It's Derby season!

[Pugrpooh]

Yesterday was Thunder over Louisville which kicks off all the Derby festivities around here. We had a picture perfect day for the airshow and fireworks. The airshow started at 3 and the fireworks were supposed to start at 9:30, but they were 18 minutes late due to a "computer glitch".

We got down to the river around 3:30 and I was eager to try out my 70-300mm lens on the planes and to try and get some good fireworks shots.

Here's the setting:

People line up on both sides of the river - yesterday there were over 700,000. This picture was taken from our vantage point. You can see the Belle of Louisville at her dock and the blue and yellow rounded building is the new arena for the Univ. of Louisville Cardinal basketball team that will be ready in November. The Clark Memorial Bridge just to the east of the Belle is loaded with fireworks. Two barges also loaded with fireworks move into place, one on either side of the bridge, about an hour before the fireworks show.

This is the Ali Center which is just west of the Belle. Usually I see this side as I'm passing on the highway so this was the first time I could make out the faces on the building.

Here's the first airplane we saw.

This one's the B-52 (or so DH tells me). I only know the C130's and the Stealth Bomber. Unfortunately, the Stealth didn't make an appearance this year.

I was a bit nervous watching these 3 so close together.

A Coast Guard plane.

Here's one in camouflage.

This one kept flying very low around the bridges.

I'll try to get some fireworks shots up later tonight. Of course I couldn't remember anything that I've read about taking fireworks shots, except something about bulb mode and I've never used that so I wasn't going to start now!

By the way, all of these are straight OOC jpegs. On some of the pics of the planes, like the one I posted with three of them together, if you enlarge them, you can see the pilots inside.

I was pleased with my first attempt at an airshow. Critique welcome!

 

[ukcatfan]

Thanks for the Thunder pics! The Derby Festival is one of the things I really do miss from Louisville. I used to work in the LG&E building.

 

[Pugrpooh]

Here are some of the fireworks shots that I like. In this one the fireworks are being set off from the barges.

Now with the ones on the bridge being set off too.

This is something they do every year -- the "waterfall" effect with the fireworks falling over the side of the bridge. The smoke had started to build up more by this time.

And a couple from the grand finale. The whole show lasts 30 minutes.

 

[Pugrpooh]

Thanks for the Thunder pics! The Derby Festival is one of the things I really do miss from Louisville. I used to work in the LG&E building.

Did you ever watch it from there? We watched 3 or 4 times from the Aegon Center, but yesterday was my first time being outside with the crowd. It was a totally different experience but a lot of fun. The air show was a lot better outside!

We were down by the 9th St. ramp to I-64 and they don't broadcast the music to that area. I can see going down just for the airshow and leaving to get home in time to watch the fireworks on TV. It wouldn't take us 2 hours to get home then.

 

[ukcatfan]

Did you ever watch it from there? We watched 3 or 4 times from the Aegon Center, but yesterday was my first time being outside with the crowd. It was a totally different experience but a lot of fun. The air show was a lot better outside!

We were down by the 9th St. ramp to I-64 and they don't broadcast the music to that area. I can see going down just for the airshow and leaving to get home in time to watch the fireworks on TV. It wouldn't take us 2 hours to get home then.

They stopped allowing it before I started there due to extra security being a utility. I heard that it was a great location.