NAF El Centro, California.

[Cobraball]

Shot over 2 days last week, C & C welcome.

http://www.pbase.com/steveflint/el_centro

[Emberghost]

Those are some really cool shots, very clear and sharp. Is this the moon behind the plane? Very cool!

http://www.pbase.com/steveflint/image/122458614

[Cobraball]

Indeed it is.

[RadAL]

great shots but most of them have barely any room between the plane and background... look choked.

[TheBigDog]

wow, amazing shots Steve!

[Dad2Twins]

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed the shots. I did some work over at Imperial airport (just a few miles east) a while back and had lots of fun watching the new F/18 pilots wobble around the traffic pattern. The imperial airport was challenged with their traffic patterns sometimes bumping into the traffic pattern at El Centro.

[Doctorstrangepork]

Very nice set, the formation take off is awesome.

[Cobraball]

great shots but most of them have barely any room between the plane and background... look choked.

Thanks for the comments, I prefer to shoot tight to show as much detail as possible as can be seen in this shot.

http://www.pbase.com/steveflint/image/90995234

Other sites I post on such as Airliners.net, it is almost a requirement.

[PhotosGuy]

Nice shots. Don't take everything ALN says as Gospel.

[yagimax]

Great shots. You put that 500 f4 to good use!

[cyruz]

great shots. the one with the moon in the back ground. any thoughts on readjusting the exposure a bit to make the moon stand out bit more?

[GPFocussed]

Nice detail in the shots and I love the heat signatures!

[JWright]

Where were you shooting from? Some of those look like they were shot on base.

I was out there with a group from Fencecheck and AzAP a week before you and we were given base access for the Blues afternoon practice and then were able to shoot at the threshold of runway 8. Some of the group shot from along Low Road outside the fence at runway 30 and at W Aten & Silsbee Rds before our time to go on the base.

We didn't see any Harriers or Super Hornets, but there were a couple of C-2s from VRC-30 ("The Providers") at North Island practicing in the afternoon along with the F/A-18C's and Ds of VFA-106.

http://johnwright.smugmug.com/Military/General-Military-Aviation/El-Centro-Photocall/11293014_FqZM2#794896905_7j239

[Cobraball]

[quote=JWright;9737031]Where were you shooting from? Some of those look like they were shot on base.

I was out there with a group from Fencecheck and AzAP a week before you and we were given base access for the Blues afternoon practice and then were able to shoot at the threshold of runway 8. Some of the group shot from along Low Road outside the fence at runway 30 and at W Aten & Silsbee Rds before our time to go on the base.

We didn't see any Harriers or Super Hornets, but there were a couple of C-2s from VRC-30 ("The Providers") at North Island practicing in the afternoon along with the F/A-18C's and Ds of VFA-106.



Hi John

Most of the Blue Angels shots are indeed from Low Road, taken from on top of the hay bails at runway 30 and boy do those Blues stay low on departure. Taxi shots are from further down Low Road at the turning on point for 26, and for runway 26 banking inbound shots continue on down W Aten road to the end of the base fence line.

The topside departure and a few taxi shots were all taken from the track at the 08 end. We were very lucky to get such a good mix of
Hornets and Super Hornets, but a shame no CAG birds present at the time.

I did see some shots from the Fence Check photo day, looks like you guys had a great time.

[aviator.4.life]

Awesome shots, you didn't hop the pond to see this did you?

[Cobraball]

First visit to El Centro, but I like to get over to California twice a year for the warm climate and to shoot aircraft. 75f in the UK is a very very good summers day for us, and sometimes we see that ball in the sky, I think you call it the sun.

[CalPiker]

Wow, really great shots. I really liked this one - http://www.pbase.com/steveflint/image/122450021 - It definitely shows why the F-18 was given the nickname of Hornet.

If all goes well, I'm headed out to El Centro this weekend for the air show.

[Cobraball]

Thanks for the comments, enjoy the show.