2011 Fargo AirshoSaturday, August 13th 2011
Sean and I parked behind the Fargodome: close even though we waited until 10:30 AM to leave the house. I photographed some of the static aircraft with a red filter thinking it would take me one step further when I converted to black & white. But it didn't work. Thankfully I didn't take many 'red' photos. I knew if it worked I could take more tomorrow. The show started with Skydive Fargo jumping from Duggy the DC-3. The acrobatic aircraft flew with Duggy and the skydivers in an early teaser. By 11:15 every spot on the fence was taken except one on the far north side of the field. This was okay because it was where I wanted to be. I set up the chairs; Sean went to find his friend. The weather was excellent, warm but breezy, with some clouds to add a texture to the sky but not enough to interfere with the show, and enough humidity to generate condensation off the military jets pulling high G-forces, but not enough to interfere with the clarity of the atmosphere.
First up was the F/A-18E Super Hornet performing those high G turns and transonic shockwaves. The Horsemen flew two F8F Bearcats. Minot AFB sent a B-52 to fly overhead. Bob Odegaard flew the Aero Commander's Shrike Commander in a homage to Bob Hoover. The warbirds went up and the sky was full of propellers and Miss Mitchell, the WWII bomber, flew a simulated bombing mission. There were AT-6 Texans and three P-51 Mustangs. I was too far away to get a good view of the pyro explosion, but I was in excellent position for military jets taxiing to the NDANG hangers including the F-16 Viper Demonstration- up next.
Most of the afternoon I shot with my Soligor 500mm CAT lens. Occasionally with the 70-300mm Sony Zoom. At 2:45, while waiting for the Blue Angels demonstration, I switched to my Sigma 10-20mm Ultra-wide angle lens to photograph the sky, the crowds, and Bob Nelson with Sean. (Bob joined us at noon.) Fat Albert, the US Marine Corp. C-130 was grounded with mechanical problems, so the Blue Angels started early. I had some issues with haze: as their smoke and Kerosene filled the sky, but mostly I had a blur issue between my 500mm lens and Sony's Image Stabilization- I should have turned it off. After the Angels landed I was in no hurry to leave. Sean, Bob and I looked at the static displays and waited for traffic to thin.
Note: some descriptions and text are from
wikipedia.com and the
FargoAirsho.com.
