2015 Mid-Atlantic Air Museum WWII Weekend - Reading, PA

moose135

This weekend is the 25th annual World War II Weekend air show at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA. I've been in the area just about all of those years, but the air show always falls on the same weekend as the Pocono NASCAR race, and I've never made it to Reading. I'm out in the Poconos again this weekend, but this time, I decided to hit the air show Saturday. In addition to several dozen war birds that fly during the show, they have a large area devoted to WWII reenactors, American, Allied, and Axis. It's a great time, and certainly worth a visit.

1 - P-51C Tuskegee Airmen commemorative.



2 - One of close to a dozen T-6/SNJs on hand.



3 - The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is in the process of restoring a P-61 Black Widow fighter. There are four left in existence, the other three in museums. When this restoration is complete, it will be the only airworthy P-61.



4 - Curtiss Helldiver and Douglas Dauntless getting airborne.



5 - B-17 Yankee Lady



6 - B-29 Fifi



7 - C-46 Tinker Belle lives down near me in Monroe, NC but makes the show circuit.



8 - They even threw guys out the back...crazy, I know!



9 - FG-2 Corsair



10 - This was the first time I've seen a Grumman Wildcat outside of a museum. This was only one of several low passes the pilot treated us to.

Stumblebum

#2 and #7 are outstanding!
#8 is cool too!

black mamba

Great stuff, John. I was glad to read of the Black Widow....one of the best night fighters ever built. I hope I get to see it fly one day.

The shot of the Helldiver and the Dauntless would have pleased Hal Buell. He flew both in the Pacific battles of WW11. I got to know Hal well before he died...at 93 years of age. He was the only pilot ( American or Japanese ) that was present in all five major aircraft carrier conflicts during the war. The book Hal wrote....Dauntless Helldivers....is one of the very best accounts of what the carrier war was really like. If you haven't read it, you should. It's terrific.

Take care,

Tom

CCoop

Love your BW treatment of #2 and #5! Couldn't be better. Makes me want to wash the grease off my hands!!

black mamba wrote: »

The shot of the Helldiver and the Dauntless would have pleased Hal Buell. He flew both in the Pacific battles of WW11. I got to know Hal well before he died...at 93 years of age. He was the only pilot ( American or Japanese ) that was present in all five major aircraft carrier conflicts during the war. The book Hal wrote....Dauntless Helldivers....is one of the very best accounts of what the carrier war was really like. If you haven't read it, you should. It's terrific.

Take care,

Tom

Tom--Glad you made the book recommendation. I'll look for it, sounds very interesting! --CCoop

moose135

Thanks! I really appreciate it. Tom, I remember you mentioned Hal Buell before, I'm going to have to get a copy of his book, sounds fascinating.

Travel

What lens were you using? Nice shots!

Thelensspot

black mamba wrote: »

Great stuff, John. I was glad to read of the Black Widow....one of the best night fighters ever built. I hope I get to see it fly one day.

The shot of the Helldiver and the Dauntless would have pleased Hal Buell. He flew both in the Pacific battles of WW11. I got to know Hal well before he died...at 93 years of age. He was the only pilot ( American or Japanese ) that was present in all five major aircraft carrier conflicts during the war. The book Hal wrote....Dauntless Helldivers....is one of the very best accounts of what the carrier war was really like. If you haven't read it, you should. It's terrific.

Take care,

Tom

I agree with Tom. One of the best carrier war books I've had the pleasure to read. Dr. Buell's descriptive writing is second to none when it comes to aviation war tales!

moose135

Travel wrote: »

What lens were you using? Nice shots!

Thank you! I'm shooting with a Canon 5D3 and all of the shots (except 2 and 3) were shot with the Canon 100-400 Original Recipe. The other two were with the Canon 24-105.

CCoop

Inspired by your #2 and #5 (as I already said above), I've converted one of my recent Corsair shots from the "Good Neighbor Day 2015" airshow at DeKalb Peachtree (PDK) airport. I converted to BW using a lightroom preset, added grain, vignetting. I may not come halfway to your standard, but in any case thanks for the inspiration! --CCoop

The Lazy Destroyer

Love #2
Great shots, thanks for sharing!

moose135

Nice work, Carter. I have the Nik collection in PS, and use Silver Efex Pro for my conversions. I pretty much play with different presets, adding and tweaking until I get something I like. Each time it's a bit of an adventure, as I don't always remember what I used the last time, but it lets me try different things and get different results.

CCoop

moose135 wrote: »

Nice work, Carter. I have the Nik collection in PS, and use Silver Efex Pro for my conversions. I pretty much play with different presets, adding and tweaking until I get something I like. Each time it's a bit of an adventure, as I don't always remember what I used the last time, but it lets me try different things and get different results.

Thanks for letting me play!