Flying High and Tight © 1998 John A. Lind

• Olympus OM-4
• 75~150mm f/4 Zuiko Zoom with 2x teleconverter and linear polarizer
• Fuji Reala 100
• 300mm focal length; 1/500th @ f/8 (f/4 with 2x teleconverter = f/8) hand held
• Grissom Reserve Air Force Base, Indiana, June 1998
• These are the Navy's Blue Angels flying about 3 feet apart at several hundred knots.  The image generally follows the "rule of thirds" and is very sharp, but the sky leaves a lot to be desired.  It was not a good day for photographing an air show.  It was very hot and humid with a lot of "heat haze" that washed out all the blue from the sky.  I had a devil of a time panning with them and shot about a half roll of film of just the Blue Angels.  Of that, about three came out with the all of the aircraft in the frame and positioned acceptably within the frame.  I recommend a tripod or monopod with fluid ball head for panning fast moving aircraft with a long telephoto.  Doing it by hand is not easy or recommended unless you want to shoot a lot to get just a few.