The 2010 Dayton Air Show

Dayton Ohio is “The Birthplace of Aviation.”  So it only stands to reason that Dayton puts on one of the best air shows in the country – I highly recommend coming out to one if you ever have the opportunity.  Because I work in the defense industry, I’m a member of a professional industry group called Dayton Defense.   I usually get tickets to the Dayton Defense chalet at the Air Show (July 17th)  for my family, and my fellow aviation and photography enthusiast, John Rigano.

For photographing the air show, I brought along both of my Canon DSLR bodies (7D and the 5D Mark II) and an assortment of lenses including: The Canon Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, the Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM, and the EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM. I also had a Canon EF 1.4X II Extender on hand, just in case a little extra zoom punch was needed. That’s a lot of heavy gear to hall around – my guess is the walk from the parking lot to the chalet is a good 2 miles. But it was well worth it, as I got some incredible photos – just click on any of the photos below to see a larger version.  This year we had reasonably good weather for taking photos – blue skies, no rain, and just enough clouds to give your photos that little extra “something.”

The day got off to a great start with a parachute team:

One of the parachute team’s members(Dave Hart)  is a fellow I’ve gotten friendly with over the past few years.  He and Team Fastrax have some impressive accomplishments in the world of parachuting.

The Dayton Air Show usually has a replica Wright “B” Flyer in the show:

In between acts, I took a few snapshots using my iPhone 4.  Here’s a shot of John Rigano helping out my wife Karen with one of our cameras:

My son John, III enjoying the show:

John R. and Karen:

More acts from the show:

I was having a ball shooting the show – my buddy John was too:

A shot of John taking a break from shooting and enjoying the show:

This year we got to see a very talented wing walker act – pirate themed:

Why does this photo immediately remind me of driving with my wife in the car?  😀  😀

The big grand finale for the 2010 Dayton Air Show was the Blue Angels:

The Blue Angels certainly put on a heckuva show.  But what can I say?  I work with the Air Force, so the Thunderbirds will always be my first choice for a military jet performance.

That’s it for my photos – I certainly enjoyed this year’s show (what?  No F-22 AGAIN?!?  Why was the C-17 only on Sunday?).  And the food this year in the Dayton Defense chalet was MUCH better than last year.  Now, if they can just figure out how to get me out of the parking lot in less than an hour after the show ends….

-John