Really nice photo of A-7E formation flying. As soon as I saw it I was reminded of one that I took when we deployed to Hickham AFB in Hawaii with our A-7Ds and A-7Ks (the two seat version) Since we were from the Arizona Air National Guard, I thought that a picture of our birds over the Arizona Memorial would be appropriate. It took several discussions with Honolulu Tracon to get permission and I have attached my shot taken from above the formation of three A-7Ds and one A-7K over the Memorial. Number 4 in the slot position is the first of our aircraft to be painted in the new camoflage paint that the Tucson Guard developed.

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After using my old avatar of an F-102 fighter landing with the drag chute deployed, I found a new picture that I like better. The F-102 was the first airplane I flew for the Arizona Air National Guard during my 20 year career there. The next airplane was an F-100 Super Sabre which the Guard converted to when we became the gunnery school for all National Guard fighter pilots in the United States. That lasted 8 years and then we upgraded to the A-7 Corsair II which was a highly advanced single engine, single seat attack aircraft that could carry more bombs than a B-17 bomber of WWII fame and had such great pilot aids as a heads up display (HUD), a moving map display which showed your actual position on a projected aerial map, a weapon delivery and navigation computer, terrain following and avoidance radar to list just a few.

The picture I am now using for my avatar is a flight of 3 A-7 aircraft that were on an air combat tactics mission and the base photo lab had rigged a rear facing camera in the lead aircraft which was flown by Capt. "Whip" Wilper. The student was on his left wing in this picture and I was on the right wing. My job was to break off from the formation once we had reached our training area and act as an "aggressor aircraft" and do simulated attacks using known enemy tactics so the student could learn how to defend against them. Just before I left the formation, we positioned the aircraft so the result would be what you see in the photo.

The decoration on the helmet visor cover is a version of the Arizona State Flag and all the instructors in the squadron had identical visor covers. We normally flew with the visor down in the daytime as during manuevering flight, we often were looking into the sun. I have numerous airplane photos but this is one of the few that has me in the picture so I decided to use it for my avatar.

I really like the fact that the motion of the wings is apparent. Almost every hummingbird photo has the wings frozen with a high shutter speed and they look too static. It is similar to when people take photos of propeller driven airplanes - they use a very fast shutter speed and the prop(s) look like they are not moving. Good job.

My house sits up the hill from the La Paloma resort and every year they have a nice little fireworks display for their guests. It may not be as spectacular as some of the other shows here in Tucson but the fact that I can sit on my pool deck and not have to worry about someone bumping in to my tripod or walking in fron of the camera more than makes up for the size. I wanted to show the little details of the individual burst that you normally cannot see with naked eye so I zoomed in to 70mm with my Sony a6000 and 18-105 G lens, set the ISO at 125, the aperture at f16 and the shutter speed at 10 seconds. I shot with manual focusing and just sat there with a remote shutter release in one hand and a Margarita in the other and just kept taking 10 second shots until the display was over.

I shot in RAW in case there was some color correction or exposure problems that needed to fixed in Lightroom but very little post processing was needed other than the cropping and some small corrections on the highlights slider. I love the fact that the longer exposure lets you see all the little details that might be missed by the naked eye.

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I fully agree that shooting handheld at 600mm would not work out too well and like I said, it is just a pilot thing.

A very nice collection of airshow photos and it really shows that sometimes there is a better place to take photos than at show center. I also loved the last one with Blues framed by the tree. I know that when you are in the middle of an airshow it is hard to change settings sometime but the photo of the B-17 would have been a winner if you had changed your shutter speed to something of like 1/250 or slightly slower so as to show the props rotating. It may just be a pilot thing but seeing an airplane with the props not turning leads to feelings of insecurity.

My thanks to all of you that took the time to comment on the Goblin Valley State Park pictures - I'm glad you enjoyed them and I agree with the observation that my sensor needs cleaning.
I did not have a computer to download these photos to on the 30 day trip we were on and could not see the spots on the camera screen. It has been cleaned!

As you can see, this is a very interesting place and a bonanza for photographers. It is located about 35 miles southwest of Green River, UT and about 25 miles off I-70. The park has a $15 dollar admission charge but once you are out and about with your camera, you will consider that a bargain. Unlike many other parks that require you to "Stay on the marked trail", here you can climb on, under or through all these weird "hoodoo" formations. There are literally hundreds of them and it is an easy hike from the parking lot down to the valley.

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Thanks for the vote of confidence - hopefully it will help spur some interest among potential buyers!

I have two very lightly used 550 EX Speedlights in excellent physical and mechanical condition. I will sell separately for $125.00 each or $225.00 for the pair - shipping included.

I also have a Canon Speedlight Transmitter ST-E2 that will allow you to use one or both Speedlights as slaves and balance the lighting between them remotely. $100.00

The Speedlights and the Transmitter come with original Canon leather cases.

The diffusers shown in the photo have already been sold.

A nice series. I particularly the framing of the mountains using the shack and the car windows. Thanks for sharing this with us.

After a photo seminar with George Lepp that I won from Canon, I got rid of my flimsy tripod and bought a Bogen 3221. It was what George used back then (1996) I have had it ever since and except for the heaviness of it, have found it be very sturdy. On one of my vacations, a stupid idiot with a pickup backed over the tripod and bent one of the legs. I wrote to Bogen (and after confessing I was the stupid idiot who backed over it, asked if it could be repaired) They gave me an address to send it to and a few weeks later I got it back in serviceable condition and NO CHARGE! I don't know if this is still available but you sure can't beat product support like that.

My wife was with me but she was on the upper level with the grand kids and couldn't hear the narrative from the docent. Again, thank you for correcting me and for being so polite about it. So many comments are made on this forum that are derogatory that it refreshing to find a polite one. Cheers.

Again my thanks to all who have enjoyed the raptor photos and I cannot say enough good things about the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It is a world class institution and is worthy of a stop if you are in the Tucson area. As I mentioned before, the raptor flights do not take place during the summer months so plan your visit accordingly. Also, no matter what time of year you visit, plan to arrive at opening time as the animals are more active in the cool of the morning.

I went back through my rather sketchy notes (things happen quickly once the birds start flying) and agree that is indeed a grey hawk. Thank you for taking the time to correct me as I try to be as accurate as I can be with my comments.