2008-08-03

Blue Angels over Seattle


A couple years ago I posted some pictures I took of the Blue Angels as the practiced over my Seattle apartment.

For those who don't know, the Blue Angels is the US Navy's precision flying team. They perform acrobatic stunts in fighter jets in frighteningly close proximity to one another. You can learn more about the Blue Angels here. Be warned, though, it is one of those stupid, obnoxious internet sites that plays music as soon as you open the page.

They were back again this week for Seattle's annual Seafair celebration. And this time, I had a better vantage point and better equipment.

Here are some of the picture I took on Saturday.











They constantly disappear and reappear around buildings and clouds. Spotting them can be a bit difficult. The roar of the engines tells you they are close, but it's not really helpful for spotting them. The buildings distort the audio perspective, and the difference between the speeds of sound and light further complicate matters.

When I knew they were close but couldn't see them, I would look over at the other roof top photographers to see where they were pointing their lenses.

Even though I didn't see the actual show, what these pilots were doing while preparing to head back to the performance area over Lake Washington never stopped amazing me.

You can see all of my unedited Blue Angels pictures from this year here on my Flickr page.

13 comments:

Eric S. said...

Those are some good pictures. I bet it was fun to watch. I've only been to one small air show, and they didn't have anything like the blue angels.

Ms. O. D. said...

Love the pictures! You manage to get one with a Seagull(?). :)

Silly Willy and Fluffy said...

Great pics! They are an awesome team of pilots. We met some of them after a practice session at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. It was Fluffy's birthday and she felt the show was all for her.
Can you imagine what was going thru
that seagulls mind. "Where can I get a set of wings like that?"
Kudos to you. Silly Willy & Fluffy

Fitzy said...

Sweet pictures. I too was wondering about the one with the seagull. An honorary Blue Angel for the day? :)

HawgWyld said...

Cool! Just like a kid, I love airplanes -- especially military ones.

The Natural State Hawg

Unknown said...

I had the opportunity to see them in Texas and it was fabulous. They very rarely ever come to the big EAA Airshow we just had this past week, but I would love that. I just don't think we have a large enough show space for them.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Great pics. You are very talented. You give your new equipment too much credit and too little credit to yourself.

Love the one with the bird, too.

Those could make great 8x10 decorations in your apt.

Soyun Park said...

WoW~ those pics are awesome. I am jealous~
Soyun.

Anonymous said...

I am an aviation enthusiast and I love the precision teams. Great Pictures. I also enjoy watching the thunderbirds as well.

AmyOops said...

Great Pics.. Here is my blue angel story.. When I was stationed at Lemoore Ca, I was allowed to drive on the flight deck and drop off supplies to the diffrent companies. The blue angels where landing one day, and here I am driving, blasting the radio having a good ole time, has they are landing around me, I didnt know they closed the field that day. Boy did I get my butt chewed out that day

Anonymous said...

wow great photos. my friend was just telling me about this. I never knew. Weird that now I've heard about it twice. totally randomly.

Anonymous said...

I love the blue angels. I live in Norfolk, VA and worked at the Naval Base. Every other year they come here and would practice the week prior to the show. We would go stand on the roof of our building and they would be flying right over us. It was SOOO cool.!!

Ken said...

They were here in Chicago last weekend. Pictures in my blog at uncommonphotographers.net too.