As mentioned, these posts are a chance for me to get my D100 and D200 out, make sure the batteries are charged and there’s a fresh CF memory card waiting to receive photos, and go out and shoot with them old workhorses.

I did go out and shot about 10 photos each with the D100 and the D200, specifically for this post. The thing is, it was cloudy and there wasn’t a whole lot of interesting stuff to shoot. I’ll probably share the photos eventually, but for now, something more interesting (I hope).

I went to check the memory in the D200 before shooting, and there were photos on the card from 2015, 2017, and 2019. These photos are from 2015.

Specifically, from the United States Air Force Academy 2015 graduation Thunderbirds show.

I remember why, too . . . I had both the D7000 and the D200 cameras ready; the D7000 with the 70-200mm lens, and the D200 with the 80-400mm lens. That’s because sometimes the planes are far away, and occasionally they fly right over you.

That was the year we ran a bit late and had a hard time finding a decent place to park (my fault). Also, I remember I got extremely irritated because a couple stopped us from parking near them claiming I would interfere with them watching the show. That had us drive around even as the show started and us miss some of the fly-overs. (I was later glad to see a big truck — carrying a bunch of people — tell the couple to go reproduce with themselves, and they parked where I was going to park, blocking their perfect view … yes, I’m still annoyed after all these years; I live a life of non-confrontation (because I carry a gun), but that assumes people are reasonable and considerate. It also means I have to back down when rear orifices exercise their rear orificeness, as was the case for that couple.)

These photos are not as good as photos from others years, in part because I was rushed and didn’t mind the settings like I should have, and in part because of said irritation.

Also, it was a cloudy day, and the D200 paired with the 80-400mm lens is not a great performer in mediocre light when trying to capture fast-moving objects. Actually, not so much the camera as the lens.

Still, considering the distance, depending on the flight path, ranged from 2 to 4 miles, I suppose I can’t complain too much about these results.

At the time, I resolved that the following year we would get there early and get a good spot (and sit there holding a shotgun to ensure no one parked near us) . . . of course, the following year we were busy moving to Hawaiʻi.

So, those are the Thunderbirds. But there were more birds on the memory card from that day . . . and they seemed to be having a heated argument . . . probably about running late.

Here’s the interesting thing about why these photos were still in the camera . . . I don’t remember doing a post about that show. The closest I came to mentioning the 2015 Thunderbirds was in THIS post (which is itself, I think, a great post). I should probably do a post about that show; I know I have a bunch of photos from it.

As usual, I think WordPress degrades the photos . . . you can still click on them to see the larger size I uploaded, but if you want to see the photo in more detail, THIS SmugMug gallery has the above photos.

Here’s a WP gallery of the above and a Gallery with artsified versions:

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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