Air Show! Seafair in Seattle means the US Navy Blue Angels are here to put on a show.

Every year, on the first weekend of August is a celebration of the nautical culture that gave birth, and sustains, the city of Seattle. From a seafaring port to national defense, the region continues to hold an important place for our country and Seafair is the culmination of that. While jet powered hydroplanes skim across Lake Washington, the US Navy Blue Angels scream above our heads as part of a weekend-long air show.

So I decided to climb up onto the roof of my condo to catch their second practice on Thursday. The weather was shit, so they practiced their “low show,” a flight demonstration that is performed mostly below 3000′ MSL, so I got a lot of opportunities to get close range shots. However, there’s a fine line between “low enough” and “too low,” as it’s really difficult to track when they’re moving between 250-600 knots, changing direction and altitude… the lower they are, the faster they seem to cover ground. I kept up, mostly, but the vast majority of my shots were tossed.