Re: Reno 2021 photo thread.
Neal, I will never give you crap about any of your shots. You've been at this for way longer than I have. I'm still learning. I will always value your opinion. You have a legendary status for shooting Reno. I don't think I'll ever achieve that status. Heck, I can't even get any of my stuff in the damn program. Clearly I'm doing something wrong. Those desert reflections are really cool. Is the lack of a full prop disk a bad thing? No, not necessarily. Its clearly spinning, and it wasn't photoshopped in.
Thanks for the recommendation for the camera repair place. Nikon has been pretty quick and I haven't had any issues with them. I sent my D810 in earlier this year and had it back inside 2 weeks. (They said it had been dropped, and I've never dropped it. Eh, whatever they fixed the focus deal on the body and now the pics look better than ever on it. (I used it for my wide angle camera this year.)
As for the races, were they different this year? Yep. Have there been better years in the past? Yep. Have the races ever happened during a global pandemic? Nope. Were there possibly questionable things happening in the Unlimited field? Yep. Can next year be better? Sure. There were a lot of things working against the races this year. Somehow they managed to pull them off. Serious smoke from fires, wind, oh yeah that world wide plague keeping people from racing. Still, there were new people there. New people who were totally blown away by what they saw, in an off year. How is that a bad thing? RARA needed people in the seats, and there were people in the seats. Possibly lots of new people, hopefully people who will come back next year and bring their friends. We actually had a race in the Unlimited class for first place. Is it mired in controversy? Yep, but was still a close race. The Sport class was any one of three pilots race too win or lose, and honestly I was surprised by the outcome. What does that mean? All three will be back next year gunning for the win. There was great racing all the way down the list. The sport heat with all the RVs bunched up together, that was some good racing. Yeah it was slow, but hell, 4 or 5 planes in a frame? Thats some good racing. Who knows, perhaps one of these guys will go "Okay I want to go faster next year" and sell their RV and turn up with something faster. We might see some of the fast guys from the sport class find a way to jump into the Unlimiteds to race with Jeff. Who knows. There were some interesting rumors floating around and only the future will reveal whether or not they were true or not. Heck if even one of the rumors comes true, it will be really cool to be there when the plane makes its debut. Heck, if/when Shockwave shows up, Strega will have something to race against. Add Tsunami in there in a few years and you have two if not 3 fast movers again. There are still people who want to go as fast as they can with what they have. That is what racing is about. You can have an awesome race at 430 mph, just like you can have one at 495. What is the difference? About 60 mph, but there are a lot of people who will say its not just about the speed. Have the races changes since I came back in 2010? Absolutely. Will they change from how they are in the future? Absolutely. Lets have a little optimism.
At some point everyone hangs it up and calls it quits. I, for one, hope to be out there shooting (and improving) till I can't hold the camera, or by some strange twist of fate, find myself flying in them. The Air races are the most amazing motorsport in the world. There is nothing else like it. There is still the possibility of a race like '91. Do things need to change for that to happen? Yep. Can those changes happen? Sure, especially if the class wants them to happen. Heck, look what every other class aside from the Unlimiteds has done for themselves. There is no reason the Unlimiteds can't do the same, if they wanted to (I get the idea that a few of the old guard are quite happy with how things are now, and that is a self defeating problem.)
Was I disappointed that there were no super fast movers this year (again)? Sure, but was there some great racing still? Yes.
Will
In 2016, my first year shooting from the pylons, I was blown away by just being there. It was the coolest thing I'd ever experienced. I had the same feeling in 2017, 18, 19, and yes even this year it was awesome to be out there shooting.
Originally posted by wingman
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Thanks for the recommendation for the camera repair place. Nikon has been pretty quick and I haven't had any issues with them. I sent my D810 in earlier this year and had it back inside 2 weeks. (They said it had been dropped, and I've never dropped it. Eh, whatever they fixed the focus deal on the body and now the pics look better than ever on it. (I used it for my wide angle camera this year.)
As for the races, were they different this year? Yep. Have there been better years in the past? Yep. Have the races ever happened during a global pandemic? Nope. Were there possibly questionable things happening in the Unlimited field? Yep. Can next year be better? Sure. There were a lot of things working against the races this year. Somehow they managed to pull them off. Serious smoke from fires, wind, oh yeah that world wide plague keeping people from racing. Still, there were new people there. New people who were totally blown away by what they saw, in an off year. How is that a bad thing? RARA needed people in the seats, and there were people in the seats. Possibly lots of new people, hopefully people who will come back next year and bring their friends. We actually had a race in the Unlimited class for first place. Is it mired in controversy? Yep, but was still a close race. The Sport class was any one of three pilots race too win or lose, and honestly I was surprised by the outcome. What does that mean? All three will be back next year gunning for the win. There was great racing all the way down the list. The sport heat with all the RVs bunched up together, that was some good racing. Yeah it was slow, but hell, 4 or 5 planes in a frame? Thats some good racing. Who knows, perhaps one of these guys will go "Okay I want to go faster next year" and sell their RV and turn up with something faster. We might see some of the fast guys from the sport class find a way to jump into the Unlimiteds to race with Jeff. Who knows. There were some interesting rumors floating around and only the future will reveal whether or not they were true or not. Heck if even one of the rumors comes true, it will be really cool to be there when the plane makes its debut. Heck, if/when Shockwave shows up, Strega will have something to race against. Add Tsunami in there in a few years and you have two if not 3 fast movers again. There are still people who want to go as fast as they can with what they have. That is what racing is about. You can have an awesome race at 430 mph, just like you can have one at 495. What is the difference? About 60 mph, but there are a lot of people who will say its not just about the speed. Have the races changes since I came back in 2010? Absolutely. Will they change from how they are in the future? Absolutely. Lets have a little optimism.
At some point everyone hangs it up and calls it quits. I, for one, hope to be out there shooting (and improving) till I can't hold the camera, or by some strange twist of fate, find myself flying in them. The Air races are the most amazing motorsport in the world. There is nothing else like it. There is still the possibility of a race like '91. Do things need to change for that to happen? Yep. Can those changes happen? Sure, especially if the class wants them to happen. Heck, look what every other class aside from the Unlimiteds has done for themselves. There is no reason the Unlimiteds can't do the same, if they wanted to (I get the idea that a few of the old guard are quite happy with how things are now, and that is a self defeating problem.)
Was I disappointed that there were no super fast movers this year (again)? Sure, but was there some great racing still? Yes.
Will
In 2016, my first year shooting from the pylons, I was blown away by just being there. It was the coolest thing I'd ever experienced. I had the same feeling in 2017, 18, 19, and yes even this year it was awesome to be out there shooting.
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