Air Supremacy

"Proud to be an American"
1/1250 second at f/6.3 ISO 400

Boy, I am not having much luck shooting on Saturdays of late. I was so looking forward to the airshow at Dover (DE) Air Force Base today, but the forecast called for rain most of the day. About 11:00am I saw a sliver of light and decided to head south just for the heck of it.

When I got near Dover, I heard an AM radio broadcast that the show would be delayed, at least, until 1:00pm. They shuttled us to the base from a nearby mall, however because of the rain starting to let up, all the people and the buses arrived at one time. We walked a good bit from the bus stop to the base admittance where the hundreds of people funneled down to a very narrow opening for security reasons. I finally got on to the rain-soaked fields at 2:00pm with my camera inside a large, clear freezer bag (with a hole cut it in it to allow the lens to extend, yet still shielded from the rain). All the viewing stands and booths were set up in the now puddled and muddy yard adjacent to the runway. The mesmerizing C-5 Galaxy did do a pass, however the cloud ceiling was only at 500-700 feet and feature acts needed at least 1,000 feet to perform.

So, I did a quick walk through (actually more of a wade through or shallow swim) before having to hike back to the shuttle area and, ultimately, my car. I work Saturday evenings, so I was unable to enjoy the festivities, if they did indeed resume. Oh well, there's always next year!

View a few other images from the set here.