So I know my father-in-law has been looking forward to seeing these pictures, but I’ve made him be patient.
Our family met at a nearby church parking lot to watch the Dayton Air Show from a distance. Last year, I photographed the show with my venerable 70-200mm lens, but this year, I was sporting the Tamron 150-600mm lens. I knew that the lens wasn’t nearly as quick to focus, partly because of the smaller maximum aperture. Also, the 600mm end gave me the field of view of a drinking straw, so it was going to be a challenge.
However, this year, the air maneuvers stayed pretty far from us most of the time, and the planes didn’t come around to our area for close-ups very often. Although my left biceps got a workout and I did miss some shots not being able to compose and focus as quickly with the longer lens, I did get some images that made me glad I had used the Tamron 150-600mm lens.
The Breitling Jet Team, from Europe, were the first team we watched.
Click on the first photo above, and you can see that Plane 3 was carrying a passenger. If you click on the close-up below, you can even see his expression through the plane window. I wonder what he was thinking? I know I would be thinking I shouldn’t have eaten lunch.
After a lengthy delay, the U. S. Air Force Thunderbirds took the skies.
Although they came toward us even more infrequently than the Breitling team, we did get a farewell fly-by from each of the team members as they prepared to land.
If you click on the close-up above, you can see the Commander/Leader’s name painted on his plane and the design on his helmet. I really love getting to see those kinds of details.
Many thanks to the Breitling team and the Thunderbirds for putting on a great show for us, and thanks to my in-laws for inviting us to watch the show and for watching our kids afterwards. We had a great time, and hope to be back next year!
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