suggestions for JATO?

[rawman]

Any suggestions on how to capture the Fat Albert JATO?  The Salinas show has it scheduled for Friday night, but I'm not sure how dark it will be. Is the JATO usually light, or dark?  I don't thik I've ever seen it live.  I'm ok with long exposures such as fireworks, but  I am guessing no tripods will be allowed.  I will have to check.  Would a long exposure just look like a blurred flame?  Should I just try to expose and set the shutter speed to try and blur the prop?  1/125th - 1/250th or so?  Suggestions are appreciated, suggestions with examples are extremely appreciated .

[Clark Cook]

Any suggestions on how to capture the Fat Albert JATO?  The Salinas show has it scheduled for Friday night, but I'm not sure how dark it will be. Is the JATO usually light, or dark?  I don't thik I've ever seen it live.  I'm ok with long exposures such as fireworks, but  I am guessing no tripods will be allowed.  I will have to check.  Would a long exposure just look like a blurred flame?  Should I just try to expose and set the shutter speed to try and blur the prop?  1/125th - 1/250th or so?  Suggestions are appreciated, suggestions with examples are extremely appreciated .

I shot this one at ISO 800, 1/100th of a second shutter speed in the shutter priority mode, hand held with a 100-400 image stabilizing lens at 300mm. At this high ISO setting, you can expect the shot to come out grainy. I have a program called Neat Image, that cleans it up nicely. Generally, a tripod is not needed unless you have a long exposure for special effects. Also, take any filters off your lens, because this can cause unwanted reflections as seen in my photo. Hope this helps.

Clark

[Clark Cook]

Here's a better example (the reflection was in the background and not on the aircraft).

[rawman]

Thanks!

[Mickey]

Almost the same here, just dropped it down to 1600 ISO and kept it at P (I will check the EXIF data tonight on the original file), but judging from the propblur it wasn't too slow a shutterspeed. Shot with 300 mm with IS in mode 2 IIRC. It all depends on how much light there is when it lines up at the runway. Problem is the amount of light from the rockets, it may throw-off metering and result in too dark a shot.

The landing shot was more challenging!

Mickey