Wednesday 31 July 2013

Spitfires over Duxford

On Sunday I took the whole family to the Imperial War Museum Duxford for the Spitfires and Merlin's event. Its not a full on air show but there were five spitfires on display which took to the sky at various points during the day. I'm not an overly patriotic fellow (far too quixotic for all that nationalistic nonsense) but you'd have to be a pretty cold hearted Englishman not to feel a little stirring of pride when you see and hear a Spitfire roaring overhead. As usual I took far too many photo's and its taken a couple of days for me to work through and edit them down to a small number of shots, the best of which are shared here.

The Mk. IX 'Grace' Spitfire (ML407)
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX (MH434)
Spitfire Mk.XIVe (MV268)
Spitfire Mk.XIVe (MV268)
Supermarine Spitfire IX (MH434)
The Mk. IX 'Grace' Spitfire (ML407)
Into the Blue - Supermarine Spitfire IX (MH434)
We had a great day although from a photography point of view I found the weather quite challenging. The light levels were changing constantly, there was lots of very white cloud to make correct exposure difficult and a very strong gusty wind which made holding a telephoto lens steady very difficult indeed! Despite this I'm pretty happy with the pictures I captured and of course I got to see these beautiful machines dance across the sky where they belong. 

17 comments:

  1. The shots of them in flight are great. I love the last one with the scattered blue cloud.

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  2. These are great shot! Wonderfully evocative! I agree that last one is awesome!

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  3. Bloody marvelous pics mate, that must be one heck of a lens you have?

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    1. It's nothing overly special (a Sigma AF 55-200mm f/4-5.6) especially compared to some of the kit being used by other photographers. Some of the 'Pro' photographers had massive lenses that probably cost several thousands of pounds, way beyond my meagre means.

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  4. Lovely - do like that last one...

    They don't look "right" with the clipped wings though.... :o)

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  5. Wonderful stuff, Lee. I had a book on these as a kid, I think the first time I became aware of the War and its consequences.

    FMB

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  6. Great pictures! Thanks for sharing!

    Greetings
    Peter

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  7. Being someone who photographs R/C planes all the time and understands the challenges of open sky photography let me compliment you on the selection of fine and wonderfully interesting photos you've shared. Thanks Lee.

    AJ

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  8. Such a classic and classy aircraft.

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  9. Spiffing pics.

    All the best

    Airhead

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  10. Hi Lee,

    Please see this post for details of your prize draw;
    http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/building-wargame-terrain-we-have-winner.html

    From Tony Harwood (Dampfpanzerwagon)

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    Replies
    1. WooHoo I Won! Thank's Tony, You've made my day.

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  11. Well done on the photos! Thanks for sharing.

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