Looks interesting. Trying to find out more aboout it on the web, not much luck. Always interested in the powerplant of these types of machines.

Wow, that is nice. All that's missing is a farmer and... Oh wait. I get it now. Ha.

Very nice set. Are you shooting through the 'glass' rink protection?

I never thought of that - thanks! Back to the 'dark room'.

That's a good question. The'stock' numbers for the J34-38 are 3,800 lbf on thrust, 4,900 lbf of thrust with AB. That is quite a bit lower than what is advertised on the car website. I'll go with what is advertised is correct, or very close to. The difference would be an improvement on equipment over the years. And I'll guess there is very little that is stock anymore.

I don't think it is fair to compare today's engine with that of original design. I'll go with the fuel system on the car is highly engineered. When I was working on jet engines in the 80's, it was said an engine could run on anything, hydraulic fluid and Jack Daniels included. If you get the air/fuel mixture right, just about anything will burn.

This was on a runway. The 'Approaching 400 MPH' was on an advertisement.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried a CP with no luck. It helps, but the direct on angle still leaves a burned out spot.

One of the issues I run into on clear days are sun spots. This happens when the sun is in the best possible location for photographing, directly behind me. A lot of the times through the view finder I can see the spots coming and quit shooting. And sometime I still keep photographing. Most of the sun spotted photographs don't make it past the first round of triage.
When photographing prop aircraft, a good result is never a guarentee. So sometime you just keep one that will never been seen.
Until AI.
I've never been able to successfully remove sunspots, until AI.
In the closer aircraft, the fix is really good. In the far aircraft, the fix is good enough.

The original:



Post AI Fix - and other clean-up:

I didn't have my radar gun with me, but it is advertised to approach 400 MPH.

Thanks for the idea. Unless it is a very, very unique occasion I format my finished shots to 16:9. I can't remember the last time I didn't format that way. At 16:9, I wanted to keep the flame, and thus it is where it is. But if I was going to do a different format, I'd definately move in your suggested direction.

Thanks for the question. I did all the color work in the last step. I say I work with ACR - but in reality I use the Camera Raw filter as a layer adjustment. I do that mostly because I can make it a smart layer - so I can return to the scene of the (adjustments) crime if I need to. For the last step in the CR filter, I used two gradient adjustments, one from the top and one from the bottom. From the top, I just lower the exposure a touch, less than 5. Tends to bring out the blues in the upper half. I do the same for the bottom, just a touch to make the tarmac a little darker. In both gradient cases, to return to a more realistic scene. For the aircraft, I'm not a fan of vignettes.

Very interesting set of shots Mike. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice, really like the colors.

At a lot of the air shows I go to there is an act where someone attaches a jet engine on a ground hugging chassis with four wheels. The goal being to go as fast as you can and stop, controlled, before you run out of pavement. With show runways being anywhere from one to three miles long – and no curves – and people who don’t mind a little noise, this is a perfect environment for these vehicles and the folks who voluntarily strap themselves into said vehicles.
As I have a little background in Jet Engines, I’m always interested in what the power plant is on these vehicles. In the case of the Smoke-N-Thunder car, it is powered by a Westinghouse J34-48. The money stats, roughly 10,000 HP and 6,000 pounds of thrust when the flame comes out the back (afterburner). The Westinghouse J34-48 engine was designed/built in the mid-40s. This was a period of jet aircraft development where the by the time an aircraft was built, the design was improved. As such, this engine was not in too many production aircraft of the time but was in a lot of experimental X aircraft. One of the interesting tidbits of information was this engine was designed to run on normal aviation gas, instead of the normal JP-4. And in the case of Smoke-N-Thunder, it is fitted to run on Diesel fuel.





And that pretty much ends my interest in these vehicles. Until. Part of the show usually includes the vehicle making a lot of smoke then driving through the smoke and lighting the afterburner for a very nice eerie effect. And that is when I caught this one. For some reason, this one caught my eye. When I saw this one in the camera screen for review, I knew I had my next screen background/saver.

Great series, at the right tme of year. Thanks for sharing.