The Blue Angels made their annual visit to Seattle last weekend as apart of the Seafair festivities. Even though this is my fourth summer in the Emerald City, I’ve never actually made it down to Lake Washington to watch their show. While working at Boeing Field last year, I saw the squad come in and take their customary parking space at the south end of the runway. Blue Angel fans camped out along the airfield waiting for the F/A-18s to land in Seattle. After joining the crowd at the I-90 bridge this year, I understand the buzz that accompanies these daredevils. Watching the Blue Angels dip, dive and scream their Boeing jets along the water was exciting.

One of the most unique aspects of the show was watching the Blue Angels against an urban backdrop. You really get a sense for how devastating the Hornet could be in an actual conflict. Before you ever hear a sound, they come from behind a hill and are right over your head. If they wanted, Bellevue could be decimated within minutes.

The photographic conditions during this demonstration were about as bad as it can get. The Blue Angels air show started around 1 PM, and Seattle was experiencing a blazing hot, clear day. I used my longest lens, the 18-200mm VR, with a polarizing filter. Most of my shots were made with aperture priority dialed to f/8. I was surrounded by a sea of long, gray glass—I should have figured that the low flying jets would bring the Canon shooters out. For next year, I’ll be sure to bring along a 400mm lens, monopod and a backwards baseball hat—or not.

For a few more shots, watch the slideshow below or check out my Flickr set.

Yesterday, a few us cruised out to Redmond Ridge to knock around the Titleist. I helped organize a four person scramble with eight teams. We certainly didn’t win, but our team was pleased with an inspired one-under score (thanks to a 15 foot biride putt on 18 by yours truly). The majority of the glory hardly belongs to me—my golf skills are certainly inferior to the two other things I did yesterday: take pictures and drink beer.

Brian Stewart and I shared a cart with Keith and Dustin rounding out our team for the scramble. The beautiful thing about a four person scramble is that when your play starts to detiorate (due to beer, attitude, general poor golf ability), you hardly notice. As long as just one of your teammates doesn’t follow your Pro V1 donation to the woods, you’re good.

Of particular concern to me were the signs that attempted to assign responsibility to the golfer for errant shots that result in property destruction. I wouldn’t quite call my golf game “a bull in a China shop,” but it certainly has unpredictable moments. Redmond Ridge weaves through several neighborhoods. Some homes were well inside the ‘Andy Aupperlee Spray Zone.’ Although I am 99% sure I did not break anything, let’s just say that the neighborhood kids will find a few new treasures mixed in with their swing sets and sandboxes.

For this shot, I laid down on the ground to the right of the tee box. I figured it was a relatively safe spot to capture a unique perspective. I dialed the D300 to the fast framers-per-second setting and set my exposure program to shutter priority at 1/2,000th of a second. The combination of camera controls and location allowed me to grab a shot of Keith moments before he blasted his drive.

I also shot Dustin from the same spot. Dustin did not quite hit the ball the way he wanted. This was very obvious to me as I heard a ball whiz two-feet by my head. Ever wonder why pro cameras are so big and heavy? It’s to protect the photog for when he (stupidly) puts himself in the line of fire.

Dustin’s game did have moments of glory though. He closed out several holes with inspiring putts to secure birdies.

Brian’s consistent and skillful game unquestionably carried our team. While I was busy drinking Coors Lights, Brian knocked out big drive after big drive. He then proceeded to hit greens, giving us birdie opportunities.

To view more pictures from the day, please check out Flickr or watch the slideshow below.