Friday, May 29, 2009

Thunderbirds



May 27th was the final day of the Air Force Academy graduation ceremonies for which the US Air Force Thunderbirds puts on a demonstration.

I live fairly close to the AFA. On Monday and Tuesday, I got to watch the Thunderbirds practicing from my office. Those two days were very overcast and did not lend itself to photographing the planes. Luckily, Wednesday was a beautiful, fairly cloudless day.

I found a place at a small park where I had decent 360 degree view of the sky. I thought I would be under the fly path, but I was a bit off. There was a huge crowd at the park, including a number of people with very large lenses.

I've been to an Air Force football game where they have a fly-over at half-time. That was impressive. I can't imagine how impressive it is to be in Falcon stadium during this 45-min show...

Be sure to fly over to Skywatch Friday for other great views of the sky.

10 comments:

VALKYRIEN said...

Oh my - that was really watching the sky! Fantastic shots all of them! So close you captured some of them! Wow!

SandyCarlson said...

Astounding. These are just wonderful.

Debbie@Like a Rose said...

What amazing shots! Just wonderful.

Markus Latva-aho said...

I think the trails make really interesting photos and I can see the speed and hear the thunder when they roam on the sky.

Pretty funny if they really are named Thunderbirds, as the old tv-scifi-series:D I used to watch it as a kid...

Lisa Wilson said...

These are wonderful!! I love the first one.

island timer said...

Wow - what a lovely set of images you have here.
Really made me feel like I was there!

ms toast burner said...

Fantastic set of shots there, Russ!

Unknown said...

Wow!

Unknown said...

Stunning action series, the clear blue skies adds to the magical action.

Russ said...

Thanks everyone!