Pic Spocket

In my previous post, I talked about the Red Bull Air Race that Windsor was hosting last weekend. Here are my pictures of the weekend. Most of them were taken with my 100-400 mm IS zoom, but few ones with the 70-200 mm IS + 1.4x adapter.

Before going in the day-to-day recap, here is my best, or at least luckiest, shot from Race Day on Sunday. I happened to click at the exact moment when Michael Goulian was hiting one of the air pylons. This was not even taken during a burst. Here it is:

The Friday before the race weekend, pilots usually practice the track. This is often the best day to take pictures because there’s only a few spectators on the side of the river, so you are free to move and place yourself. During the race weekend, you are lucky if you can find a decent spot close to the shore unless you head up there early. I had taken the Friday afternoon off, so I got a chance to see the end of the practice run. Here are a few pictures from the practice session. Among these, Kirby Chambliss (White Plane) showing a good example of knife flying; Rookie pilot Matt Hall (blue and yellow plane), zipping through the track.

Saturday was the day for the qualifications. The weather was very cloudy that day and it was hard to get good pictures through the smoke left by the planes. There is also some pictures of the side acts they use to keep people entertained before the race starts.

Finally, the sunny weather came back for Race Day. Side Acts:

And the actual race:

As usual, larger versions (and many more pictures) available in the photo album.

Red Bull Air Race 2009