I got my camera back from the Canon hospital just in time for the Blue Angels at the Sioux Falls Air Show. Saturday I went to the airport and tried to fight through the throng to find a decent place to shoot with the 100-400mm zoom. I got a few shots worth posting but I never really did find a good spot.

Sunday I tried something different and went to a hill a couple miles southwest of the airport. No crowds, and no danger of bonking someone in the head while swinging around the big 500mm on a tripod. My positioning was vindicated by this shot as the main formation passed directly overhead; in fact the planes were too close and I barely got their wingtips into this 4:3 crop of the image. Click on the image for larger version, or click here for the gallery.

Blue Angels

The gallery also includes several shots of a P-38 Lightning, including in Heritage Flight formation with an F-22 Raptor. Compared to the P-51 Mustang, the Lightning is fairly rare, and in fact this was my first view of one in flight.

Heritage Flight