CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Some film scans are finally getting some time in Lightroom for editing. This post merges images from the annual air & water shows in August 2022 and 2023.

Chicago Air & Water Show by Paul Sager, on Flickr


Every August at least 1 million people gather on the lakefront beaches to watch aerobatic feats in the sky and simulated rescue operations in the water.

Chicago Air & Water Show


Except the years with weather delays or cancellations, the show occurs on both Saturday and Sunday from about 10am to 2pm during the weekend.

Chicago Air & Water Show


An additional Friday 'practice' day occurs, with much less crowds, but many of the same performances as will occur during the weekend.

Chicago Air & Water Show


The Blue Angels (US Navy) and the Thunderbirds (US Air Force) alternate each year as the show headliners.

Chicago Air & Water Show


Most of the 'acts' and demonstrations appear for just 5- to 10-minutes during the show, where the two headliner performances are the final 30-minutes of each day's events.

Chicago Air & Water Show


The Blue Angels date to 1946 and the Thunderbirds to 1953. In 1960 the Thunderbirds first appeared in the second year of Chicago's now annual show.

Chicago Air & Water Show


A single boat sits at 'center stage' in Lake Michigan to give performers a target for passing across the announcers, and the main grandstands, for the fans arriving early enough to get a seat someplace other than the beach sand.

Chicago Air & Water Show


I'm usually shooting primarily digital during the airshow, grabbing a film camera when something slower moving appears.

Chicago Air & Water Show


The film decision also depends on the light and the film loaded at the moment. For the frames that didn't work so well when culling the results, I'll probably just save the film shots for the best light going forward.

Chicago Air & Water Show


Parachute teams from the US Army Golden Nights and US Navy Leap Frogs also land on the beach at center stage during the show.

Chicago Air & Water Show


The color film rolls used were all expired, typically from around 2003-04. All the images come from a Canon EOS 1v with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II. The individual images have EXIF data extracted from the camera and merged into the scanned JPEGs. The image titles are URL links to Flickr where the film type and exposure data are presented.

Chicago Air & Water Show

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Nice set!

Triple G

Excellent. One of the events I miss since moving away.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

Very nice, Paul…and your narrative always makes the images more interesting. Thanks!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you Bill, Triple G, 47greyfox ! I was surprised how old some of the images were when I got the last mass-processing package back and started looking at the scans.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Your usual excellent tour, Paul!

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

Great series, Paul.

Chiroman8

Thanks for the nice pictures & all your hard work !

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you Mike, Earnest, Chiroman8! Some of those expired rolls were being tried for the first / last time as I sought to exhaust some of the rolls in my freezer.

therwol Loc: USA

Excellent captures. Excellent composition. I'm impressed.

HRoss Loc: Longmont, CO

Paul, thank for the trip down memory lane. When I lived in Chicago, this show was a must see, every year. I lived just off the drive near Belmont. I remember they would have practice flights on the Friday before the show. I was watching the Cubs on one of those Fridays and the Blue Angels made a pass over Wrigley field...everyone, including the players all ducked!.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you therwol, Howard! I try for the Friday practice day, to get a bit closer to show-center when so many less people are there. This past 2023 I got the last open spot still at the water's edge (no blocking in front) at nearly the exact same spot both 'official' days. The weather was great all three days, where in 2022, we lost an entire day due to rain.

tshift Loc: Overland Park, KS.

Awesome shots. Would like to see more. Thanks for posting. BE SAFE!!

Tom

Tdearing Loc: Rockport, TX

Very well done.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you Tom, Tdearing! Probably the largest variety of images were collected in this post, as in different shots for both air and water. I collected a smaller group of B&W this morning in this post: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-800248-1.html