Day 86...

A chunk of today has looked a little like this. Tomorrow, the Red Arrows will be performing a Flypast with the French national aerobatic team thr Patrouille de France over central London, and MrEH and I will be heading in to watch/photograph it. I like to plan stuff like this in advance to give myself the best possible chance at getting a shot I’ll be pleased with and frankly a good old fashioned map and ruler are about the best way of doing this when it is a straight-line route as tomorrow is. I combine that with Google streetview to confirm the view from the various locations I am considering, although to be honest local knowledge helps a lot on this one too. I know the route, and know the landmarks I would ideally like to get in the shot. I have two possible locations in mind and will size up both when we get into London tomorrow to see which will suit best. After that, everything else is out of my control, but at least I have given it my best shot!

A friend asked me earlier if I was excited about tomorrow - I am, but as I said to her, I get nervous for flypasts too. Displays are different - there will be another one, very possibly in the same location, another year, and often if a particular shot or shots I want don’t come off at one show, I can try again the following week, or month, or season, and hopefully nail it that time. Flypasts are different though - they are unique, for a start. Quite often a Flypast is for a never-to-be-repeated event, and sometimes they take a never-to-be-repeated format as well - when the Reds flew with the Vulcan at Southport in 2015 for example, we knew that was the last time we would ever see those aircraft together again. Tomorrow is a good example - it’s not unusual for the Reds and PdF to fly together - indeed they did so at Air Tattoo last summer, but add in some of London’s best known landmarks, AND that London rarely sees two national teams combining like this, and this is a pretty unique event. Then throw in variables like weather - rain is forecast for tomorrow, and sometimes you can get wind affecting things too - it blows the coloured smoke around and can even blow the formation slightly off course and it can all impact on getting the perfect shot.

Check back tomorrow to see how things turned out...or not!

Robyn