October 10, 1998
First, the news of the day: I've finally got my photographic
portfolio online as part of this web site. I don't know why I waited
so long, but here it is. Follow the link
to "Portfolio". I'd like to hear what you think about it.
Chrisse is in New York visiting her Mother
for the long holiday weekend. Bethany and I are holding down the fort,
spending most of our time playing and watching bartball and listening
to music and running weekend errands. She obviously misses her Mother,
but she's being very affectionate.
My office has been vibrating since Wednesday,
every afternoon. This is Fleet Week in San Francisco. The U.S. Navy Blue
Angels are in town practicing for their three air shows over the Bay this
weekend. The "show center" that they use for all of their high-speed maneuvers
is very, very close to my office near Fisherman's Wharf. Six F-18's at
full throttle, about two hundred feet over my desk, for several hours
each afternoon, has been a real treat. Testosterone City, Baby!
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Of course, I spent some of that time up on the CNET
roof, watching them fly. The longest lens that I had with me was
a 300mm, and that was almost too much lens. There were many times
when they were so close and so low that I could not get all of the
aircraft inside the view frame.
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Four
of the Blue Angels, rooftop level, directly over my office
Shot with a 300mm lens, and this is full-frame. They were LOW!
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You can only imagine how loud this is, to be standing on
the back side of these four jets, with the noise bartprint coming back
and down on you. It makes the walls of your chest vibrate. It's fantastic.
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I
actually had to wait for them to move away from me
to be able to get all four of them visible in the viewfinder.
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One of the fringe benefits of working
in downtown San Francisco on the waterfront is the view of the Bay,
Alcatraz, and the other side of the harbor, Angel Island and Marin
County. From the roof of CNET, it's a great scene, especially when
two screaming F-18's are just barely hanging in the air, nose up,
not moving forward at all, hovering like a helicopter, with full throttle
and afterburner shaking everything within miles, directly above Alcatraz.
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| But one of my favorite Blue Angel maneuvers comes near
the end of their show, when they are all six together at high altitude,
and in formation they come shooting straight down to the ground at
full speed and full throttle, like six arrows being shot straight
to the heart of the Earth. Then at what seems like the last second
they peel apart, each one turning off in a different direction, heading
to opposite compass points. It's breathtaking. |
Hanging
in the air on horsepower only, over Alcatraz.
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Shooting
straight down to the ground,
each heading off in a different direction.
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All in all, a pretty good week. Bethany's
birthday on Monday, turning two, getting my portfolio online, and
watching jets scream just barely over the roof of my office for
two days.
Every week should be this good.
October 10, 1998
Donald Winslow
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