Images by John 'K'

Gotta love auto-focus! The 3D focus tracking on my Nikon camera is usually pretty accurate, but for some reason for one shot out of a sequence it decided to switch from the F-18 Super Hornet that I was tracking and shooting to this bird in the foreground! It was back to the Super Hornet in the next shot a fraction of a second later! I guess it knows me too well and didn’t want me to miss the bird. 🙂

Fleet Week Outtake #2: Afterglow, originally uploaded by Images by John ‘K’.

Although the focus on this shot was less than crisp, looking at this one again I decided to share it anyway because I love the way the contrails are glowing in the afternoon sun…

Fleet Week Outtake #3: High Key 777, originally uploaded by Images by John ‘K’.

It’s a wonder I didn’t burn out my vision during Fleet Week this year – the number of times I ended up tracking planes as they flew right in front of (or very close to) the sun… but they sometimes make for cool shots, as with this one of a United Airlines Boeing 777 taken on the Friday!

Fleet Week Outtake #4: Duck!, originally uploaded by Images by John ‘K’.

When you’re loaded with a high-power zoom lens and a formation of 4 Blue Angels flies low directly over your head from out of nowhere, there is no way you’re going to get them all in the frame, even if you are able to zoom out quick enough!

Fleet Week Outtake #5: Where’d they go?!, originally uploaded by Images by John ‘K’.

Another case of near blindness as this formation of 5 Blue Angels flew pretty much right in front of the sun.

Fleet Week Outtake #6: Who put that mast there?, originally uploaded by Images by John ‘K’.

The thing with shooting from the deck of a big ship when what you are taking pictures of is flying all over the place is you don’t always get a clear shot, because bits of the ship sometimes get in the way. I was stood on an elevated gun platform on the SS Jeremiah O’Brien to watch the display, but even from there I occasionally found my shots blocked by things! This was the final Blue Angels fly-by of the Saturday display and someone just had to stick a whopping great mast in the way! So inconsiderate! 😉

You can find my full set of Fleet Week 2012 photos here.