Aerostars at Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo 2011

This is my third and final post from photography taken at Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo 2011.  If you missed the first two installments, here are the links:

• Blue Angels at Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo 2011
• B-25 Panchito at Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo 2011

One of the aspects of shooting the Aerostars and the Blue Angels I really enjoyed was the ability to eliminate all the distracting elements that might enter the composition and focus on the beauty of the performance.  The compositions are clean – sky, smoke trails, and planes.  Simple and unconfused.

Even better, from a photographic perspective, the day was uniformly overcast with no discernable clouds to muddle up the shot.  In general, I am a big fan of large dramatic cloud formations – particularly for landscape photography.  For street photography and other types of shots, overcast is perfect because it makes for nice soft light even during the middle of the day.  Although this certainly is not street photography, the soft overcast worked wonderfully.

Speaking of street photography, this past weekend we enjoyed an afternoon at the H Street Festival (H Street NE, Washington DC).  Check back later this week for some words and photography from this fantastically food filled urban festival.

Until we visit the Air Expo next summer, I hope you enjoyed this photography.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

Blue Angels at Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo 2011

Photographing an air show is nothing but fun.  Shooting it on my farther-in-law's boat at the end of the runway with a cigar and glass of wine is even better!  This is my second installment from the Naval Air Station Patuxent River and features some photography of the Navy’s Blue Angels performance.  I had intended to save this for the last in a series of posts, but found I could wait no longer.

I did not fact check the story, but I was told the Blue Angels fly essentially “stock” F-18s that have exceeded the number of allowable carrier landings.  In other words, carrier capable aircraft have a limit to the number of landings they can perform.  Upon reaching this limit they are retired from carrier duty for what I would guess is structural safety concerns.  Makes sense.  However, what makes less sense is that once they have seen the end of their useful carrier service, they are turned over to the Blue Angels.

I don’t know about you, but if I were pulling the maneuvers these highly skilled jet jockeys were making, I would not be excited about flying a “leftover.”  Regardless of the planes they are flying, the Blue Angels put on a great show.  Here are a few more shots of their performance.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

B-25 Panchito at Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo 2011

I had a great photography weekend.  In addition to several wine pairings that will soon show up on Craig’s Grape Adventure, I took advantage of some great photographic opportunities at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo 2011, along with a visit to Saint Clement’s Island.  I will be share more of this photography over the next week.

For today, I am focusing on a few photographs of Panchito, a World War II era B-25 bomber.  Panchito is one of the few remaining near 10,000 B-25s that were produced before and during World War II.  The Panchito and B-25 Mitchell have a long and storied history including the Panchito flying on the day of Nagasaki bombing with a view of the mushroom cloud, and one that crashed into the Empire State Building in the fog in 1945.

Come back soon for more photography from the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo 2011static display as well as some photography of the Blue Angels in action.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig