life's pleasant surprises
Okay, here is a story.
So FBJ, a few weeks ago, you were talking about how your BUR sunset photo was and someone asked about the strobe on the bottom of the plane and whether or not you did that on purpose and you replied with that it was one of life's pleasant surprises.
I just had one of those today.
I spent the day at the MCAS Miramar Airshow down in SD... and was shooting with my little rig. Being where I am financially, plus the fact that I just got married this past summer, I don't have the money to get a higher quality camera, but believe me, I'd love to have one.
So anyway... pleasant surprise number one, the folks down at Miramar are having a F-18F Super Hornet demo. Pleasant because at airshows, F-18C/D's are dime a dozen, but I have yet to see a Super Hornet fly. (If you don't know, a super hornet is much bigger than a regular hornet, and replaced the F-14 Tomcat as our Naval Air Superiority fighter.... ) I digress.
So the announcer is announcing that from show right, the Super Hornet was going to do a high speed pass at as close to Mach 1 as he can get.
The crowd cheers.
I and my dinky D40x and 55-200mm lens are stationed ALLLLL the way at Show left, at the edge of the tarmac where they still let us sit.
As the jet begins to tear through the sky at show center, I start snapping as many shots as I can, all in sports mode and RAW+B because I like (like everyone else here) to play with my photos when I get home.
Tough thing is, is once you get past the first oh, 5 shots, the D40x starts to lock up in sports mode and RAW+B because as I imagine, the poor little thing is trying desperately to write the RAW files and keep up with my uppity trigger finger.
By the time the F-18F is crossing in front of me, I'm freaking out, because its a GRAND sight with the vapor going off the plane as it screams by, the sound a couple seconds behind, and my camera isn't shooting. I'm squeezing off as many shots as I can, trying to hold the damn thing steady and praying I get something.....
here's the first shot as it approaches.
and here's life's pleasant surprise for me (and to date, the shot of my life)... me freaking out, squeezing the button like mad.... as it crosses in front of me, I'm desperately hoping I catch something and......
.....
whew. It may not be much, but I have to say I'm very pleased with myself. Even if it was all luck.
Thanks for indulging!
I got some other shots too, none as lucky as this one, but I think they're good shots... let me know if you want to see them!
