Best Pictures of the 2008 Airshow Season

[Clubber]

I had quite a few favourites from my '08 season, but, these 3 stood out for me...

[Anthony Richards]

This was my first season shooting with anything close to good, so I had a few come out that I thought were pretty neat. But, since each show was just as good as the last, I'm chosing my top photos from each one.


Ephrata IAC Apple Cup


Olympic Air Show


McChord Air Expo


Seafair (This one for the irony I noticed when reading the taxiway sign)


Abbotsford International Airshow (I think I've only seen this once or twice in my life, so when I flipped through after the show and saw this, I nearly choked on my water)


Aviation Nation

[David Atkinson]

Fun thread - and excellent shots, too!

Here's three of my favorites for the year...

Ellsworth Getchell's beautiful Sea Fury at Half Moon Bay in April
The gaggle launching at the Planes of Fame show at Chino in May
The Heritage Flight Phantom taxying past the Reds at Langley in june

David

[tbunce]

Anthony, Excellent F-18 shock wave capture! 

Do you happen to have a shot that was taken either just before or just after that one with those background clouds in view and nice and sharp like on this one? It would be interesting (and good practice) to see how it would look when the two overlapping parts were processed for the Background Oriented Schlieren to make the shock waves really stand out. Some of my co-workers are working to set up a flight opportunity to get some supersonic shots later this year...

The other pictures are great too!

[BigRedDogATL]

This was an excellant air show season for myself. I attended a record 8 shows, in two countries, and was able to capture to digital film some sights not likely to happen again any time soon.

My season started out with the Great Tennessee Air Show in April. Little did I know when I took the photo below of Blue Angel #4, Major Clint Harris' plane, how the season would end for him.



Also taken at Smyrna, Tenn was this shot:



At the Vidalia Onion Festival Air Show, I got the pleasure of staying in the same hotel as the Blue Angels. There is nothing quite like having breakfast with four of them on the morning of one of their shows. While I headed off to the air show, those four headed off to play a round of golf before their afternoon show. I was able to get a pretty good shot of the two solos crossing below



The smallest airshow of the season for me was the Snowbirds Over Anderson show, which contained just the Snowbirds doing a show, on a late Wednesday afternoon. This show was great and I look forward to them doing it again this year.



The granddaddy of airshows for 2008 had to be the Quebec City Canada air show. This show featured the four top jet demo teams in the world, USN Blue Angels, USAF Thunderbirds, CAF Snowbirds, and RAF Red Arrows. I got lucky and landed a media pass for the show. It gave me great access and shots I would not have been able to get otherwise.







Of all the shows I attended, one of the smaller shows, The North Georgia Transportation Expo, had to be the best show setup for photographers. The show organizers went well beyond the normal to allow us to gain access and shots we wouldn't be able to get at a larger show. My thanks to all involved in that show. Below is one shot of one of the hottest Navy pilots I ever met, Lt. Tremel of the Gunslingers and another shot of some of the "photo gang" at the show.




The Wings Over Marietta show at Dobbins ARB was terrific. It was at this show I got to meet next year's F-22 Raptor Demo pilot and get some great vapor shots of Major Moga flying over the buildings where his Raptor was built.






My season finished up at Nellis AFB for Aviation Nation 2008. Although the show was smaller than the previous year, it was still a great show. I also got to spend some time with Major Moga before he did one of his last demo flights in the F-22.

[jarrodeu]

Here are my 5 favorite photos, all at Reno.