Thursday, June 2, 2011

Military Appreciation Day

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to photograph the State of Oregon's Military Appreciate Day. It started early in the morning with a Blackhawk helicopter landing at the Capital Mall. I arrived early, 7:10AM, and asked which direction the helicopter was coming in at. I got into position and waited. I wanted a shot of the blackhawk flying low, directly over my head. Then as I could hear the helicopter coming in, I was told I had to move because I wasn't allowed to be in the flight path. I tried to say that was the shot I wanted, but was told I HAD to move to under the trees. 

So I moved under the trees and got some cool shots, but not the shots I wanted. The rotor wash shook the trees so violently that I was actually hit in the head with a branch, hard. I looked over at the guy that told me to move and said, "Safer huh?" He just laughed.

After the Blackhawk was on the ground I shot some photos of the cannons.

Then at noon I made my way back in anticipate of the F-15 fly over of the capital. I got to listen to the governor make a speech...

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After the speech, I got in position for the F-15 flyover and caught a couple of great shots.

Then at the end of the day as I was walking to the studio, I ran into my good friend Merlin, was freshly back from Afgahnastan, literally landed the night before. It was a great day over all. I hope you enjoyed the photos.