Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Bad Photos of the B2 Bomber

Here's what my iPhone's zoom lens made of the B2 when it was circling with its buddy over the mountains. (Yes, there were 2 B2's.)

It headed our way. I waited.



It was a lot faster than these pictures.
Couldn't hear it 'til it was almost on me.
I knew it was going to fly over the eucalyptus tree but I didn't have time to move to a better spot.
Then it was over me.

Then it was gone.

A lot of people waited on the bridge. In other words, it's likely that much better photos are available.

26 comments:

dive said...

Woah! Cool, Petrea. Well captured.

Dina said...

How utterly thrilling! What a plane!!

The best part of the Rose Bowl parade?

LOLfromPasa said...

I got so excited when that beauty appeared on our tv screen. I saw it live when we went to the parade in 2000. What a sight! Good capture.

Kalei's Best Friend said...

It' still an awesome photo...

Bellis said...

You did really well to capture it at all. The Batman plane was flying really fast - blink and you've missed it. Actually, our grandson wasn't impressed when it flew over us at the parade. He didn't think it was a real plane, and I can see why: It looked like one of those remote control planes you see flying along the cliffs at Huntington each, only bigger, or an origami paper plane. I love it!

Petrea Burchard said...

The pictures make it look so far away. While it was above me it felt like it was mere yards away. Thrilling is the word. It's an amazing machine.

LONDONLULU said...

You captured it beautifully, especially with an iPhone! What a moment it must've been!

Speedway said...

No matter its warlike purpose, people love that damned machine. I do, too. Every few years or so, it will fly over the grandstand just before the start of the Indy 500. Approaching from the north, it looks like a black line with a bump in the middle. Then it's there, just over you, and "Swoosh" its past. A beautiful piece of machinery that could not fly at all if it weren't for the computers on board. It's odd beauty gives me a little tear in the eye. Every time.

Latino Heritage said...

Well done. It truly fills one with awe.

TheChieftess said...

Very well done Petrea!!! Hard to capture!!!

Book Dragon said...

wow, nice shot!

Katie said...

Fun photos, especially the one where the plane looks like it's a big bat flying overhead. The top photo looks like "proof" that there was a UFO encounter in the area!

Petrea Burchard said...

I'm at work at the moment. One of the buys here is a total airplane/rocket afficionado. It's fun to show him the pictures.

Anonymous said...

Why, that's my old batman kite coming in for a landing.

Mister Earl said...

It came right in front of my house and turned east after the Rose Bowl flyover. The great thing about the B2 is you can just draw it on a blue sky with PhotoShop and no one will know the difference. Nice pics.

Petrea Burchard said...

It's a cute kite, Karin, and you should stop terrorizing Mister Earl with it.

Ms M said...

Love your post, the sequence of waiting, then finally -- the Batplane!! :-)

Kidding aside, it sounds exciting, great photo op.

Laura M said...

Actually, pretty good shots, Petrea. It's hard to get, and since you don't hear it until it's directly overhead, it's hard to know when it's coming. I was at the parade right in the spot where it first appears, and it was so low and so fast that all I got was a black blotch in the lower right of my photo. My daughter was prepared in the press stands, but there was a distraction just as it came over.

Fortunately, I told her, shots of the bomber are pretty generic and we can use last year's!

Susan Campisi said...

That is a really cool photo. Now I wish I'd seen it. I could've been on another planet with how removed I was from anything having to do with the entire Rose Bowl affair.

Petrea Burchard said...

Thanks, it was really fun.

Laura, we'd been walking at Hahamongna, and all the while we watched those planes circle over the mountains. We knew they'd be coming in over the stadium, so we kept looking over our shoulders to catch them when they came. Luckily, we did.

Petrea Burchard said...

Susan, that's true of many Pasadenish. But I'm glad we saw those planes, they were cool.

John Sandel said...

They creeped me out.

Anonymous said...

Spectacular, and a virtually perfect sky as background too. Great shots!

Adele said...

Great photos, Petrea! Those things get me verklempt every time. I love how entire neighborhoods run out of their houses to see a B2 go over. I was out of town and missed it this year. Just not the same on TV!

Pasadena Adjacent said...

I've always marveled at the silhouette of these things. As if they represented a quarter of an hour if you just twisted them over a bit

Petrea Burchard said...

I know what you mean, J, because it's a war plane. But maybe because I knew it was part of the festivities, I enjoyed it.

Thanks, Geoff. Lucky sky Tuesday.

I'd never seen it in person before, Adele, and to have it fly directly over me was thrilling. It looked much closer in my eyes than it does in the picture!

Yep, PA, amazing what power they have in such a slim machine.