Clear skies

A quick one to break out of the mini run of black & white images recently: a single Red Arrows plane on a beautiful, clear blue sky.

This shot is from the Goodwood Festival of Speed a few years ago, when I got three or four good shots of the Red Arrows display (and added to the surprise display I got up north last September, I'm building a small collection). I like this one for the simple composition conveying the planes movement through the air. It feels almost more like a designed composition than a photograph.

On the technical side of this shot, there wasn't anything fancy. It was taken hand-held with the 24-105L lens on my old 5D Mk II with the aperture closed down the f/10 and a nice high shutter speed of 1/800 (it was a sunny day!). It did start as a good shot straight out of the camera, but as you can see I've cropped to a more cinematic/panoramic aspect ratio which sets the composition off.