unique shot that borders on art! The 'Air Extreme' display along the shores of Jesolo in Italy was the venue for this one, with the swirling smoke trails as the Frecce Tricolore paint their national flag in the skies making this a truly beautiful and totally unique take on the familar demo from one of Europe's finest teams.
Image © Steve Vonlanthen
Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 300mm f2.8 L IS lens + 1.4x TeleconverterTim Maycock returns to the POTW fold with an amazing photograph of a pair of Hunters at the Sion Air Show, held in the Swiss alps back in September. It's a beautiful setting for an air display and coupled with the two beautiful aircraft as the main subject, we decided to highlight this photo above the many other excellent candidates in Tim's high quality thread.
Image © Tim Laurence Maycock
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 500mm f4 L lensAs we head into the dark winter months, night flying at fighter stations across the UK will become common place. The Americans at Lakenheath have been at it for a few weeks, and now RAF Coningsby have commenced their nocturnal operations, as POTW debutant Richard Calver has illustrated brilliantly here.
Image © Richard Calver
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 300mm f4 L lens'DJ' was fortunate enough to have been invited along for a flight in a Piper Pa28 recently, which included some formation and air-to-air shooting with two very interesting 'float planes'. Nearest the camera is Super Cub N5362X, which is joined by Ce172 G-DRAM. The Scottish scenery in his thread is as much a part of the charm of these photos as anything else though, providing a picturesque setting for his flight.
Image © DJ
Canon EOS 5D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensJason has been away from UKAR for a year now, but whilst he was travelling around the world with his colleagues at RAF Lakenheath he did manage a few moments to give his brand new Canon 7D an airing. The Seoul Aerospace and Defense Exhibition at Seongnam Air Base, South Korea, was one such occasion, and now he's back home the photos are online for you to enjoy. Pictured here are the ROKAF "Black Eagles" display team, who fly eight T-50 jet trainers painted in a striking black and yellow livery.
Image © Jason Passmore
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensChris Lofting made the most of a few days of nice weather in the UK recently, fitting in a couple of trips to RAF Coningsby and nearby RAF Waddington. Our pick of his photos comes from the latter, where he caught this Shadow T.1 bright and early on a tight turn to finals and helped himself to a terrific topside shot of a rare machine.
Image © Chris Lofting
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L lensOur final shot this week comes from another of our Polish photographers, Michal Wajnchold, who made the most of an excellent sunset to catch a few airliners heading into Krakow Airport. You can't go far wrong with a sundown like this, and combined with the twinkling runway lights, this is a worthy POTW inclusion for Michal.
Image © Michal Wajnchold
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Pictures Of The Week
Week 42, October 2011
Clockwise from top left:
This weeks POTW top spot goes to none other than UKAR Staffer Mike Hall for this stunning shot of the Meteor T.7 as it made its display debut at the Duxford October show. As expected, the ideal shooting conditions gave plenty of snappers the chance to shoot this attractive classic jet, and to share them on the UKAR Forum. All of Mike's shots ooze quality, but this was our favourite angle, of which Mike says "The image was taken, in spite of a strong hint of personal moral uneasiness, from the "Naughty Field" to the south of Duxford airfield. £7 well spent for the Meteor alone!".
Image © Michael Hall
Canon EOS 1D MkIII + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensSecond up this week is Bartosz Nowak with a super image of the Turkish Stars, climbing up into the deep blue sky. Bartosz said "The photo was taken at Nato Days 2011 in Ostrava, Czech Republic, during display of Turkish Stars, at fantastic spotting locatation, just under the display axis.
Image © Bartosz Nowak
The familiar head-on angle of the F-16 Fighting Falcon takes on a new dimension with the Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs) fitted to the F-16C block 52+ of the Polish Air Force. Bartosz Bera made a welcome return to UKAR, posting some stunning images of the Polish Vipers. This close-in head-on shot in particular caught our eye.
Image © Bartosz Bera
Canon EOS 50D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensStaffer Ian Matthews caught an F/A-18 Hornet of the Swiss Air Force as it climbed out of the valley at Meiringen, en route to the mountain ranges for an AXALP firepower demonstration practice. Ian was lucky that the blue skies and sunshine coincided with a light fall of snow during the previous week which made for a perfect backdrop.
Image © Ian Matthews
Nikon D300 + Sigma 50-500mm lensOur third Staff member to be featured this week is our Scots correspondent Mark McEwan. RAF Lossiemouth has recently played host to aircraft for Joint Warrior 11-2 and Mark caught this Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora, as it backtracked down Lossiemouth's main runway prior to conducting a six-hour long mission.
Image © Mark McEwan
Michael is no stranger to POTW selections. This time, his work on a night shoot with the German CH-53 at Laupheim Airfield provided some stunning results, with an orange sky and reflections in a wet apron. Make sure you check out the rest of the shots in his thread by clicking the thumbnail.
Image © Michael Balter (MBAviationImages)
Canon EOS 1D MkIII + Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 EX lens
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Pictures Of The Week
Week 41, October 2011
Clockwise from top left:
The moon makes a return appearance as background interest in this image from the MCAS Miramar airshow of a much-missed shape once common in UK skies and seen twice in this week's selection. Here a MCAS Yuma based US Marine AV-8B is seen having pushed the up button on the 'elevator' as only a Harrier can in the fixed wing fraternity.
Image © Søren Nielsen
Canon 1D MkIV + Canon EF 500mm f4 L IS lensThe second of this week's Harriers is the one that got away, ex-Royal Navy SHAR FA2 now owned by Art Nalls and caught at AirFest in Culpeper, Virginia, about 65 miles from Washington, D.C. again in clear blue skies, something of which XZ439 won't have seen much in its service life!
Image © Sean Kelly
Canon EOS 50D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensPhoto threads from Japan are always a joy to view on UKAR, and a selection taken at the Tateyama Helicopter Festival proved to be no exception. This MCH-101 'Merlin' gleams in its fresh scheme having arrived in March of this year. Operated by 111 Kokutai (111 Squadron), the aerial mine-sweeping squadron of the JMSDF, the Merlins are replacing their Sikorsky MH-53Es in the role.
Image © Mike Leonard
Nikon D7000 + Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR lensForays into Switzerland also have a habit of throwing up something very special with mountainous locations, extremes of weather and lighting, and the extremely pretty F-5 Tigers - and here Kevin Martin has managed to bring all those together in a most beautiful image. The aircraft is caught passing fingers of crepuscular rays, themselves framed by the valley walls behind and the snow covered peaks beyond.
Kevin explains "The photo was taken on the last day of my week long stay at Meiringen for the exercise Stabante. At the time of the photo, it was raining, but I had noticed gap in the clouds where the sun was shining through so quickly manipulated myself into a suitable position on the runway 28 approach. All that was needed next was something to fly into the shot, which a stream of 8 F-5's, all overshooting first before landing kindly obliged!" Magical.
Image © Kevin Martin
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensIf you want to see rotorcraft then Richard Pittman is your man, here travelling to Krumovo Airbase near Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and being on hand to witness a Cougar being used for a film documentary, illustrating fast roping and confined area work, whilst he was only intending to visit the Air Museum.
Image © Richard Pittman
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 70-300mm L IS lensThis smart Grumman TS-2A/Conair Turbo Firecat starred at the latest Northolt Night Photoshoot - number ten in the popular series - and appears many times amongst the UKAR photo pages, but this image just squeezes ahead as a gem in our eyes. The aircraft was a great addition to the event content, and an unusual one at that.
Image © Jonathan Warner
Canon EOS 40D + Sigma 18-200mm lensThe prize for the youngest photographer to have an image selected for Picture of the Week goes to 3 year old Catalina Buckby. Daughter of UKAR Staff member Steve, Catalina persuaded her dad to allow her to take some shots of the "brown plane" (DH51) at the Shuttleworth Autumn Airshow. Using the live view mode to frame the shot, and taking onboard dad's experienced advice of including the sun in the frame, the youngster captured this moody image.
Image © Catalina Buckby
Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF 24-105mm f4 L lens
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Pictures Of The Week
Week 40, October 2011
Clockwise from top left:
Now this was worth the wait, in more ways than one! At their final display of the year, finally the weather gods produced the goods at Old Warden. Long-time UKARian Andy Leonard captured this tremendous juxtaposition of the Shuttleworth Collection's Westland Lysander with the autumnal Moon - and kudos to the Collection, whose engineers worked on the aircraft during the afternoon to ensure she displayed, after a minor fault saw the aircraft miss her earlier slot. You can see more from this show in our Shuttleworth report.
Image © Andrew Leonard
Canon EOS 40D + Sigma 50-500mm EX DG lensSomewhere over the rainbow - all airshows are like this! Slawek Krajniewski was at the legendary MAKS airshow at Ramenskoye near Moscow, Russia this year to produce a set of truly awe-inspiring pictures. There were calls from our membership to give him a "clean sweep" of POTW this week, in the end we opted for this world-class image of the incredible Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA, flying close to the sun and producing a remarkable lens-flare effect.
Image © Slawek Krajniewski
With the evenings begin to draw in, the thoughts of the photographer can now begin to turn to the sunset shot. Nigel Blake's terrific capture of a circuit-bashing RAF Boeing E-3 Sentry (ZH101) at Mildenhall shows the kind of results that can be achieved at this time of year.
Image © Nigel Blake
Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII + Canon EF 600mm f4 L IS lensAs Dan Butcher's UKAR username suggests, he can't get enough of Lakenheath's Eagles. Here, on a midweek visit to the Suffolk base, he caught this F-15D pulling vapour overhead whilst overshooting on Runway 06 as he watched from the "forest entrance" viewing spot.
Image © Dan Butcher
Canon EOS 20D + Canon EF 70-300mm IS lensNext we go overseas once more, and to Waterkloof in South Africa. Frank brought us a set of wonderfully varied aircraft - some real rarities, even on our hallowed pages. We chose this image for POTW, the mean and menacing Denel AH2 Rooivalk - we'd love to see one of these visit UK shows for a sure, that's for sure.
Image © Frank Pike
Canon EOS 1D MkIIn + Canon EF 600mm f4 L IS lensIt's truly a global POTW selection this week - next up a cracker from Japan. The photographer is Dino van Doorn, using to his full advantage the combination of a rare aircraft, in this case a Bell UH-1J of the Japan Ground Self Defence Force, stunning landscape, and perfect lighting. The shot was captured at Akeno JGSDF base.
Image © Dino van Doorn
Canon EOS 50D + Canon EF 300mm f4 L lensNo nation does special paint schemes quite like our friends in Germany. Alex Klingelhöller made the most of his chance to shoot "Monster Tornado" 46+29. The jet is specially painted to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the squadron - 322 "Flying Monsters".
Image © Alex Klingelhöller
Sony Alpha 700 + Tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens
