A novice guide to airshow photography

[mateoc15]

[sjones4306]

air show pictures are all about timing

[monstermum]

I am very glad the search function turned this up for me.
Today the "Roulettes" were over our town in preparation for the RAAF air show at Pearce Airbase in Perth this weekend. I took quite a few shots using manual but because of the partly cloudy sky I could not adjust the aperture fast enough to allow for the transition from blue sky to cloudy sky. Hence quite a few of my shots were too dark and had to be tweaked in post processing. Some could not be rescued
I am shooting with a Canon 50D and the EF 100-400 zoom lens. Would I have been better to shoot using the sport action mode? I am planning on going to the air show and I'm not sure what kind of skies we are going to have.
here are a couple of what I took

_MG_2194 by *monstermum, on Flickr
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture f/14.0
Focal Length 115 mm
ISO Speed 100

_MG_2256 by *monstermum, on Flickr
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture f/14.0
Focal Length 190 mm
ISO Speed 100

_MG_2197 by *monstermum, on Flickr
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture f/14.0
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 100

Hopefully I can get some better shots on the weekend. Some great aircraft are going to be there!

[Hill Country Hack]

Great thread. Wish I had read this prior to my first air show. Here are a few of the "lucky" shots with my modest kit. All posted images were shot with standard kit 17-55 or 70-300. I did have a bright and sunny Texas day though.