Blue Angels
James proves that old habits die hard when it comes to photography as he captures majestic metal birds in flight
All’s quiet looking over a beautiful beach and ocean view. There’s only the whisper of a gentle breeze spreading through the delicious air. Suddenly, instantly, I’m rocked by an earth-shaking blast, followed by the blazing roar from the fire streaking afterburners. The decibels quickly diminish as a Blue Angel F/A-18 Super Hornet evaporates into the distance.
The Fort Lauderdale 2019 Air Show has started. Other flying machines make their
appearance, including the incredible Lockheed Martin F22 Rapture. But nothing thrills quite like the performance of the elite fighter demonstration teams, whether it be the Navy Blue Angels or the Air Force Thunderbirds.
As a very young lad living in Holland my father took me to an air show, and I still recall being shaken and marvelled at seeing my first jet fighter. Not long after immigrating to the States and becoming a citizen, I was drafted for the Vietnam War. I went into the Air Force, and it was then when I got to see the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels perform in the same show. Near the end of my four-year tour, stationed in Las Vegas, I got to see the Thunderbirds practice daily in their F-4E Phantoms. Around 1990, I took my son to an air show on Cape Cod, and photographed majestic Thunderbirds flying the F-16/A Fighting Falcons.
At that time, we were of course shooting film so didn’t have the luxury of reviewing the images on the rear LCD like we do today. Nevertheless
the film shoot turned out well. I likely took the Falcons on Ektachrome 100 film.
For the 2019 Air Show I used my Canon 5DS R and EF 70-200mm f/2.8l IS II USM lens. For some of the shots I used a 2x teleconverter to get that extra reach, which worked surprisingly well.
I positioned myself on the beach under a shade palm, about a mile from centre stage. My optimum settings at the time were ISO100, an aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/640 sec shooting Raw and of course with image stabilization turned on. Unfortunately, the planes were too fast to autofocus on, so I opted instead to focus manually which gave me much more reliable results.
Thinking back on it, I realize I had not set my camera to multiple exposure mode, and I didn’t take that many photographs. It seems, instinctively, I relied on my experience with film to make every shot count, and the results speak for themselves. I encourage every avid photographer to consider that the best results may well depend on your equipment, but more so on your skill and experience. Happy shooting to all!
The best results may well depend on your equipment, but more so on your skill and experience