Thunderbirds

[natgaines]

Everyone goes to an Air Show to see the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels, it's just what the event is all about. I was SOOO lucky to have my boss land me front row seats, and after I took 500 pictures (literally), put them on the computer I was so disappointed. Not because the pictures turned out bad but because I was a complete amateur:blush2:. After months of looking them over, I finally started editing, cropped, etc and think I have one worthy of posting. My biggest complaint in the entire batch was I got pretty planes with LOTS of sky. I just felt like the clarity wasn't there because they were so fast (and I was slow) and I wasn't really sure what I was doing! I definitely learned for airshows to try and watch the routine before shooting if they offer it on more than one day so you know what the heck is going on.

I put borders around a lot of them and it helped finish them off, at least I think so. This one is of the ground crew going to strap in the pilots. If you've ever been to an airshow and not seen the maintenance routine you have to check it out. I might be biased (because I'm a maintainer myself ) but it's awesome to watch because they are PERFECTLY in sync. :thumbsup:

C/C??

[GB1]

Nat - Except for the fact that the right side of the frame is clipping off the tail of one jet, I really love the upper 3/5 of this photo. The sharpness, contrast and clarity of the planes are exceptional, and I like the sky.. very neutral. Some may not like it like that, but I certainly do -- it's relaxing.

The only thing I would do would be to crop off the tarmac - it sorta bugs me , just too plain. And yes, shooting the planes may not be that easy. Turn off the autofocus and use a fast SS (set the ISO higher if need be) and you may be good to go.

G

[MichaelD]

I agree with GB1 on cropping off some of the bottom, I would say make the sky about 2/3.
Benefits:

- the horizon doesn't split the image in half anymore
- the extra sky works very well in context to the main subject, which are the planes

Btw, I would clone out that 3rd plane, not something I would advice someone with little experience though.

Nice shot, thanks for sharing.