Big Fun! Rhode Island Air Show: June 26 & 27

If you're looking for something really fun to shoot this weekend and happen to be in the New England area, head over to the Rhode Island National Guard Open House & Air Show--one of the best air shows in the country. I spent two days at the show last summer and had the time of my life and took a lot of fun photos. (You can read about my shooting experiences last year here and here.) Shooting air shows is a great way to practice your high-speed photo techniques and to get very close to some spectacular aerial demonstrations. The Blue Angels won't be there this year, but there is a very full roster of amazing acts--including the USAF Thunderbirds--the Air Force equivalent of the Navy's Blue Angels.

The show gates open both days (Saturday and Sunday) at 9 a.m. and the shows begin at 10 a.m. And here's the amazing thing: the show and parking are FREE! There is a $10 requested parking fee, but that money is a donation to the Hasbro Children's Hospital and is completely voluntary. (And if you have an RV there is on-site camping on a first-come, first-served basis.) Cameras and video cameras are more than welcome (and there are lots of static displays to shoot), but coolers are not. There are tons of food vendors right in the show and I had the best burger of my life there last year! (Seriously, the very best burger I've ever had and I've had a lot!)

The weather looks pretty good for the weekend, though there are some showers predicted, but the weather people have no idea what they're talking about, so if you have the weekend free, go see the show! Rhode Island is a beautiful state and you'll have fun rain or shine.

There's a ton of info on the show site, but here are the directions if you want to quickly print them out:

From Points North:
(Providence, Boston) - Take I95 South to Exit 9 - RT 4 South, North Kingstown, East Greenwich (left exit). Off of RT 4, take Exit 7B (Quonset) Stay on RT 403. RT 403 will become Roger Williams Way. After the 3rd traffic light on Roger Williams Way take a left onto Conway Street. Follow signs to Air National Guard Base.

From Points South:
(Connecticut, New York) - Take I95 North into Rhode Island. In RI take Exit 8A (RT 2 South, West Warwick) Stay on RT 2 South until 1st traffic light. Take a left at the light and prepare to stay right. Merge onto RT 4 South. Off of RT 4, take Exit 7B (Quonset) Stay on RT 403. RT 403 will become Roger Williams Way. After the 3rd traffic light on Roger Williams Way take a left onto Conway Street. Follow signs to Air National Guard Base.

Show the True Size of Objects

I've talked in previous posts about the importance of using objects of known size to show scale in landscape photos. But it's just as important to show the true scale of unusually large or small objects by including other objects that we can use as measuring sticks.

As with landscapes, among the best subjects to use as scale indicators (at least for large subjects) are people. People not only add some human interest to photos, but we're all pretty familiar with the size of another human being.

Getting a person in the shot usually isn't very difficult (especially if you have kids or friends with you), though it's funny how hard it can be to find one when you need them (and how hard it is to get rid of them when you don't). I shot this photo (at the annual Rhode Island Air Show) of a C5 Galaxy Transport plane well after the throngs of people had left and while there had been literally tens of thousands of people surrounding this plane earlier, I actually had to wait several minutes for this man and his kids to walk into the shot. The lone little grouping of people seemed to exaggerate the size of the plane more than a mass of people swirling around it.

I think the real sense of scale in the shot though comes from two other things: the truck that is parked under it's wing (with lots of room above it to spare) and the cluster of tiny human figures under it's wings. The plane is huge (it can carry more people than a 747--or transport 20 helicopters) and the tail section is so tall that I had to use the widest lens I had with me (an 18-70mm Nikkor) to get both the tail section and the nearby people in the same frame--and I still had to stay back quite a bit.

Scale comes in handy with small objects too--like photographing a bug sitting on a thimble or a tiny seashell in the palm of a child's hand. Come to think about it, showing the scale of small objects is a good idea for a future posting!