Fleet Week in New York

Images © Copyright 2008 Michael Seto

Good morning. Yesterday, May 21st kicked off Fleet Week in New York City. Five US Navy warships, including the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) cruised stately up the Hudson River in a parade of ships that included US Coast Guard and Canadian Royal Navy vessels. A flight of four F-18 Hornets buzzed overhead as well.

I took up a position on the Hudson Riverwalk and shot some pics using my Nikon 70-200 VR lens, arguably one of their best zooms ever made. I tacked on a 1.4x teleconverter to give me a bit more reach, a equivalent of a 420mm lens at the long end. With the aperture stopped down to f5.6 (from f4) I got some sharp images, above. I used a Nikon D2x at ISO 100 giving me a shutter speed of 1/500th.

I posted a few photos on flickr and immediately had a news blog ask for usage of the photos. News at light speed.

Last night I ran into a couple of sailors at my local bar, Thom's, and chatted for a few minutes. They were from the USS Monterey, CG 61. I told them I was a former Marine (we're never ex-Marines) and we talked about life aboard ship. Whenever I see a Marine in uniform, I always buy them a drink. Sorry Navy, close but no cigar.