Angels on high
The US Navy's Air Demonstration Squadron aka the Blue Angels. The Blue Angels fly Boeing's FA-18 Hornet, built right up the road from where this shot ...
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The US Navy's Air Demonstration Squadron aka the Blue Angels. The Blue Angels fly Boeing's FA-18 Hornet, built right up the road from where this shot was taken in St Louis, MO.
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May, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This shot came during the Blue Angels' show at Spirit of St Louis airport in Chesterfield, Missouri in 2016. I wasn't actually at the airshow grounds. It was fairly crowded so I decided to park in a dirt lot across the way from the airfield. Turns out where I was located was right where the diamond formation was turning around to set up their maneuvers. Before each pass, they would pass directly overhead of where I was parked.Time
It was roughly between 1400 and 1500 local. They were the last show of the dayLighting
It was a fairly clear day, little bit of clouds, but nothing major to interfere with the big bright sun. That was the only light source needed that day.Equipment
I used a Nikon D750 and a Nikkor 70-300mm. No other equipmentInspiration
I've always really liked airplanes, especially military aircraft, so when I heard the airshow was coming back after a couple year hiatus, I absolutely had to go.Editing
I darkened the sky a bit to make the blue of the aircraft pop a little more against the sky. Little bit of cropping to go with that and that was about it.In my camera bag
I'll start with my bag, a GR1 Shooter ruck from GoRuck. Best bag ever. I carry a Nikon D750, Nikkor lenses 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 70-300mm, a Tamron 2x teleconverter, a Neewer flash, Manfrotto mini tripod, several rolls of gaffer tape, a gerber multitool, spare batteries for everything that needs batteries, and a bunch of SD cards in a pelican card carrier. This is my basic loadout, I'll add additional gear like tripods, reflectors, etc as needed.Feedback
A little bit of advanced planning to scout out where the aircraft are going to be flying helps out a lot. I was shooting directly up and had I not been under their flight path, I would not have gotten this shot. The other piece of advice I would give is shoot in bursts. Jets are hauling through the sky pretty quick and if you are shooting only 1 frame at a time, you are going to miss. Shoot as many frames as you can and sort through them later.
