Real Rand Air Show

Attending Air Shows gives the aviation photograher, or a photographer doing aviation photograhy, an opportunity to add to their collection of aircraft pictures. The essence of this documentary is to include images which capture the atmosphere of this special Air Show along with renditions in the form of ‘Aviation as Art’. The Rand Airport has a long history, more of a tradition, of public air shows dating back to the 1920’s. Mostly informal events showing off the latest aircraft of the day, such as Tiger Moths, the Cessna models, and military aircraft from the SAAF. Some time in the 1980’s organisers saw the opportunity to commercialise the annual Air Show having analysed the progressive increase in crowd numbers. Today, in the 21st century, commercialisation still dominates and revenues from attendees in excess of 40,000 help to make this spectator sport viable. Nothwithstanding the expenses incurred by participants such as private aircraft owners, sponsored aircraft, armed forces aircraft displays and police, who are all compensated in the form of fuel and landing fee waivers, the profits are still staggering. (As a calculation, try 40,000 times ZAR 50.00, which was the entry fee for adults, and you can work out what the gross revenue was)

You might find the visuals disturbing to your sense of order. See the ‘About’ panel on the last page. The author attended the Rand Air Show with a minimal equipment list and an idea on how the documentary should turn out. Using one camera body (a CANON® EOS 30D) and one lens (on purpose only a CANON® 17-85mm IS USM zoom lens was used). The reason for the one-lens policy was to force the author to see the air show from the crowd’s point of view. The author saw no need to capture the miriad of aircraft on display and in action as his library contained the attending aircraft pictured at many airfields around the country. Having seen the images posted on various web sites showing the Rand Air Show from the professional photographers it became apparent that the authors philosophy pertaining to a documentary was justified. The many images posted on the internet are just that, pictures of aircraft (stunning, technically superb, wonderful compositions) which could have been shot anywhere. A bit of peer pressure or competition from fellow professionals must have prevailed. The First part of this visual documentary displays aircraft images as Art, followed by a small chapter depicting crowd POV’s. The dozen or so images in the first section are available as prints in A3 format, printed on Super Gloss Silky exhibition paper. Enquire on spotlightkid@gmail.com for ordering and pricing details. Paul Lindenberg EDITOR le Cirque Volant© eDIGImag® USA

Photoshop rendition. Cut from the original frame. 1/230th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (80mm) Format - Panavision速 2.48:1 Image No. DC3_602

Douglas DC-3 Faux Film and Half Blue Cinelux Gel effect 1/30th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (85mm) Format - Panavision速 2.48:1

Image No. DC3_612

Close up of Douglas DC-3 Rendition cut from the original frame 1/30th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (85mm) Image No. DC3_604

Academy Harvard Aerobatic Team with SMoke On. 1/500th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (75mm) Rendition. Film Grain, Double-Blue Cinegel Filter

Image No. HRV_422

Academy Harvard Taxi past. Rendition with Light Effect, Cinelux Blue Gel and Film Grain 1/30th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (62mm) Format - Panavision速 2.48:1 Image No. HRV_450

Academy Harvard Aerobatic Team with smoke trail Rendition cut from the original frame with Faux Film, Cinelux Half-Blue Gel 1/50th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (85mm) Format - Panavision速 2.48:1

Image No. HRV_451

Junkers JU-52 Rendition with slight exposure tweaks. 1/125th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (85mm) Format - Panavision速 2.48:1 Image No. JU52_122

Junkers JU-52 banked flypast. Rendition cut from the original frame. 1/200th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (85mm)

Image No. JU52_601

Sasol Branded ‘Tiger’ Artwork Slow Fly-Past with Smoke. Rendition with effects 1/125th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (85mm) Format - Panavision® 2.48:1 Image No. SAS_100

Silver Falcons unusual view. Rendition with Faux Film and Cinelux Full Blue Gel. 1/200th ISO 100 17-85mm IS USM (85mm) Format - Panavision速 2.48:1 Image No. SFA_421

Panavision速 2.48:1 Ratio

Normal Cropped Ratio

About The preceeding pages show the Panavision® 2:48:1 ratio, except where it is obviously not that format. The author decided to use this format as most presentations such as this Adobe® PDF file are viewed on computer screens. The Panavision® format is widely used by landscape photographers so as to contain as much detail and visual information as possible and here the author has cropped the standard DSLR ratio to 2.48:1 which only shows the relevent picture information, discarding the top and bottom segments in most cases. All images were captured in RAW format, processed using Adobe® Lightroom©2.1 with the resulting images exported to Adobe®Photoshop©CS3 for final Post-Production. The frame-to-print workflow developed by the author allows speedy renditions to Adobe®PDF file RGB format for printing on digital printers up to a size of A3, and in Adobe® CMYK format for Large Format Printing up to 1100mm at the widest point. Materials, or print media, for the Large Format Printing are varied, from standard super glossy, Matt and special papers such as metalics and Vinyls. All work is carried out by a professional digital print company, Kurtli® contactable via http://www.kurli.co.za. You can order your prints by opening up a dialogue with the author using the following eMail address : spotlightkid@gmail.com

The author and photographer, Paul Lindenberg, has photographed aviation related subjects since the 1960’s, using 35mm, 2 1/4 still film, and 8mm, 16mm snd 35mm movie pictures, and Broadcast Video formats. Pioneered the first in-flight live video image down-link using UHF technology for broadcast, and specialised still and video mounted work. You might find the visuals disturbing to your sense of order. Be aware that the author uses many techniques to capture aviation visuals - amongst them are ‘blur-on-purpose’, very-slow shutter speeds, over-exposure, under-exposure, crash-zooms, multiple exposures, exacting camera moves during exposure and so on. Post-production sees the use of rendition ‘filters’, a combination of rendition ‘filters’, Faux effects and manipulations, high- and low-contrast and colour settings that go beyond the norms. All the techniques bring to the viewer the most unusual, yet surprising images, which can be printed, mounted and framed. The author is also a new media producer, editor for a number of emagazines from eDIGImag® USA, and franchise holder of a prestigeous Photographer Portfolio Directory from Germany. The author has links and access to Les Booth in the USA, the creator of eLITHOgraph® and ePHOTOengrave® for superb electronic image processing. You can order prints of any of the images presented herein and have them eLITHOgraph® or ePRINTengrave® processed in the USA.

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