Marina, Ca Air Faire - Finally, I Heard the Music!

After the disappointment of the Salinas Airshow, I was delighted with the much smaller but far more appealing Marina Air Faire. One of the things that let me down about the Salinas show was the absence of WWII warbirds, particularly the glorious P51s. The Marina Air Faire more than made up for it with not one, not two but three P51s. I got my fix of the music of the marvelous Rolls Royce Merlin engine.

Sometimes Things Just Work Our Right

OK, I impressed myself with this one!

For folks who like airplanes I have a slideshow here.

Zoom!

A little more fun with DFine noise reduction.

This image of the Canadian Snowbirds was taken last fall at the Salinas International Air Show. The crystal blue sky was speckled due to high ISO and the clarity of the sky. For that reason it sat in the inventory until I applied the noise reduction software.

Not bad.

A Reminder of The Greatest Generation - Restored B-17G " Liberty Belle'

A restored B-17G is visiting Salinas this weekend. I never miss an opportunity to go see these old war birds. They are animated tributes to the heros that crewed them during WWII.

Over 12,000 of these planes were made by Boeing and others, under contract, during the war. Of that number, more than 4,000 were shot down, roughly 1 in 3 of all the planes made. That is a horrifying casualty rate. One can only try to imagine the courage and determination it took to fly these planes mission after mission.

I gray scaled these images to capture the era. I also used the colored pencil filter in Photoshop to create the "drawings," an effect I like with these photos.

Then and Now - Salinas International Air Show

Marina Air Faire

Saturday was another opportunity to do one of my favorite things, go to an air show.

My "inner child" loves the sound of huge reciprocating engines, especially the Rolls Royce Merlin on the P-51 WWII fighter. There is nothing quite like the sound of one of these mighty beasts racing by at 50' over the runway. I can feel the power of it in my chest.

Salinas International Air Show - Pt 4 - Blue Birds

Click here for more images of the air show.

Salinas International Air Show - Pt 3 - The Blue Angels

And now for the main event...

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Salinas International Air Show - Pt 2 - Snowbirds

A few shots for our long time friends to the north, especially
Amy at Cute but Stupid.

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Salinas International Airshow - Pt 1 - F18 Super Hornet

Today my inner child, Bart (as in Simpson) had a GREAT time. I went to see the Blue Angels and the Canadian Snowbirds. Wow! My ears are still ringing. I put the camera in servo and chewed up nearly 2000 large jpgs. Thank goodness for a high speed 8 gig flash card.

This picture is of a plane from the Super Hornet demonstration team. These are similar planes to those used by The Blue Angels only hotter, if that is possible. The Jar Heads, Marines, (Semper Fi brother Mike:) brought in four of them. Wowzers! Hot indeed.

Having lived many years in St Louis where these babies are made, even working for a time for McDonnell Douglas who makes these planes in St Louis, I got a bit nostalgic. The old familiar roar gave me goosebumps.

With that many pictures to work with, guess I'll be posting a few over the next number of days.

Click here for more images of the air show.

Model Airplane Club

For larger image click on picture.

I was driving down Reservation Road between Salinas and Seaside when I noticed the guys were out flying their model planes today. It seemed like a good idea to shoot a few frames. So I stopped and got their permission.

This is the result.

War Birds

Ah, more fun with Photoshop.

Don't you just love learning new tricks? :)

For larger image click on picture.

WW II War Birds

For larger image click on picture.