[QANTAS 747] Dusk Pans at Sydney [YSSY] | December 23rd, 2019

[AndrewWu]

Hello IFC! Here’s part one from what will be a four-part series of spotting in Sydney. I had a chance to visit Australia this past December and my parents were kind enough to take me spotting there. I can say this without a doubt: Sydney is the best airport I’ve ever spotted at.

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This part comes from my first few hours in Australia, right after stepping off TR12 from Singapore. Unfortunately I missed an Etihad A380 special due to some woman yelling at me that I couldn’t spot where I wanted to, even though there were already spotters there. Shame.

Shot on Nikon D7500 | Tamron 100-400 USD | Manfrotto Element

Quick Tip for Spotters

I’m not the greatest at panning but I feel like this session taught me well. What I learned was 1) use a tripod, it may not seem like it helps too much but trust me it does. I was able to hit at least 75% of my shots at 1/60 between 250-400mm. Last year in Zurich, I hit 5% at 1/60 at 240mm (tripodless). 2) Since panning is normally done with side shots, aim for a specific place on the aircraft. I suggest the engine. If you just aim in the general direction of the plane your success rate won’t be too high.

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Goodbye! Here’s my ride, 9V-OJJ, speeding up for Singapore. This aircraft would later fly me again on my first leg back.

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Whoever or whatever delayed this plane an hour, I’m forever thankful.

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The fact that Hawaii is almost the same distance to Sydney than it is to me in New York is mind-boggling.

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Sydney has an overload of Emirates A380s. It’s almost too many.

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I didn’t know this one was coming so this was a pleasant surprise.

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Right before this one’s arrival was sunset, so it started getting really dark really fast.

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A bit of a spotting fail, whoops…

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My best pan of the night.

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This photo was so extremely underexposed when I took it, only the power of raw could save it (kind of).

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyyz.spotting/

JetPhotos: Andrew Wu aviation photos on JetPhotos

[Armani_B]

The Emirates A380 is amazing 😍

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Lovely pics 🤗

[AndrewWu]

Thank you!!

[AviatorGamerYT]

Nice looks like it was foggy at yssy

[AndrewWu]

It wasn’t foggy per se just the clouds and lack of light.

And I guess bushfire smoke a little bit

[Pilot_urp]

Indeed. Unless you have insane hand eye coordination panning ain’t gonna be fun hand held. I’m so jealous u get to spot around rlly good locations around world- Zurich, Sydney and a bunch of more places. Keep it up

[AndrewWu]

Yeahh I even have panning VR and it’s still a struggle

[Altaria55]

@AndrewWu

due to some woman yelling at me that I couldn’t spot where I wanted to

Lol what? Like some random person?

[MrMrMan]

Great pictures as always, Andrew. Keep it up!

[AndrewWu]

@Altaria55

Lol what? Like some random person?

Yeah some old Karen type lady.

@MrMrMan

Great pictures as always, Andrew. Keep it up!

Thank you!

[KPIT]

@AndrewWu

Yeahh I even have panning VR

Wait can we get some elaboration on this? I’ve never heard of this.

[AndrewWu]

Some lenses have two VR modes. Mode 1 is generally for stills. It’s like a 4 direction stabilization that resists all movement. Mode 2 is generally for panning. It’s a 2 direction stabilization that resists up and down movement. Basically it acts like a imaginary tripod.

[den.aviation]

Nice shots! Had a denver meetup today (i know nobody asked but) anyways always have wanted to try panning just seems difficult to do.

[AndrewWu]

Yeah it’s not easy. I’d put it up there with fence long expos. I wouldn’t do it on a perfectly sunny day until some golden hour lighting, though.

[EdCruz]

Wow! Those pics are amazing!!! Good job, I love aviation

[AndrewWu]

Thanks!

@EdCruz

Good job, I love aviation

Don’t we all

[anon38496261]

Very nice pictures!

I assume panning means taking pics while the plane is moving and moving your camera along with it?

[AndrewWu]

Well, you have to move your camera along with the plane regardless, so technically everything is “panning”. But when spotters use it, it means a photo where the background is motion blurred, usually through a slow shutter speed (1/100 or less, generally).

[anon38496261]

Ah, gotcha. How do you make the background all blurred?

[AndrewWu]

The slower the shutter speed, the more blur in the background (also the harder it is to get a sharp shot). It sort of depends on how far your plane is from your background too. The pans in this topic are 1/80 for the first few and 1/60 for the last few. This is normally enough to induce significant background blur, but since the cranes are over a mile from the plane, it doesn’t look as impressive. Generally though, I’d say 1/100 results in a pan, 1/60 in a solid pan, and anything below 1/30 as a total pan, where the background is hardly recognizable.