The Great Pacific Airshow

A friend of ours invited us down to her place to watch the airshow this last weekend. She lives right on the water next to the Huntington Beach pier. It's like having front row seats and VIP parking... how could we say no!!?

It crossed my mind it would be a great opportunity for skywatch photography, so I took my camera and "big" lens (100-400mm telephoto). I hadn't been to an airshow in years, and this sounded like fun since it was right on the beach.

A lot of other people had the exact same idea! These folks were up on the pier trying to get the best shots possible.

But by far the most common camera at the air show was the cell phone. This couple seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The turnout was excellent, with open spots on the sand being at a premium.

The planes were buzzing around all over the place, and every kind of plane imaginable. Most of the planes were extremely fast, and early on I was getting frustrated because it's very hard to capture a fast plane at just the right moment in time. A lot of my early shots looked something like this:

This very short video clip will give you a sense of how quickly the jets fly overhead. Often times, you don't hear them coming. And by the time you hear them, they are already gone! And wow are they LOUD!! A highlight of the day was when everyone was watching a group of planes on the horizon when all of a sudden a fighter jet went on a strafing run directly over the crowd. No one saw it coming, and it was so loud it literally shook the ground. It scared the heck out of me, and poor little Lilly was speechless and shocked!

US Air Force F-35 Lightning II - Loud and Fast!!

The lifeguard towers were staffed, and it felt exactly like a summer day at the beach, with temperatures on the sand close to 80 degrees. The yellow sign with the black ball means no surfing. Normally, there would be people surfing on both sides of the pier, but they weren't allowing it during the air show.

Eventually I got things dialed in and started getting some decent shots. On the left, you can see spray coming off the fire boat that was on display for the show.

The largest fire boat on the West Coast is an impressive sight. It provides 41,000 gallons per minute. The reach of the water stream is 600 feet. The height of the stream is nearly 20 stories high! The view of the boat is partially blocked by water spray and smoke from planes, but fun to see!

This little stunt plane was fun to watch. In this last photo, it looks like he's "shooting the pier"!

Lucky shot!

The next six photos are in sequence:
Coming in on the right... Upside down!!

Still coming in... Upside down!

Uh oh!!!!!!!

Oh no!!!!!!!!!! From this angle, looks like a mid-air crash.

Here's a close-up... It looks like they miss each other by just inches!!

Everyone at the show breathed a sigh of relief!!

One of my favorite shots. No editing done on this image, other than a slight crop.

Absolutely amazing!!

Precision formation flying!

Some impressive skywriting!!

Oh, and Lilly (as she plugs her ears to block out the jet sounds) says "Hi"!

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Thanks for stopping by!!