Hummer No. 2

RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, GREEN, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 20, 2009

Pentax K10D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/180 sec. f8 with on-board flash
ISO 400

It's back to photographing feathered birds, this time through the front plate-glass window of the Writer's Lair. The on-board flash brightened the scene on a rainy day and also highlighted the iridescence in this female hummer's back feathers. Sometimes flash gives a better image than sunlight, but not often.

Sea Fury

HAWKER SEA FURY, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 34mm
1/750 sec. f11
ISO 400

This airplane caught my attention on the World War II warbird line at Oskosh not because it's rare (quite a few are still flying) but because of its history. The Sea Fury was the British Royal Navy's last propeller-driven carrier-borne fighter, one of the fastest ever (480 mph), and shot down a MiG-15 jet during the Korean War. It still is a favorite at the Reno air races. (This is the final photo in my Oshkosh series.)

DC-3

DOUGLAS DC-3, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1000 f13
ISO 400

The last time I flew in this classic airliner of the 1940s and 1950s was as a passenger at an air show in Upland, California, in 1998. I sat in a rearmost seat and felt every touch of rudder input by the pilot, especially on takeoff. Many scores of the type survive, and I counted five of them -- one in olive drab U.S. Army Air Forces C-47 dress -- at the big Oshkosh fly-in this summer.

Wingwalker

GENE SOUCY AND TERESA STOKES, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

All photos:
Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1000 or 1/2000 sec. f9.5 or f11
ISO 400

Gene Soucy and his wingwalker Teresa Stokes awed the audience, especially the photographers, at last week's big Oshkosh fly-in. They used Soucy's much-modified Grumman Ag Cat cropduster and made sure to do low passes for the shutterbugs. The photos are my favorites from the event not least because the sun came out from under the clouds during their gig and lit up the airplane's bright colors.

Tri-Motor

FORD TRI-MOTOR, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1000 sec. f11
ISO 400

All day long, every fifteen minutes, the Experimental Aircraft Association's popular 1929 Ford Tri-Motor -- the world's first mass-produced airliner -- took off with a load of paying passengers for a circuit of the airfield during the big fly-in/air show at Oshkosh. This is how your great-grandparents flew during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when airline travel was still high adventure.



Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/750 sec. f13
ISO 400

Superjumbo

AIRBUS A380-800, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 17mm
1/1000 sec. f13
ISO 400

Crowds swarmed antlike aboard the Airbus A380-800, the world's largest commercial airliner (up to 853 passengers), on the ramp at the annual Oshkosh fly-in and air show last week. Too big to negotiate the taxiways, it had to be pushed backwards with an aviation tractor all the way down the runway for takeoff.



Hundreds of thousands of cameras captured its steep, steep departure and leisurely maneuvers over the airport. Remarkably agile for its size, the A380 swung, wheeled and pirouetted in an elephantine ballet seemingly specially created for photographers on the ground below.

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 17mm
1/1500 sec. f11
ISO 400



Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1500 sec. f11
ISO 400



Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1000 sec. f11
ISO 400



Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1500 sec. f11
ISO 400

Hellcat

GRUMMAN F6F HELLCAT, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 31mm
1/750 sec. f11
ISO 400

While walking the long lines of warbirds on display at the Oshkosh fly-in and air show last week, I stopped for a lingering look at this beautifully restored Hellcat fighter, a workhorse of the U.S. Navy in World War II. It brought back memories of my late father, who served on the aircraft carrier Randolph during the Pacific battles and often spoke admiringly of this airplane.

Trojans in formation

NORTH AMERICAN T-28S IN FORMATION, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4,5 ED (IF)
1/1000 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

One of the crowd-pleasers at the annual Oshkosh fly-in and air show is the sweeping formation of T-28 Trojans, advanced military trainers of the 1950s and 1960s that were also used as armed counterinsurgency aircraft in Vietnam. Hundreds of the type survive in private hands and dozens of them flock to Oshkosh every year.

Mother ship

SCALED COMPOSITES WHITEKNIGHT TWO, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

Both photos:
Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/2000 sec, f11
ISO 400

By far the oddest new airplane at the big Oshkosh air show last week, the WhiteKnight Two -- a pair of airframes, each with two jet engines, connected at the wing -- is the airborne launching pad for a rocket vehicle intended to carry tourists into suborbital space for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company. It first flew last December 21 and can soar as high as 70,000 feet.

Warhawk on takeoff

CURTISS P-40 WARHAWK, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, JULY 31, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/750 sec. f11
ISO 400

There are only a handful of flying P-40s left in the world today, and three of the early World War II fighters were at the Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in at Oshkosh last week. This one was captured shortly after takeoff, its landing gear still folding into the wings. Its markings are Chinese, representing the volunteer American pilots called the "Flying Tigers" that flew against the Japanese early in the war.