Red, White & Blues

It's that time of year again when the Blue Angels put on their airshow out at the beach.  I'm not gonna lie, in the past I haven't been too excited for it, mainly because I don't want to wake up before sunrise and wait in traffic.  

But today (Friday for their dress rehearsal), I got the idea: why don't I just park downtown and ride my bike out to the beach.  And I was actually surprised at how well that worked out.  I parked the truck over by Hub Stacey's in free parking and made the trek out first through Gulf Breeze and then out to the Pensacola Beach, about a 35-minute bike ride.  

Traffic wasn't really as bad as I expected (it'll probably be worse tomorrow for the main event) but the Casino Beach parking lot was full when I got there.  Of course, that didn't matter, I just locked my bike up beachside.  

There's a few other photographers here in the area that photograph the Blue Angels but they all seem to use digital cameras and zoom lenses that get as close as possible.  Those guys and gals make incredible images, don't get me wrong, but I felt like going a different direction today.  I just wanted a vibe that showed more crowd reactions and the rest of the scenes that go on out at the beach during these air shows.

I had with me 3 of my film cameras: a Pentax K1000 with a 50mm f/1.4 and Kodak Portra 400, a Canonet QL17 with the 40mm f/1.7 and Ilford HP5, and a Yashica Mat 124G with it's 80mm f/3.5 and Portra 400.  

I mainly used the Pentax and the Yashica Mat until I burned through the rolls, then switched to the Canonet for a few more shots in black and white. Real time, it felt like I probably got better images with the Pentax - today was really the first time I had used the Yashica Mat in this sort of fast-paced environment.  But of course time will tell and I'll find out once I get the scans back. 

I biked the roughly 8 miles back to the truck and headed to Gulf Coast Camera to drop off the two rolls of Portra I shot.  I'll develop the HP5 here at home. 

Keep an eye on my Facebook and Instagram pages for the photos from today and if I deem any of them print worthy, they will be up for sale shortly.

-Tyler