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RDVPhotography

Blues In Tight

Blue Angels Navy F-18 Demonstration Team in very tight formation

Blue Angels Navy F-18 Demonstration Team in very tight formation
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Canon EOS 5D Mark II

settings

Aperture f/8.0 ISO 320 Shutter 1/1600

upload_date

Jan, 2015

Views

2184

Likes

+308

Awards

Contest Finalist in Adrenaline Rush Photo Contest

Peer Award

+118

Superb Composition

+40

Magnificent Capture

+15

Top Choice

+10

Outstanding Creativity

Absolute Masterpiece

All Star

Superior Skill

Virtuoso

Emotions

Impressed

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

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Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 2

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 2

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

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Top 20 rank

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Top 30 rank week 1

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Categories

Love the Blue Angels. Nice shot of this very tight formation. I'm going to head down to their winter home (El Centro NAF) in a couple of weeks to watch their practice sessions.

NAILED IT!

Beautiful shot and well timed. Nice one

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Wow - where did you shoot this? Shows how precise their flying is - amazing!

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At Pensacola during a practice. Used my 24-105mm and cropped it. Should have carried my 300mm :(

Awesome airshow. Love it!

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Lucky I was visiting a friend in Pensacola where the Blues are stationed and was there on practice day.

I am always amazed at hoe they can fly at such speeds, and so tightly together, without incident !!! Nice capture!

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Me too, and I am a pilot, although I flew big airplanes but did inflight refueling as the reciever : D

Excellent photo.

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Stopped by to visit an Air Force Pilot friend and he said they were practicing. Had been in Florida to visit my brother and did not have a telehoto lens so used my go to 24-105mm f/4 lens and cropped.

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This is an amazing shot! What you have to add to this equation is how fast they are traveling - split seconds. Congratulations on your finalist win too!!

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Thanks much Kathy, I was surprised this one got to the finals as I also entered a Shark photo that hit top ten every week that did not make it, guess planes are in : D

Another great shot! Congrats on another finals. Maybe ViewBug will throw you a bone with a win one of these days. You certainly deserve it. Keep up the amazing work!

WOW AMAZING Shot! Amazing skill of those pilots. Congratulations on being a finalist!

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Thank you very much

PERÍCIA ! ....

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Thank you very much for the comment, I agree they are experts

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Congrats on your Finalist Award!

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Thank you very much Carol, pleasantly surprised

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Holy cannoli! Incredible capture...scary to look at this! If you haven't done so already, please consider joining my Outdoor Events challenge:)
https:// viewbug.com/challenge/outdoor-events-fairs-concerts-marketsany-outdoor-event-photo-challenge-by-adavies

Cool. What an amazing shot.

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Thank you very much Cherry-Blossom. They are amazing

Platinum

Well done, I've seen them several times at NAS Oceana but I don't recall ever having seen the stacked so tightly

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Thanks, this was taken during practice at NAS Pensacola

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Behind The Lens

Location

This was taken at Naval Air Station Pensacola Florida during a weekly practice session which is open to the public. Also this is the home base of the Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Team.

Time

It was a little before noon and the Blues had been practicing for about 10 minutes.

Lighting

Lighting was a bit difficult as the sun was pretty much overhead and some of the clouds were picking up a lot of light.

Equipment

I had my Canon 5D Mk II with Canon EF 24-105 f/4 L IS lens. Unfortunately I had failed to bring one of my telephoto lens, that will not happen next time.

Inspiration

I took many pictures of them that day but I really wanted a photo with a tight formation and this one was it.

Editing

The main thing I did in post-processing was cropping as I could not get as tight a shot with the lens I was using. Besides cropping I made the following adjustments: Enabled Lens Profile, Removed Chromatic Aberration, Reduced Noise, Sharpened, Adjusted White Balance to Daylight from Cloudy, Reduced Highlights, Increased Shadows, Reduced Black Clipping, Increased Clarity & Vibrance, Adjusted Dark & Light Tones and made some color adjustments in Saturation and Luminance. I used Lightroom for all post-processing work.

In my camera bag

On this day I did not carry my usual bag and only had my camera with mounted lens and carried it around with the strap. Big Mistake! I should have brought my bag which had my EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS lens. There is a reason I set up a bag for a particular type of photography and should have carried the bag with my long lenses. No need for a tripod or filters in this fast action type of work, but a long lens is a must and the EF 24-105mm just barely did the job.

Feedback

If you have a chance to get to Pensacola make it a point to go see a practice session by the Blue Angels. The crowd is not near what you would experience at a full on air show and you can even get a seat in the bleachers close to the action right next to the runway. The only other thing I would say is "Take a long lens".

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Blues In Tight

Blue Angels Navy F-18 Demonstration Team in very tight formation

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow RDVPhotography

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