I had a chance to make a quick portrait of Tom for his 9th Birthday.

I was backed off a way from this MiG.

Not too crazy about the paint job on this bird.  What’s a guy to do?

might be my new favorite plane.

I was worried, very worried before we went to the air show.  I had become dependent on HSC mode using the D2X.  I knew that with the D3 I wouldn’t have as much reach as in prior years.  I don’t own a handholdable lens that was long enough for the show.  I was ready to buy a 80-400 to cover things but eventually talked myself out of it.  Without the lens I was forced to work smarter or at least differently.  Incorporating more surroundings is a change of style for me.  Funny thing is that I like what I see.  Who says the plane has to fill the frame?  If you were describing an airplane, would you talk about rivets or touching clouds?

Here’s Fat Albert from the Blue Angels team.  There was no JATO for the daylight show.

The air show this year was great!  We had a mix of everything from clear skies to overcast conditions.   I should have plenty of images to share.  Here’s the AT-6 Trainer “War Dog.”  I spent a lot of time playing with slow shutter speeds and panning because it has been so long since I last practiced.  I like the way the panning technique helped to clean up this background a bit.

A few weeks ago I decided to sign up for the Kelby photo walk. It seemed like a good opportunity to shoot things I wouldn’t normally shoot. There is a group pool on Flickr where you can view the images by the Orange, CA attendees.

Not to be confused with The General Lee.

Once they lost the cannons there was little hope.