Mixed bag of images from yesterday...C&C and edits are allowed....

[IzzieK]

Kay, my culture (Asian) taught us to be mindful of old people, vets or not. You see, where I originally came from, we take care of our old folks. We do not send them to nursing homes. We have no extra resources for that. Only the very rich people do because they can afford 24 hour help.

Old people contributed to the society we live now. They were the innovators. Unfortunately, nowadays many vilified old folks for being old, for getting old. If I can shake a vet's hand each day and thank them for keeping us safe, I will do so. I once went to Dallas to watch newly arriving servicemen that just had their tour of duty from Afghanistan. It was so touching to even shake their hands and say thank you for their service. It was so touching to see them meet their love ones, their wives who they left behind and the babies born without them...and it was so good to see them alive and back in their soil. It was nice to see the smiles on their faces.

Thanks for viewing and commenting, Kay....

What a great day you had!
I'm a big softie for elder folk as well, so to see and read about these great gentlemen is fantastic.
I have a tear in my eye as I read how you thanked him for his service to your country.
A lovely series of a day you will cherish, well done.

[IzzieK]

Thank you to you too Carol and Dave...I am glad you enjoyed my story ... I think I made up for the story what my crappy shots did not...

[IzzieK]

Thanks Mike...I had thought of the wide angle lens after I got to struggling with what I had in my camera. The show is finished but there will be more times I will shoot airplanes (pun intended, I think...) because airplanes is the glue that keep my marriage together. Hubby is a fanatic, that is his passion. Me? -- I just want to stay away as far away from them when I can. But there are times like this one above that I enjoyed my time with them. Old vets are like a library of books...they tell you their stories because they were there themselves. Unfortunately I told my good friend about meeting David. She told me that her dad flew in the B24 too and died.

The first two shots I uploaded because I want to show all of the planes' width. If I go closer I would have lost that width (so I thought) but your idea is good. I will try that next time. We have so many old fly-able memorable airplanes at our museum over there. And there won't be any distractions either...thanks for the tip.

Great shots and stories! It warms me to see the very elderly servicemen still up and active and reliving their youth together.

If you get a chance to go out there again, try some very low-angle shots wide a wide lens to get rid of distracting tarmac objects (random people and cars especially) and thus dramatize the planes and even the veterans standing right in front of them. Planes and sky go together, so this should work!

[IzzieK]

Thank you Richard. I also had some shots of the P-51 that was there...(hubby is dying to have one of them in our hangar...I brought him back to reality : we do not have the space!!!) Anyway, I still have to process
some more images. And your story matched that of DAvid Schaeffer -- that the P51's were the ones that accompanied and shielded the B24s to safety. It was nice to know all these facts, facts that sometimes books will not even touch on...I appreciate the history lesson. I love history.

I really respect the old gentlemen who had the courage to fly over Germany and other occupied areas in the face of horrific losses.

Our higher echelons of the military made some terrible strategic errors during WWII. One great error that cost the lives of a significant number of bombers and crews was the theory that bombers in formation could protect themselves with their defensive armament against fighter attack. It was not until the P-51 Mustang came along (with the Rolls Royce Merlin Engine - the Mustangs with Allison engines were pretty crappy) that our daylight bombers had a shred of protection against the fighters of the Luftwaffe.

However, Germany came close to winning the battle of Britain by concentrating the attacks against the Royal Air Force Fighter Command aerodromes. What saved England was that the Luftwaffe switched its efforts against the cities, docks and factories, giving the RAF Fighter Command a much needed break.

AFAIK: TheAllies did not seem to learn from this lesson... Neither the U.S. Army Air Force nor the RAF expended a significant amount of resources against the German anti-air defenses, fighters and anti-aircraft artillery.

[IzzieK]

I like the third shot, too, Izzie. Now, if you had climbed up onto the nose of the plane and taken some pictures looking back at the cockpit, or over at the prop, that would have been cool.

Greg...I should had done that...unfortunately hubby did not tell me that he paid for me to go up the airplane until we got home. I should have had more crappy shots to show you all.... He was more concern about the monster we created (Tucker) than me...so he forgot. Dang! That would have been good!

Thanks for viewing and commenting...and for your suggestion. I will not forget that next time. At the time I had no money, no car, no dog, no husband...but I had my camera though...

[thegman]

Load your shots here...I don't mind. It will be interesting to see...

PICTURES ...OR IT DID NOT HAPPEN....

Cheers mate...

Izzie, some shots of ''Whisky 7''

#1. DC47 W7 flypast at Prestwick, Scotland.


#2. DC47 W7 taxiing.


#3. W7 nose.


#4. W7 Port engine.

[IzzieK]

These are all wonderful shots, Gerry! Beautiful bird...I cannot even choose a favourite. I like #1 very much until I saw the rest of them in different shots. They are all very sharp. I have some from my lot last Tuesday that was really cool like your last one here but I still have to process and resize them. Do you live near the airport? Do you have a plane too? It must be fun trying to watch the weather over there to find high clouds every now and then...

Well done! They are all very spectacular shots!

Izzie, some shots of ''Whisky 7''

#1. DC47 W7 flypast at Prestwick, Scotland.


#2. DC47 W7 taxiing.


#3. W7 nose.


#4. W7 Port engine.

[thegman]

Izzie I live approximately 5 miles from the airport, I wish I had a plane, I'm interested in the technical aspect of aviation as I was an helicopter engineer in the British Navy for 22 years. I have some more shots of a recent visit by the Red Arrows display team I'll look them out. Thank you for you comments

#1.

#2.

#3.

These images were taken more for learning to pan, so, much work still to be done

[IzzieK]

These are stunning shots! I particularly like the sharpness of #2...

I pan manually, single shots. I've learned to rotate my body just like taking pano and my husband's advice was to focus on just one plane, either the lead (depending on the situation) or the second one. It helped a lot. And oh, he used to be an aerobatic pilot too in his days. He built and maintains his own airplanes and used to be a flight engineer for TWA when he was hired on and was loan to Saudi Air Lines for the same reason for 2 years. I had not seen the Red Arrows fly but I have been to the Blue Angels show and the Thunderbirds.

Izzie I live approximately 5 miles from the airport, I wish I had a plane, I'm interested in the technical aspect of aviation as I was an helicopter engineer in the British Navy for 22 years. I have some more shots of a recent visit by the Red Arrows display team I'll look them out. Thank you for you comments

#1.

#2.

#3.

These images were taken more for learning to pan, so, much work still to be done