B-52 Stratofortress flying at the 2022 Pacific Airshow. Affectionally known as the BUFF(BIG UGLY FAT FELLOW). These planes have been flying since the 50’s and were a big part of our nuclear deterrent back in the days. There was a time that we would have several planes up 24 hours a day ready to drop bombs on Russia if the need arose. This planes only makes 3 passes during the airshow, because the turn radius is so long.
For the second year in a row we went to props and hops at the Palm Springs Air Museum. It was a good time with several breweries there. It also doesn’t hurt that there are WWII planes along with some newer jets and stuff out on tarmac. The Palm Springs Air Museum is right next to the runway at the Palm Springs Airport. One of the highlights was seeing the F-117 Nighthawk, after it had been repainted after being demilitarized. I saw it when it first was brought into the museum and it was great to see it now refurbished.
Before:
This is from the F-117 was first brought to the air museum, back in 2020. This was a nighttime event with a Steve Justice from from Lockheed Martin.
F-117 during Props and Hops in 2022. Almost looks like she could fly.
Life is almost back to normal and at least we had an almost full year of Airshows. Went to both of days of the Camarillo airshow and had a great time capturing photos up there. Not as many jets this year, but the WWII planes from Planes of Fame and the Palm Spring Air Museum make this show a treat to visit and experience. The weather was nice, could always ask for a few more clouds, but I will take what I can get and enjoy the time out.
Planes of Fame flew their Zero a few weeks ago, unfortunately the day was overcast and foggy and the aerial images weren’t the best. I took a few of it on the ground and did the best I could with those in the air. This is a famous zero that has been in movies and has the honor of being the last original one. The day was very hazy, but I was out there with my A9ii and 200-600 with 1.4x tele extender. I ended up using quite a bit of dehaze in Lightroom to get the shots to look anywhere near decent. Beautiful plane would have loved for the day to have been better.
This past weekend I attended the Props and Hops festival down at the Palm Springs Air Museum. What more could you ask for beer and warbirds. I didn’t take my full camera kit as we were only in one part of the museum. However I did mess around with some shots during the festival with my iPhone. Being up close with an F-14 Tomcat was kind of nice. Also the beer was really good to, need to make some more trips down to desert as there are some nice places.
This year I was able to go to the Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach. These are some of the shots from Saturday at the 2021 Pacific Airshow before the oil slick caused it be canceled. I wish the airshow hadn’t gotten canceled, but I understand the issue and why it was. I was shooting from the beach with my A9ii and the 200-600 lens. I think next year I will try shooting from the pier along with the beach on the multiple days. It should make for an interesting shoot. The sun was rough for some of the shots because it was directly behind the planes.
Planes of Fame flew their T33 Shooting Star last month and I was on hand to get some shots. Kind of washed out given the heat and haze from the day. Shot with the A9ii and the 100-400. Didn’t use the tele extender, but I probably should have for these shots.
Saturday Planes of Fame did another one of their flyovers. This time it was their war tested P-40 Warhawk that had seen in action in WW2. They took the plane up and did a couple of passes over the crowd.
Planes of Fame flew their Corsair F4U-1A over a couple of days last week. It was nice to see the plane up in the air, took some pictures of it and then edited them in Lightroom. Still out practicing getting ready for the first airshows of the season that will be coming up soon. Rally excited for Airshows to be happening again and looking forward to being out seeing the planes fly.
Planes of Fame, took their Corsair up into the air last year before the pandemic. I was out shooting it from the ground and decided to go back through and edit some of the photos. Unfortunately for California we don’t get anything fun for the sky except blue and bright. Below is the shot as I originally took it, kind of dark and not very attractive. This was with the A6500 and the 100-400 lens. This was a handhold at 1/320 as the plane was going overheard.
Below is after I did an auto apply for settings and then tweaked the exposure a little bit. I also cropped in and then added a little vignette to bring the plane into the center.
Joseph Jenkins 