A great photo - you nailed the exposure and the focusing but you missed one important factor of photographing an aircraft with a propellor: You used to fast a shutter speed and "froze" the propellor. If you keep the shutter speed to 1/250 or slightly slower, you will get the proper blur in the prop that shows that the engine is still running. In most prop airplanes, if you pan with aircraft when you take the picture, you do not need an extremely fast shutter speed. I realize this is a small point but as a retired pilot the picture looks like the plane has just experienced engine failure and that makes me a little uncomfortable.

This plane was probably not going much faster than 80 mph since it was still climbing and by using even 1/125 as a shutter speed, you could have a perfect picture. If you are taking photos of fast moving jets that is the time to use a faster shutter speed. Keep up the good work.

Sierra Hotel!

Thanks for both series and especially for the last one of the Supermarine Spitfire. That was back in the days of open cockpit flying -something I missed out on in my twenty five years of flying jet fighters. Back then you were a pilot, not a systems operator. Great photos.

Freezing the props is the single most error that people make in aviation photography. If you know that you are going to be photographing a prop plane, shoot in S mode and use 1/250 as a maximum shutter speed. Your photos were dead bang on as far as exposure so start with the shutter speed first and then use the other two legs of the photo exposure triangle to get it right. Keep up the good work.

The Biosphere2 is an offshoot of the original Biosphere that was privately funded as a research facility to determine whether human life could be sustained on a planet without the Earth's atmosphere. It was funded originally for $25 million but due to all the complexities of constructing such a large structure that was airtight, the cost ballooned to $250 million. The original plan was to test the viability that humans could live in a sealed structure for a long period of time and be completely self sufficient. This meant they would have to provide their own oxygen, water, food etc. 8 crewmembers were chosen to spend 2 years in the facility completely sealed off from the outside atmosphere. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a scandal and the experiment was abandoned.

The property eventually ended up in the possession of the University of Arizona who are now using it and its ability to control the climate inside the domes as a means of extending life on earth by demonstrating what difference a change in temperature or rainfall or carbon dioxide in the air can have on life on earth. There are many facilities doing this type of research but this is the only one of its size and complexity. There are several different habitats such as a tropical rain forest, a coastal desert and an ocean that are separate from each other and the temperature and rainfall and CO2 level can be adjusted in each one.

The University offers tours of the facilities and I have to say the docents that conduct the tours are very knowledgeable and entertaining with their continuing commentary during the hour long tour. I would urge anyone who is visiting Southern Arizona to take a half day and visit this amazing group of structures.

Entry to grounds

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The pyramid

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the "lung" that keeps the air pressure consistent

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the tropical rain forest

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the coastal desert

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looking up at the pyramid

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No, Dove Mountain wasn't even a dream in a developer's eye when I bought my place which is off of north Campbell just before it deadends at the Catalina Mountains. You are right about all the gorgeous trees - the entire desert is alight with them.

While you were learning to fly the F-4 at DM, I was teaching people how to fly the F-100 over at the Tucson Guard Unit. I had a TDY to Edwards AFB where I gave front seat rides in the F-100F to the students in the AF Test Pilot School. At the end of the week I got a front seat ride in a clean winged F-4E and fell in love with the airplane - when I lit the two burners for takeoff I couldn't believe the acceleration compared to the F-100! The only thing better was when I got a checkout in the F-16 before I retired in 1987.

I, fortunately, am not one of the many people here with allergies so I am able to enjoy the Palo Verdes for their photographic contribution and not worry about their pollen contribution. I do plead a little guilty for some minimal cursing at the amount of extra time required to keep my pool clean!

The nice thing about the view is that no one can build on the vacant land and spoil it. The land is a common area and is owned jointly by all the homeowners in my subdivision. Thanks for looking and commenting.

This is a follow on to my original submission on Spring Color in the Sonoran Desert here in Tucson, AZ. When I took the earlier pictures of the Palo Verde trees blooming, I forgot there are three species of Palo Verde trees and only one was blooming at the time. Now, all three species are blooming and every where you look it is a riot of yellow. There was an article in the Tucson newspaper this morning that mentioned this year was the best year that anyone can remember and it was due to a wetter than average winter and early spring. The photos are taken from my back deck but anywhere you go in Tucson, you will see yellow.

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For those of you not familiar with the Sonoran Desert, it extends from the tip of the Baja Peninsula on the southern side to Interstate 40 in northern Arizona with an eastern boundary of AZ route 191 and a western boundary of Borrego Springs, California. This put my hometown of Tucson in the northern part of it and for those of you that picture a desert as nothing but sand dunes, I am including a few images to disabuse you of this notion. Spring in the Sonoran Desert - especially after a moist winter is breathtakingly beautiful. We have a native bush called Brittlebush that explodes with yellow blooms followed by another native, the Palo Verde tree that even outshines the Brittlebush. My house is in northwest Tucson in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains (8700 feet above sea level) and has more open space around it than the city but both are endowed with color this Spring. Here are a few pictures to illustrate this.

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If you have one I would like to purchase it. Let me know how this can be arranged. Thanks

Shaun

Hi MT Shooter - this sounds exactly like something I could use but I have tried B&H, Adorama, Amazon and even the Delkin website and can't find it anywhere. Is it a older device that is possibly not manufactured anymore? Any help would be appreciated.

Absolutely beautiful! When I start planning our trip from Tucson to Washington State this year I will plan on a stop here. Thanks for posting and would like to see more when you have time.

It kind of brings up the question of what do cats do on their day off!