Not really a sport, but spectator rich

[bulldurham3]

Warning, lots and lots of photos of a Blue Angles practice session, Pensacola NAS today.

all but one photo is as it was shot and the one PS'ed is pretty obvious.

They had a aircraft issue and one didn't start until a little later in the program.

 

[vintagesnaps]

What a nice set. I particularly like the second one, I think because it gives you a feeling of being there seeing the take off from the ground. One near the end, 'Three in a Row' I think it's titled, is a really nice one. I like 'The Pattern is Stacked' too. Looks like you had a great time.

 

[bulldurham3]

Bump. I certainly appreciate Sharon's response but feel it is a worthy enough series for more than one response.

 

[waday]

Love the photos! Two up one down I like that formation.

I LOVED the Blue Angels when I was a kid, and I still get giddy about them when I see them, which is rarely.

Haven't seen them in action in a long while.

 

[tirediron]

They're a nice enough series, and technically I see no issues, BUT.. there are only so many interesting images of the planes alone that one wants to look at. Like fireworks, they would be much stronger for having some background/other area of interest included.

 

[sm4him]

I must have missed this when it was originally posted; some nice shots in there!

I'm going to watch/photograph the Air Force Thunderbirds tomorrow, so these are of particular interest to me.
What length of lens were you shooting with? Did you do a lot of cropping to these? You saw most are "as shot" but sometimes it turns out, people don't consider cropping to be post-processing.

I'm trying to decide whether it's worth it to lug my Sigma 150-500 around all day or go with something lighter, but shorter like the Nikon 70-300.

I also agree with John about there only being so many interesting images of the planes alone, however, I'm not sure how you'd get anything else UNLESS you can manage to catch something like a takeoff, which you did in the second photo or flying low enough to get the horizon in the photo. We are supposed to have beautiful weather, so it's supposed to be the "high" show they will be doing--meaning there may not be many shots available closer to the ground until they've landed.

 

[bulldurham3]

As a general rule, they don't fly near anything that would provide a sense of reference or interest..it all takes place "up there" and other than takeoffs and landings, little if any "down here." I shot with the Nikon D810 and the Nikon 80-400 4/5.6. Not any huge crops except for the takeoff where he goes full afterburner (solitary plane) and only because he was quite a ways down the runway. Peel off taken at 120mm because I wanted to include the moon in the shot. It's a great gig and I will go back to two more practice sessions this month. As far as catching the planes "alone," trust me in large crowds, that can in itself be a huge challenge, as well as the fact in many cases these planes are moving a pretty good clip.