F15 - The Story

Like a lot of people, I like fast.  I should say, I like to watch fast.  If it's noisy, so much the better.  And if it's the Sound of Freedom, home run!
Of all the aircraft I've seen in action or close up, my favorite by far it is the F4 Phantom.  If you're not up on your USAF fighter life cycle, the Phantom was retired from the US inventory many years ago.  However, I did get to see them fly when I was stationed in Okinawa in the early 80's.  They were being phased out at the time by the F15s.   But to watch them fly, I really liked the lines.  Just plain bad ass.  No other description necessary.

This is a photo from 1981.  Film.  Rookie.  Anyway, I was on a flight from Okinawa to the Philippines on a KC-135, and this was one of our gas guzzling customers.  On the same flight:

As with many things in life, once you begin to like them they go away.  So long gone is the F4, unless one is flying around somewhere that I've lost track of.   It looks like some other countries may still employ the aircraft, but the last use in the US for the Phantom was for drone practice.
Anyway, segueing into a F15 story, the F4s in Okinawa were being replaced by the F15s.  Although I liked the lines of the Phantom more than the Eagle, the Eagle appeared to have the performance edge by a wide margin.  When the F15s required a functional flight test after major maintenance, free flight time was granted over the field.  What a show!  And it is that sound I remember.
So I'm at the Reno Air Races a few weeks ago.  I knew that there was a F16 Demo team that had time every day on the schedule of events, and I was looking forward to seeing them perform.  Fighters were going to be seen.
At the end of the first day, I was 'recovering' with friends at a campsite.  The campsite was really a parking lot for the airfield just off the runway.  
Then I heard it.  
There are many engine sounds I remember from over the years.  By far, the most enjoyable to me is the C5 whine.  Hours of touch and goes.  I have no idea on the number of take-offs, but there were lots.  And with each acceleration the dump of fuel into the TF39s to get them off the ground produced a sound I'll never forget.  Close seconds go to the F4, the F15 and the SR-71.  I always keep asking myself, how did I get this lucky to see all of these engineering marvels do their thing?  
So, back to the campsite, I hear a familiar noise.  There are two F15s doing a flyby of the field!  Awesome.
So two Eagles arrived.  I was hoping I'd see them as part of the performances between races, but it was not to be.  They sat next to the F16s on the military side of the spectator area for the remainer of the event.  But I paid them a visit every day.

Other than to me, not much of an interesting photograph.  For whatever reason, I missed centering it.  And one of the lessons I need to remind myself, don't get so close up that there's no room to maneuver.  I needed to leave more room off the right side wing.  I pretty much limited my options.  The other self criticism is I'm just off center enough to be irritating.  Not a side shot, not a nose shot, no-man's land.  PPPFFFTTT.
I don't want to lose this shot, I'd like to do anything with it to keep it alive, only for the subject.
Before we too deep into this, there are a lot of  small 'imperfections' that need to be removed.  Anything that is between the wing underside and above the taxiway above the grass needs to be 'gone'.  
Once those were removed, I really want to center the attention on the aircraft.  Sky is nice, the mountains are nice.  It is possible someone's eye could drift off the prize.
I was playing around with a number of filters, when I landed on doing a B&W theme.  I don't do many like that, but in this case it works.  Kind of artsy, eh?

ISO 200, f/9, 1/1250 sec, 70 mm

D90/18-200

In a perfect world, I'd leave more room off each wing.  It almost looks like the wings end with the flaps.  If I ever do a redux, I'd start with the wing tips.  But for now, I like the effect.  There was another effect, which I might work with which was very harsh.  Really brought out the clouds and mountains.  it's from one of my older filters that I started to shy away from, but again with this subject harsh works.  On another rainy, snowy day.