Blue Photo Contest / Plane Favourites

Listening to: Dynamite Steps - The Twilight Singers (2011).

I've been meaning for a while now to post some of the favourite aircraft photographs I have taken over the last twenty years or so, and talk about the background behind them and why I like them. It was originally going to be a top 10, but I couldn't decide on 10, so it will more likely be an occasional thing.

A post at Adventures in the Underground about another blogger's blue theme photo contest seems a good way to kick the series off.


When I thought of images I had taken that could fit the theme, one in particular came to mind. Now taking pictures of aircraft as a hobby will mean there is a lot of blue sky I can choose from, but this one stood out. It would have been in the top 10 (click to enlarge):
It is an Australian FA/18 showing off at the RNZAF Whenuapai Open Day in 2009, launching into the sky just after take off, undercarriage still retracting, tail-planes well deflected for the climb, full afterburner (and full noise) and moodily underlit due to the patchy cloud that day.

To get an idea of what the aircraft is doing, here is video from further down the crowdline of the take off. I took the picture somewhere around the 0:05 mark, and yes it was loud, the kind of loud that makes your insides vibrate, activates car alarms, frightens small children, and makes me smile for some reason:


I like it because it evokes the power and agility of aircraft like this, and the way they can seem to bludgeon gravity into submission by sheer performance. I also like it because it is a decent snap of an aircraft not seen in NZ too often, and because it was the start of one of the best combat aircraft displays I have ever seen. It was a cool moment.