Ride of the Patriots 2019

Memorial Day weekend in DC means Rolling Thunder. I've been seeing lots of motorcycles for several days leading up to the event. I made my plans to set up on a bridge over Interstate 66 to photograph the Ride of the Patriots, which is a group of riders who line up in Fairfax and who then ride to the Pentagon to join the Rolling Thunder riders. Well, I botched it:

1. I got there too late; the best spots on the bridge were taken and I had an obstructed view of the road as a result.
2. I somehow managed to get my camera into single focus mode and couldn't figure out how to get it into continuous focus mode. It's not obviously marked on the camera. No problem, I thought, I'll just look at the manual...
3. But I had left my phone in the car, and I'd lose my (bad) spot if I left to get my phone, on which I could read the camera manual.

OK, I had to improvise. I basically picked a spot on the road, then focused on that spot, then waited for motorcycles to enter the frame. I managed to get some keepers after all.

Nice Shirt

The ride is dominated by men. Almost all of the women in the ride were hanging on to a male rider. At least that's the way it has been in previous years, and this year was no exception. But, surprisingly large numbers of women rode this time. With thousands of bikes going by, I look for a few things that stand out to be worth shooting. Beards, tattoos, facial expressions, gestures, children, helmets, the rare female rider, ...

What a Beard!

Of course the cops were busy providing traffic control. So I guess you could say they were in the ride too.

Fairfax County's Finest

There are so many back seat riders using their phones, I wonder how many phones get dropped on the road during the ride...

Selfie?

Another theme this year was the number of smokers. There were lots of cigars, and a few cigarettes.

Got a light?

This guy's working on a painful sunburn. Maybe he burned his face riding to Fairfax the day before?

Red Face

This kid is hanging on to the flag and his rider, maybe his/her father? I saw lots of women riding as passengers, and a few children, and even a dog.

Hold on Tight!

I guess makeup was important for this rider. It seems most of the women riders show more skin than the men. Talk about skin abrasion if she falls.

Lipstick

And finally, here's a nice smile to end the series of photos:

Smile!

This year the riders did a poor job of keeping a consistent distance from the bike ahead, and consequently large gaps opened up. Toward the end of the ride, the motorcycles were going by really fast to close the gaps and it became hard to get good shots as they whizzed by. I eventually just put my camera down and watched the show.

The organization that organizes Rolling Thunder announced that this was the last one; they're not doing this anymore. Well, we'll see. Maybe the local chapters will figure out how to keep it going, maybe with smaller groups of riders. Or maybe the national chapter will settle their grievance with the Pentagon over costs and perceived sleights. But maybe this was my last chance to shoot these people and to hear the deep rumble of thousands of bikes.

One last bit about my camera... In spite of my issue with getting it into the right mode to follow objects while maintaining focus (and I've since read the manual and fixed that setting), I'm loving my new camera. I'm stunned by the high quality of the photographs, the ability to do aggressive cropping and still have a nice, sharp photo, and the fact that I've had it for a few months now and still haven't filled the buffer.

Joint Base Andrews Air Show 2019

It was bad weather for the air show this weekend. So bad that they cancelled the Sunday flying on Saturday. I knew the skies would be overcast, getting darker as the day progressed, and photography would be a challenge. But hey, I didn't get a new camera to sit at home. I didn't want to miss a chance to see the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels on the same day.

I arrived in time to see the Thunderbirds taxi out and take off. They did the high show, and disappeared into the clouds a few times. My photos are not my best capture of this team. I should have learned last time that 1/1600 is too slow to freeze the close passes. I saw the maneuver developing, tracked one plane, then fired away when they were about to pass each other. Note to self: read the previous blog post for this event next time to refresh my memory about lessons learned.

Head On Pass

 I was pleased with the new camera. Several times I fired away on continuous high. It tracked focus very well and never filled the buffer.

Mirror Image

 Of course number 5 spends a lot of time upside down.

Number 5

 After the Thunderbirds, there were a few other acts, of which the Mustang show was my favorite.

P-51 Mustang

When I was in high school, I lived near an Air Force Base that had a wing of A-7 Corsair aircraft. I saw them flying around all the time. Then the Air Force switched that wing's aircraft to the A-10. I recall the first time I saw one: it's really ugly. And slow. And did I mention ugly? Well, over time I began to appreciate it. It's relatively quiet. It flies gracefully and is highly maneuverable. And several times I was able to witness it firing the Gatling gun during demonstrations or just target practice. Now decades later, I saw it again, this time flying at the air show. It's not like the F-22 and F-15 demonstrations that I've seen in previous years at the show. It doesn't have the raw speed and noise that I can feel in my chest. There are no afterburners to kick its acceleration. In contrast, it flew quietly, mostly stayed right over the field, and made lots of close passes. And it's still ugly.

A-10 Warthog

Finally, the Blue Angels closed the flying out. I haven't seen them in a very long time and it was worth the wait for them at the end of the day's flying. I was disappointed that Fat Albert did not fly. But the jets put on a great show.

Blue Angel Solos Take Off

Note to self: higher shutter speed for the head on passes.

Head-On Pass

There were a few chances at an afterburner shot; sadly it seems I always had to shoot through the trailing heat haze.

Afterburner Photographed through Heat Haze

 And here's my favorite formation shot of the show.

In Tight

Mist forms in the low pressure above the lifting surfaces.

Vapor Forms Above the Wings

 And finally, here's an awful shot, but it shows the engines on afterburner. For many of their maneuvers, they turned smoke on, and with the light breeze it settled at ground level and I had to pass on many shots just because there was too much smoke to shoot through. I did take this one, shot through a thick cloud of air show smoke as they trailed their own smoky exhaust and exited on afterburner.

Afterburners Lit

It was a good show, even though they did the low show. Hoping for better skies next time.