October 9, 2007: Blue Angel makes pass over Frisco Bay boaters

[Adam]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

I agree... which is why I'm curious as to how you can pan fast enough, and accurately enough, to freeze the plane.

Practice. Follow it in from far away (when you have to move less) pivot at the waist for smoothness (I just know someone's going to jump on that). Use a pro camera like the Cannon EOS 1D Mark III- fire off 10 frames per second.

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Also I note that in almost al of the other shots--the ones linked by glatt for example--both the plane and the accompanying scenery are--this effect is not present.

Looks like the photographer is farther away. That's my guess. Otherwise he'd have pulled in tighter on the jet. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say he's maxed out his zoom. That would put him so far away he only needs to pan very slowly.
Or, when the plane is come toward or going away from the photographer, he doesn't need to pan at all- as in the close-up ones of takeoff and approach.

...off to work.
Later Gents.