Right after I got my new Canon 20D there was a local air show featuring the Blue Angels Navy Flying Team. So I packed up my gear, folding chair and a bottle of water and trekked off to the airport to watch them fly. My dad (being a model airplane builder and pilot) would have loved it. I was thinking about him the whole time.

I found the best vantage point after a long walk - all the way to the far side of the field. So that is where I set up my day camp consisting of my tripod, chair, mini ice chest, camera-vest full of all my stuff including back-up batteries and extra flashcards. Can you tell I hate not being prepared?

Blue Angels playing chicken

I had a blast taking pictures. This was the first time that I was able to really put this camera to work. In most cases I found that setting the focus manually and estimating where the planes were going to cross was better than letting the automatic focus try and set the focus. While this camera has really fast auto focus ability, it is not fast enough for the Blue Angels. Additionally I had plenty of daylight so I was shooting at a faster speed to help stop the planes in mid-air with the hopes that the pictures would be as sharp as possible.

Blue Angels kissing
Blue Angels kissing

Something I always try to do when I have two subjects crossing each other is to set the focus about where I think they will cross, then follow one subject as it comes across the landscape and snap the picture when the other enters the frame. The result here was one sharp plane and the other slightly out of focus. While some might not like that result, I think it demonstrates the speed at which these plans are flying toward each other.

Four Blue Angels
Four Blue Angels

By the way, if you ever go to shoot an air show. Get your camera cleaned by a professional immediately afterwards. This air show left tiny little spots of jet fuel on the sensor on my camera. It probably happened when I was changing lenses. My husband recently gave me a gift of a professional sensor cleaning kit that has solved my problems of dirt on the image sensor, It has helped to make my images appear more clean.

Blue Angels in a row
Blue Angels in a row

Photography is always a learning experience… I believe you should have fun while you learn. I’m not sure which is more fun, the adventures I like to photograph or the photographic adventure itself… probably a little of both. Either way this was definitely a fun learning adventure.