M.Beier

Snap, I wanted to write 'It is doable', but I'd never suggest going with anything less then FX and 24-70 + 70-200, preferably 2 FX bodies...

Wedding photography is extremely important to be 100% on, you are not selling a specific shot, but the whole lot - and missing one, is unacceptable...

Anything else then weddings, is much more 'easygoing'

- I still refuse taking money and being hired for wedding photography, as I am not certain that I can deliver the proper work - the last I have attended I did outmatch the hired photographer though.

But if she was just to practise.

Sigma 18-35 F1.8

D7200

70-200 F4

That is a little above budget, but not much, and will give some quite decent results.

Not that I have experienced it but from Matt Grainger, he has said the 200mm f2 is one of the fastest focusing lenses he's used. He said it's noticeably faster than his 70-200mm VR2.

Honestly, I trust Matt Granger less then I trust an Imam at a moske in Scandinavia... He'd say anything good about that lens.

And I am yet to see any stunning work from his side, in my book, he have not even learned to master DoF properly yet.

But, I recall Tony Northrup mention the 200mm F2 being insanely good, however, the difference to the F2.8 version does not justify the gap in the price - and the lightness and size of the F2.8 version makes it an obvious choice.

- Now the problem is, I cannot find a F2.8 version, wondering if another vendor?
*Snap, turned out it was Canon product....

Seems Nikon lack a product.

And 'accidently' this morning, I ordered the EN-EL18A 

Actually - that is main thing that bothers me about the new flash.... AA batteries, whaaa?

No post processing, no real sorting, my laptop is too slow, and didnt have time, basicly, just transfered the files today..

Here are a few choices that I liked...

Just to get an idea what level im at, and what I am happy with...
Gotta fix the lighting..

None of these are cropped, nothing done, except finding it on memory card.... And might not be best.. Oh and I uploaded on crappy facebook as a teaser

Flight formation, Spanish jets.

250mm F8 ISO-500 1/2000

Bullies not keeping distance!

One more of same, just closer, and one jet a bit further ahead.

Danish army I believe... F16

And now the 3 pictures, to show how badly I need a D500...

First before 'contact'

Second one, SLIGHTLY before I wanted the shot

4FPS simply isnt enough to get the picture of 'just crossed'

*felt responsible to atleast post something.

Will be a while untill I sort all the pictures, but I certainly hope that ultimo Monday it's all done.

I tried a lot of tools, many nice ones, but the one that worked the easiest was a freeware.

PhotoRec - it managed to recover all pictures overnight....

Sadly you cannot pick which files it is to recover, it recovers EVERYTHING.

Meaning... You need a shitload of space - especially as network drive is not possible to select for saving...

I had to clear most of my 480GB drive just to make space for recovery..

It recovers a tiny thumbnail first, then it makes NEF and later JPEG. - It reported low/no capacity and hit C to continue after making space...

I'm not joking, this morning, when I woke up.... 160MB available, but all files successfully restored.... Didnt check if some of the last ones are in NEF and JPEG yet, but daaaamn, that was close .

Will keep you updated after work, but it seems it worked, it even restored EXIF.... Only 'but' is that it uses different file name.

PS: 6/7 of the restored I do not need, and have to remove again - but that last part is very important.

Did you catch Patrulla Aguila? Their starts and landings in formation are famous. Their precision usually is as good as Team 60's was, but the Casa has some power where the SAAB 105 is more like a powerful leaf blower... Turkish stars would be nice if you got some pics too.

Quite a few of my SAPS friends were there either day, or in some cases both days. Wish I could have gone, but I had family stuff part of the weekend and some friends in the triathlon competitions here in Uppsala.

Will you be up in Linköping at the end of August? The Swedish Air Force celebrates 90 years with two days of air shows on August 27 and 28 at Malmen. 

Yes and no.

I caught EXCELLENT pictures im very proud of from their formation and stunt flying.

Take-off and landing - not a chance... I wanted to see all the airshow, and about 130.000 people showed up... Im not exactly the tallest bloke in the world, in fact, 172cm short.... No way I'd be able to get up front there, we left Copenhagen around 6:20AM, and it was already completely crowded near that strip, sadly.

Just hope I can sort pictures soon, im around 15.000 pictures behind - and my week days and weekends are completely booked untill August

I can't make the show in Sweden neither, sadly.
Hopefully late autumn will be more time.

M.Beier, the 6D is FF, the equivalent of a D600, otherwise some nice observations.

Oh snap, well, the glass was fairly huge as well...
Thought Canon FX started with 5D.

Then his lack of proper bokeh isnt easy to explain.... In Asia they fancy 'pre wedding pictures', a bit like women in Scandinavia want 'pre baby pictures' of their belly.....

None the less, a picture of them jumping and shaping a heart while being in the air, the bokeh was..... Well, horrible - way too much background in focus - that among other pictures with too much DoF, that shouldnt be problem with FX - heck, didnt have that issue with D5200 using primes, only back at M4/3 Panasonic GH1 I had that issue.

But, he was creative and very good.

The only 'negative' in my part, was that the groom kindly asked me to do pictures, and the pro kept getting in front of my lens without noticing - but.... Him being hired and pro, that makes it completely ok by my book, as he had to do his job.

I tried adapting and do different angles on purpose, just to avoid missing too much shots.

Sad story man!
Noticed a few of these situations myself...

Everyone is different, honestly - I don't charge anything so far, only do pictures for myself, and gladly share with anyone, heck, don't even watermark my pictures if people would like them

I don't, because I don't feel I have enough skills and references yet.

I was covering Computex in Taiwan in the beginning of this month.... My photos has apparently become profile pictures and cover photos on facebook for many of the guests of various events during the exhibition... That makes me feel happy and good with my work....

And yes, a few paid photographers were present, in my opinion, they did a good job - not going to complain about them.... But seems my pictures were more 'spot on'.

Was doing pictures of a wedding last month, and there was a paid photographer, he was doing an EXCELLENT job, was nice to see someone that dedicated - a great lad.
He was using DX, however 6D from Canon, that isnt exactly bad - but he had skills... Sure noticed that some of his pictures the DoF was much off from my preferences, but, he wasnt lazy in any way.

I hope you have some to share when you have processed your catch of the day. You will probably have a better keeper rate than I had at Hässlö, 2% keepers is about where I end up when shooting prop planes. I think you had much more jets and fewer prop planes today.

Don't expect too much, was my first experience, and I was fighting with AF Calibration, ended up turning it off....
I froze the prop in all shots - I didnt try 1/60 at all, I was shooting above 1/1000 with VC off

However, I got some pretty sweet shots of formation flight show, but damn I'd wish I had the D500 for that purpose...

3 jets flying against another 3 jets, all with tailsmoke (3 different colours) crossing close to each other... I got a shot around 1m from them reaching eachother, but next shot half of the jets were out of the frame... Shot full throttle on the burst.

Considering...

D5200 + 18-55, pictures of birds on the ground...

D800E + 70-200, birds in the sky

At an airshow, they probably fly relatively low, yes?

A new step in the learning curb I guess.... Oh well.... Have to do it sooner or later

Just hope I can master it fast - as much as professional photography has time, sometimes you just want to do it in blink of a second - when its not staged.... Fear that'll be harder with flash adventure.

Lens calibration, or focus calibration..