On October 8, I attended my first Fleet Week Airshow in San Francisco, with family in tow. Overall, it was a great experience. We had a good day with regard to the weather, with the morning fog breaking more or less by showtime. The headline acts were the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the Canadian Forces Snowbirds. Neither act disappointed. Other highlights of the show included a B-2 Spirit flight and a V-22 Osprey flight, both firsts for me, and a great F/A-18F Super Hornet high-speed pass that generated tremendous condensation bursts as the jet flew just below the speed of sound in the moist, cool air above the bay.

We purchased tickets at $35.00 each to the premium box seats well in advance, in late July, when I first realized that a business trip and vacation coincided with the airshow. The box seats were located at Marina Green, and we were able to get our pick of tickets, with the exception of many front row seats. Because I wanted to stand and guessed correctly that standing was discouraged in the seating area, I chose seats in the back corner of section 1, which was the closest to show center. I had no idea what we would find when we arrived and found both positive and negative surprises. There were vacant seats around us, so walking up and buying a ticket was certainly possible.

Among the positive aspects of the box seats was that they were in a fenced area to control access, and that area included both plentiful porta-potties and two food stands. Our seats were located about 30 feet from shore and gave me the easy ability to get up and walk around behind the seating area to get better angles on the planes. The center line for the show is along the North Bay shore, so the seats were in a good position in that regard (which would have been an astounding disappointment if they weren’t).

The biggest disappointment in the seating was that show center was clearly located to the east, somewhere around Fort Mason. Many of the two-plane passes were just too far away to get a dramatic shot, even at 400 mm. Compounding the displacement from show center, there were a number of obstacles in the sight line to show center. The bay was filled with sail boats and cabin cruisers watching the show, and their masts cropped up in my viewfinder way too often. In addition, section 1 seats were next to a small building (bathhouse, perhaps) associated with the green, and it obscured the view to show center, forcing me to walk west, away from show center to get a good angle. The same freedom that I had walking around behind the seats was used by a host of people during the show (especially later in the day), many of whom were not photographing planes but simply chatting (to give their backs a rest, I guess). Consequently, getting a good shot of the Blue Angels low-level passes without heads in the way proved difficult.

In spite of the drawbacks of the box seats, I did take a number of photos that I liked. If I attend the show again (and I hope to), I will think hard about trying to get to the Fort Mason Green area early and staking out a patch of ground. If I go with the box seats again, I’ll try to get seats on the back row of one of the sections between 10 and 15. They’re further from show center, but they aren’t obscured by the building.

Marina Green is, in general, the center of the airshow activities. The U.S. Armed Forces were well represented there with various interactive and static displays. Additional food vendors were located on the green, and porta-potties were available along Marina Boulevard. Many people set up blankets and folding chairs on the green and watched the show for free. On the east end of the green were various children’s activities (including several large inflatables).

Saturday is the best day to see the show for several reasons. One reason is that all of the flying performances are available on Saturday. The B-2 did not fly on Friday or Sunday, which is no surprise since it literally left Missouri Saturday morning and flew back in the same day. The foremost reason, however, is that the Fleet Week parade of ships occurs on Saturday morning. Ships from the U.S. 3rd Fleet in San Diego sail up for Fleet Week, and this year they were led by the U.S.S. Carl Vinson (CVN-70). The Carl Vinson sailed in under the Golden Gate in the morning fog at around 11:00 a.m., with her sailors on deck and rendering honors to the city. She was followed by a number of other U.S. and Canadian ships, which was a spectacular way to kick off the airshow.

A third and less obvious reason to see the show on Saturday is that the weather in San Francisco is notoriously unpredictable, particularly with regard to fog and haze. We actually arrived in San Francisco on Friday afternoon when the Blue Angels started flying and made it to the view point on the northeast side of the Golden Gate Bridge before the show ended. I was able to get a few photos, but the haze looking back at the city was awful. Also, for those who might be tempted, the airshow can be seen from the Marin Headlands, but the distance back to the show center line is just too far for good photos. On Sunday, the Blue Angels show was shortened for safety reasons because a fog started to move in. Consequently, planning to attend earlier and then having one or two days as back-up is a smart thing to do if you travel a long distance for the show.

By the way, even on Saturday, while the sun was shining, the air had a haze to it. I’ve had to warm up my raw images in post-processing because the daylight color temperature setting was just too cold.

If you enjoy seeing the take-off and landing drills of the flight demonstration teams, you’ll miss that at the Fleet Week airshow. The performers take off at San Francisco International (SFO) and fly in over the hill.

I found that the biggest challenge overall for the airshow was getting there. I had read several postings online discussing the horrid traffic once the flying begins and more so when it ends. We were staying in Marin County, and I struggled with driving in and trying to find a place to park or using public transit. In the end, I decided to use Golden Gate transit. We took the 80 bus from the San Rafael Transit Center (the 70 or 101 buses will work, also), got off at the Lombard and Fillmore stop, and walked the half-mile to Marina Green. We arrived before 10:00 a.m. and found that time early enough that we could have staked out a place on the green or perhaps even parked nearby (numerous others did and then schlepped chairs and coolers to the green). On the return, we thought we would try to eat along Chestnut Street somewhere, but every yuppie in the Marina District was already out partying at 5:00 p.m., so we just hopped the bus and headed back to San Rafael. It was a slow trip back across the GGB, but it was nice to let the bus driver deal with traffic.

For those readers who don’t photograph airshows regularly, I’ll offer a tip. You need a big lens, in general, for airshow photography, and you need one even more for this particular show. Most airshows are at airports, and the show center line is over the field, not that far from the crowd. In this case, the center line is further out over the bay. I use a Nikkor 80-400 zoom, and at most airshows, I frequently have to back off the zoom when the action is nearby. I rarely backed away from 400 mm at this show. In many cases, I would have been much happier with 500 mm. Nevertheless, the Nikkor 80-400 is a decent compromise for airshows. It’s much lighter in weight than the Nikkor 200-400 and much more portable, especially if you have to walk or use public transit. It’s a bit slower lens than the Nikkor 200-400 at the long end, but you really don’t need lens speed on a sunny day. The biggest issue with the Nikkor 80-400 is the focus speed. It hunts for focus way too often, and if you aren’t tracking the plane well, or a patch of smoke (or a mast) pops across the auto-focus sensor, you can lose focus fast at the wrong time. Of course, the price is 15–20 % of the Nikkor 200-400 or the Nikkor 500, so that can be an overriding factor.

In summary, if you get lucky and have a sunny day, this is a great airshow. The ambience of sitting by the bay watching the show with the GGB, the Marin Headlands, and Alcatraz in front of you and the city behind you can’t be beat. My only advice is to plan ahead and be prepared to change plans if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Categories: Airshow, Photography, Travel
No Comments »

At the 2009 Wings Over Houston airshow this past weekend, the organizers set up a special photo pit for serious hobbyists. This was their first time to do so. I suspect they were motivated by photographers requesting press credentials but having no specific media relationship. Whatever the motivation, it proved to be a good idea, I think.

I purchased a pass for the Saturday, October 31, photo pit when they first came out, on June 25. I had seen a reference to them on the WOH web site earlier in the year, when the organizers had requested feedback about possible interest. For $75.00, I received the following:

• Passholder-only entrance to a fenced-off area on the flight line, limited to 50 passholders.
• A small riser for obtaining a better view of the field.
• Special parking near the field.
• Coupons for $20.00 worth of food.
• Port-a-potty located within the pit (most are located well behind the public viewing area).
• Tented area with a cooler of water, plenty of cups, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, and Halloween candy.
• Tables for eating, drinking, and more importantly, sorting through photographic gear.
• Numerous folding chairs.

The location of the photo pit was interesting. The pit was located several hundred feet to the right (south) of show center (see the map), rather than at show center. Surprisingly, prime view seating, at only $40.00, is located at show center. On the one hand, show center is a prime reference point for the performers, and some of the key action occurs there. On the other hand, the sun crosses the sky south of the airfield, so more of a plane’s pass in front of the crowd will be to the north, allowing the lighting to be at the photographer’s back for a longer portion of the pass, especially in the morning.

While the WOH web site showed the photo pit was sold out, the pit on Saturday did not appear to contain 50 people, even though the weather was outstanding (clear skies, temperature in the 70s) and the show set a record for attendance (estimated at 100,000 over the two days). I didn’t make a count, but I would guess the number of photographers was closer to 30. A few people even seemed to have paid for admittance but were taking no photos (family members were not supposed to be allowed in the pit without a pass, so I guess these people just paid for the view).

Riser space was limited, and it didn’t help that several photographers brought tripods and set them up on the riser. One photographer even brought two tripods for his medium-format Pentaxes, and occupied about a quarter of the available space. If I remember correctly, the riser was never able to accomodate more than about seven or eight photographers at any one time because of its size. The pit had plenty of space for more riser length, so the organizers should consider a longer riser in the future. It didn’t help that the riser had no guardrails, so each photographer had to be careful about not stepping off and taking a two-foot fall. I also think each photographer should be limited to a single tripod.

Other than the riser, most of the other photographers were able to grab some space at the fence along the flight line, but it did get tight. I moved between both the fence and the riser during the show. I probably preferred the riser but don’t think my photography suffered by having to go to the fence.

Since the 2009 show was the first to have the photo pit, some things naturally weren’t as smooth as they might have been. The security people and volunteers directing traffic apparently had no idea where parking for photo pit pass holders was supposed to be. I was directed to an area that was reasonably convenient, but the lack of recognition of the pass was a bit disconcerting. Some vendors would not accept the food coupons. I tried to purchase a frozen lemonade, but the vendor pointed at the tents staffed by organizations affiliated with the airshow (JROTC, etc.) and said they were the only ones accepting coupons. A couple of the photographers in the pit complained that a runner for food would have been nice, especially given that we had coupons anyway, but that seems a little spoiled to me. I must admit, however, that a number of professional sports stadiums do have waiters for the expensive seating areas, so maybe the thought isn’t out of line.

I talked with a few other photographers during the day. Most were serious hobbyists, and some had some very expensive gear ($5,000+ lenses, for instance). Surprisingly, a few people were using non-SLR cameras. A few of the photographers were from out of town, including one who had traveled from Los Angeles and another who had traveled from the UK.

Having been to WOH for a number of years, a few other comments are in order about the show with relationship to photography.

• Ellington Field has two primary runways, 17R-35L and 4-22, and one secondary runway (17L-35R). The airshow action always occurs along the length of 17R-35L, and the flight line and viewing areas run parallel to this runway. Consequently, the sun is always to the right of the viewing areas. In the morning, the sun shines onto the spectators, making photography to that end of the field difficult. By afternoon, however, the sun has swung over behind the spectators, and photography becomes much easier. Fortunately, the headline act, such as the U.S. Navy Blue Angels for the 2009 show, is always the last act of the day.
• Pyrotechnics and smoke are a big part of the WOH airshow. The biggest use of pyrotechnics is for the Tora! Tora! Tora! show, of course, but they are used elsewhere during the show, too. A small breeze picked up in the afternoon and kept the field relatively clear, but last year’s TTT show became almost impossible to photograph because of the lingering smoke.
• Several of the photographers in the pit brought tripods or monopods. About half of them gave up at sometime through the show and went handheld. Even with heads made for swinging a camera and large lens freely, I don’t see how anyone can track a jet aircraft with a camera on a tripod, especially at high angles. More power to those hardy souls, of course, but my recommendation is to leave the tripod at home.

Other comments about the show this year.

• This show was one of the fastest paced shows I can remember. There were more military aviation demonstrations than usual and fewer stunt pilots. Also there were no rocket trucks, as in past years, which the kids love (but I don’t care for because the crowds pack the fence lines to see them). One of the reasons the two photographers mentioned above wanted a food runner was because of the fast pace.
• The year’s show was the first time that the Blue Angels have been to WOH since I moved to Houston in 1998. I’m sure that was one of the reasons for the record crowds.
• For the first time that I can remember, the show had a flight demonstration from a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. For safety reasons, I assume, the A-4 flew well away from the flight line and proved hard to photograph with any dramatic impact without a lens larger than 400 mm.
• This year’s show had three heritage flights, which was a first. There was a C-17/C-47 flight, an A-1/A-4/A-26 flight, and a P-38/P-51C/P-51D/F-15 flight.
• I continue to be disappointed that WOH cannot get a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor at the show, either as a static display or especially as a flight demonstration.
• For some reason, the show started late. The first flight, the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet demonstration, was supposed to begin at 9:30 a.m. It didn’t begin until around 10:15 a.m. No doubt, this delay contributed to the need for a faster-paced show.
• WOH food vendors downsized their soft drink cups to a pathetic eight ounces for $3.00. Ouch! I remember when they sold ballpark-size souvenir cups for only $4.00.
• Traffic getting to the show was a disaster this year after 10:00 a.m. I arrived at the airport a little after 9:00 a.m., but didn’t get to park until after 9:30. My brother left his home (about the same distance away) about a half-hour later, and didn’t park until around noon. Somewhere around 2:00 p.m., the announcer told the crowd that the parking lots were full, which was a first.

In summary, the photo pit pass proved to be worth the money to me. I was able to maintain a good sightline to the action and didn’t need to leave the pit except for a bite to eat. If WOH sets up a pit next year, I will probably purchase a pass.

Categories: Airshow, Photography, Reviews
No Comments »