Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show 2012

[wfooshee]

The annual end-of-season air show for the Blue Angels was a week early this year, usually the second weekend of November. Since I only live a couple of hours away I try to make it every year. I don't bother if the weather is definitely out, but I'll go on a 50/50 day. This weekend was stunningly beautiful, though, clear and warm, with enough humidity to make the jets fun to shoot.

I shot way more images than I can hope to use, mostly because I used my new-to-me fast bursting on my new-to-me D7000 when something was happening.
(AK-47 photography, spray and pray! )

(I actually find that to be a useful method for the tool, though, since you can't predict the exact moment a burst of vapor shows off the wing, etc.)

D7000 with Nikon's 70-300 ED VR.

Anyway, here's just a couple, as a tease:

I've never before seen the diamond photo pass show vapor like this. I like it! (ISO 200, 1/1000-f:10)


This was at dusk, the Super Hornet, with afterburner flames bright against the darkening sky. (ISO 1600, 1/500 f-5.6)


I came from this show with two really great filled-with-happiness warm-and-fuzzies from the D7000 compared to previous equipment.

First, the high-ISO performance is way way nice compared to my previous D5000. My pre-previous D50 doesn't even warrant discussion on this subject! There's more noise at high ISO, but so far it's nothing that Photoshop's RAW loader can't deal with.

Second, continuous AF with 3D tracking is nothing short of Black Magic!!!! Center the subject, half-press on the shutter button, and the subject stays focused. Period. The little black box follows it around the screen if it needs to. (Well, as long as it's in the AF matrix area, which is more than half the screen...) Coming at you at 700 miles per hour? Not a problem. 11 airplanes in the shot? No big deal. Compared to previous, the D5000 had continuous, but only using the single sensor you'd selected to start the shot with. I don't recall that the D50 had continuous at all, but that's because its AF was so bad in these situations (slow, and moving the wrong direction to start with) that I never used it! I shot way too many pictures over the two days, about a 1000, but not one is out of focus! Amazing!!!