Patriots Jet Team

Going back and looking over more images from this past September's Reno Air Races and these are a few images I got of the Patriots Jet Team.

Jet Class Racers

These are all part of the Jet Class races. This would be the fastest pushing speeds past 500 mph, though their are a few Unlimited class racers that have gone past the 500 mph mark as well. The passenger jet in the first image is not an actual race jet but was the pace plane.

Lockheed PV-2D Harpoon

Lockheed PV-2D Harpoon

Ryan STA

This Ryan STA is one of the planes that was in the static display at the Reno Air Races this year. It was an interesting looking 2 seater plane from around 1937. I like how the shinny chrome finish picks up interesting reflections and some blue from the sky. A lot of the images I did in the static display area are more close crop/detail shots as I was trying to find some interesting images and at the same time minimize the amount of clutter and people in the scene. Over the next few weeks I will be doing more blog posts with other photos from this years Air Races.

Thunder Birds

These are from today's Thunder Birds practice show and even though they call it a practice show it is still pretty much a full show. I have seen them several times now and I don't think I could ever get tired of watching these jets fly.

This last one has been one of the harder ones for me to get. Over the past few years I have managed to get both jets as they pass each other in the frame only a few times. Though this one is slightly soft when you look at the original image it is one of the best ones of this type maneuver I have managed to get.

Tigercat

These are a couple images of the Tigercat's that were at the air races this year. There is usually one there every year though I am not sure I have ever seen it race but this year there were two of them at the races and as you can see in the bottom image both planes were racing. This is one of the planes out there that I find more interesting, though my favorite is probably still the P-51 Mustang.
The top image was taken in the evening after all the races were over and some of the pilots that have been working on their planes during the day will take them up for test flights so we were hanging out for a while catching some of these planes take off. Both the Tigercat's I believe were going up with the P-38's to fly in formation for a photo shoot.

FA-18 Super Hornet

These are some images I got of the FA-18 Super Hornet back in September at the Reno Air Races. With the Air Races and Fall setting in I have actually taken a lot of photos in the last couple of months so I still have a lot of photos from back then that I want to work on as well as several fall photos to work on.

Classics In A Classical Way

For these classics I was thinking I would do black and white to give them that more classical look. I like the way they look presented in a black and white format that is more common for the day these planes are out of.

Opening Ceremony

These are part of the opening ceremony at the Air Races. During this part of it they are playing the National Anthem and this year they also did the Canadian National Anthem as the Snow Birds where there. The fighter jets do a flyby right as the last skydiver is down.