August 8, 2009 - I was watching skydivers with my binoculars. As I watched this canopy open up it appeared like the right side was curled under and didn’t open completely. After a few seconds I saw the canopy start to collapse causing the skydiver to loose altitude and drop. I saw a parchute malfunction so he did a cutaway and open the reserve just seconds before I could switch from my binoculars to my camera. I took these pictures of the canopy falling from the sky. The skydiver made it safely to the ground.
Here is a CReW picture I took on August 15, 2009. This is the Air Adventures Parachute Team doing a Y formation.On August 30, 2009 Pam and I were watching skydivers. Two person Tandems jump from the plane at 10,000 feet. Right after they leave the plane they deploy a "drogue" which is a small chute that helps stabilize and slow the descent of a tandem. At around 6,000 feet the tandem master pulls the cord and deploys the canopy. If you want to take high altitude pictures from the ground it helps to see the tandem jump from the plane. The trick is to try to keep the falling tandem in your frame when they are falling (the drogue makes tracking easier). With a big zoom it is difficult to keep the camera steady while following a moving object (I was at 35x - 40x).
That being said I took this picture standing as still as I could in the parking lot. The drogue was white and the late day sun made it easier to follow. As soon as I saw color from the main parachute opening I took the picture. When you do a tandem jump you can have a videographer record your experience. That is what you see in this picture at around 6,000 feet.Search Blog Archive: September 2011, September 2010, August 2010, May 2009 & November 2008 - for more Skydiving.
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