Blackpool Air Show

Read on the internet that a free air show was being held later today, so toddled off there with wife, daughter and grandsons to see what was going on. The show started at 15:00 with a fly-past of the Red Arrows, followed by a demonstration of Air-Sea rescue by a Sea-King helicopter. Later came stunt-planes, wing-walking, the Battle of Britain flight, the only Vulcan still flying, then a full display by the Red Arrows.

Grandson #1 quite enjoyed this, grandson #2 just drooled as usual.

During the course of the afternoon, I learned a truism: no matter how long you wait until your subject is isolated in the frame, some asshole will always pop-up out of nowhere and spoil the shot …

Below are a selection of the shots I took. It would have been better if I’d taken the 80-200 lens rather than the 50-150. Although there is a 1.5x magnification factor on the lenses due to using a D200 with its less than full frame sensor, I would have liked the option of getting in even closer.

Some aircraft such as the Vulcan didn’t come very close anyway, which is why there isn’t a good view of it here. Same for the Battle of Britain flight – I missed out on the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster as they were just too far away.

My biggest mistake though was in using a fast shutter speed on the propeller-driven aircraft, with the result that the blades are clearly visible. In my defense I can only say that it’s the first time I’ve photographed them, next time it’ll be better!