The lineys are out kicking the tyres and checking the fuel, ground power is on standby and we’re readying the inputs for the NAVWAS. Volume 2 is scheduled for July. Hallelujah.
Consequently I’ve been through my ramblings again, especially the captions for each image as quite surprisingly there’s been more movement of aircraft exhibits recently than you might think, and it’s not all good news. Lots of talk about “making it relevant” and “non-core exhibits” basically means we’ve had funding to make it “educational” so all the aircraft beloved of those who know what they’re looking at is getting marginalised, placed in storage or offered to other museums. Worse still, when covered storage isn’t available, they’re being dragged outside, necessitating emergency waterproofing in a number of cases, which is simply asking for trouble. Definitely not good news when you’re one of only two surviving Avro York, the only one in civilian colours, a Berlin Airlift survivor to boot and have been under cover since renovation decades ago.
From a photography aspect, it also most likely means another hanger that looks like the Cold War exhibition at the RAF Museum in Cosford; interesting, but a nightmare to get site lines in because everything is crammed in on top of one another and to a large extent dark in terms of adequate light for non-flash photography, which when use of a flash is banned, makes life awkward. Hence the arrival of my full-frame Nikon to finish off what was needed last time around, simply so I could up the ISO without grainy images, whilst keeping the shutter speed high enough to stop the wobbles. Before anyone says, tripod, they’re banned too!
Now I’ve a fairly definite publishing date and been told the copyeditors will start the correction tennis game next month possibly, I’m off next week to grab my extra Folland Gnat photos from the Midland Air Museum at Coventry and hopefully their Fairey Ultralight is easier to access than last time I visited as well.
Meanwhile, first visit in a long time to the Photography Show at the Birmingham NEC last weekend with one of my fellow photographers. I admit, I did have a small shopping list, along with the usual prices, but I stuck to it! So I saved a few quid, changed my mind about getting a couple of items, so nice when you can actually have a good look at things and then ordered what was dearer on the day from elsewhere when I got home. Better still, for my wallet at least, I had a chance to have a look at the mark two version of the Nikon Z5, only to discover that the grip with the usual lens on is no better on that than my Zf, much to my surprise, so there will be no swapping. Mind you, the Fujifilm X-T5 is nice….
As well as the big boys at the NEC, there’s always lots of smaller stands with interesting kit on; a rather tempting little drone, with the chaps from the ministry next door explaining where you can and can’t fly them, which made me chuckle, numerous sellers of tripods, printing services and other stuff that if you stopped long enough to work out what it did, you were liable to get accosted for a demonstration. The renewed love of all things analog saw a dedicated corner of Hall 5 allocated to those selling film, old cameras, new film cameras and related gadgetry. We managed a quick chat with the people from Analog Wonderland who ran the film photo shoot in Sheffield and elsewhere last year. They confirmed similar events will occur this year around the end of June, so that’s been pencilled in, but we might try to venture further afield this time for somewhere more photogenic than Sheffield city centre.
For a number of years, the show itself has alternated between the NEC and ExCel in London, but with a ticket and parking costing more than £30 for the NEC, the odds of forking out for a train ticket and return visit next year in London, are slim.
Our four-legged friend and myself made the most of some sun the other day and ventured out with a camera (or two). Things were OK until I released the bag I’d swapped my Fuji into didn’t have extra batteries in after all (as it turned out, none of my bags did, they’d been packed in a dedicated pouch ready for stowing in my cabin luggage…) so further digital photography was somewhat curtailed. But I’m loving using the film recipes on the E-X5, and much will be made of them when we’re off on our jollies in May.
Both the above taken with the Fuji X-E5 and a 10-16mm wide-angle zoom, hence the two lens flare spots despite having the lens hood attached, so something I’ll need to watch out for. The other cure for lens flare is holding one hand up to stop the light hitting the lens at the angle causing the flare, but that’s awkward when you’re attached to 30Kg of fur who’s just seen the nearby sheep!