Blue Angels in the Sky at the NAS Patuxent River Air Show 2026

I didn't have time to watch the Air Show this weekend, so I watched the rehearsal of the Blue Angels from Lexington Park and brought a picnic lunch and a very long lens, about 840 mm equivalent on a tripod.  It was fun to get a few shots of the stars of the show.  I have seen quite a few air shows, so I didn't feel too bad about missing the static displays and such.  Since my foot injury, standing for long periods gets quite painful, so it seemed like a good compromise.

Four for the Show.  I liked the cloud diagonal

I liked the smoke

Loopy

Twisty

Patuxent River Air Expo Featured the Blue Angels June 2, 2018

We braved the weatherman's dire predictions and went to the Patuxent River Airshow 2018 on Saturday.  Did we get lucky!  The thunderstorm hit right after the Blue Angels performance toward the end of the show.  We saw some favorites like Patty Wagstaff, the Shockwave Jet Truck, The P-51 Mustang and F-4U Corsair and of course the Blues.

 Patty Wagstaff

 P-51 Mustang and F-4U Corsair

 The Shockwave Jet Truck

 What a bang!

Blues Prep

Blues Takeoff

 Can you spot the bird?

 The Blue Angels

 A little blue sky before the storm.

The Finale with all 6 planes

Blue Angels Practice Show June 1, 2018

 Since I wasn't sure if the weather would cooperate for the Air Expo this weekend, I photographed the Blue Angels in California and Lexington Park, MD on Friday afternoon.

Blue Angels visited Patuxent River

We recently went to the Patuxent River Air Expo in St. Mary’s County on a warm sunny day. The crowds were out in full force and the Blue Angels were spectacular (as always!). They love catching you off guard and appearing unexpectedly when the crowd’s attention is concentrating on a diverting maneuver. There were so many different planes it was really tough to pick out which ones to share. I decided to also share the Ely-Curtiss Pusher biplane, representing the centennial of Naval Aviation.


To photograph at an airshow, I recommend a zoom telephoto lens with at least 300-400mm for distance shots, the brightest lens you can afford. A polarizing filter or circular polarizer (for digital cameras) is also nice to emphasize blue skies.  It is also handy to have a more standard lens to photograph the stationary exhibits and the spectators.  I often get cute shots of kids on Dad's shoulder watching the sky or looking at the exhibit planes.

To see some official photos and get more information