Blue Angels arrive, Parade of Ships off West Seattle on Wednesday: It’s Seafair’s big week

Even if you missed our alerts earlier in the weekend (here and here), you might have heard, if not seen, the Blue Angels‘ flybys tonight:

That photo is by from John Catalano – the clouds really were that amazing from Jack Block Park, where we watched the U.S. Navy’s demonstration team do its flyby earlier this evening, with a downtown-skyline photo op along the way. Another view from Monica Zaborac:

(We had a similar, though much-less clear, angle in our Twitter photo.) Monica’s closer look at the “delta” formation used for what the Navy said was a photo op:

And if you didn’t hear the roar, here’s a bit of video as they passed over. The pilots’ publicly announced schedule doesn’t include more flying until Wednesday, the day Blue Angel #7, a two-seater, goes up on flights during the day with “influencers” and media (Seafair says this year’s list includes soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Seahawks player Jimmy Graham). Then Thursday and Friday, the whole squad practices, with official airshows Saturday and Sunday.

Another reminder for this Seafair week, with West Seattle specifics:

PARADE OF SHIPS: You might see ships from the Seafair Fleet in Elliott Bay earlier in the week, but the official Parade of Ships – right past West Seattle shores on the way to the downtown waterfront – is on Wednesday afternoon. As previewed here, three U.S. Navy ships, one U.S. Coast Guard ship, and three Canadian Royal Navy ships are expected, and then they’ll be open for tours on the downtown waterfront Thursday-Sunday. Full details of that are here – but remember, on Wednesday, while 1:45 pm is the downtown “parade” time, the ships will be visible here earlier, usually around 1 pm.

P.S. I-90 BRIDGE CLOSURES: Thursday-Sunday, the Blue Angels practices/shows require the I-90 bridge across Lake Washington to shut down for hours at a time. This not only loads up 520, but also tends to cause I-5 backups approaching 90, which in turn affects the eastbound West Seattle Bridge. Memorize the times – we’ll also include them in our morning traffic/transit-watch reports EVERY day this week:

Thursday, July 30 – two separate bridge closures, during which pilots will practice maneuvers and become familiar with area geography – First Closure: 9:45 a.m.-12 p.m., Second Closure: 1:15 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.

Fri., July 31- 11:50 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. (practice show)
Sat., Aug. 1- 11:50 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. (full show)
Sun., Aug. 2 – 11:50 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. (full show)

17 Replies to "Blue Angels arrive, Parade of Ships off West Seattle on Wednesday: It's Seafair's big week"

  • LatteRose July 26, 2015 (11:59 pm)

    That first photo is >amazing<! Those clouds look surreal!

  • XXX July 27, 2015 (1:07 am)

    I don’t think the lead photo is straight out-camera, looks like some heavy processing. Which leads me to wonder what, if any, guidelines the blog (which purports to be a legit news source) has for photo submissions.

    • WSB July 27, 2015 (1:45 am)

      Hi, XXX! I traced John’s photo back to his personal page, via his sister’s link on the WSB page, and he posted it at 7 pm, barely 15 minutes after the flyby, so would have had to have been some awfully fast “processing.”
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      https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205229673958356&set=a.1253805182194.2036854.1141473691&type=1&theater
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      Might be filtered? I’m not a fan of filters myself, and neither I nor Patrick use them, but we see “newspaper” photographers using them all the time, to no perceptible objection, FWIW, if you want to make a point about publication types. As for the clouds, if you didn’t get to see them firsthand … my crummy old iPhone didn’t do them justice:
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      https://twitter.com/westseattleblog/status/625479090456260608
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      but having stood there at JB Park for the flyby, they really were as multilayered and hued as John Catalano’s photo represents.
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      -TR

  • Mike July 27, 2015 (6:10 am)

    Love the clouds with Seattle skyline and Blue Angels. That’s really cool.

  • Kate July 27, 2015 (7:14 am)

    Jet City! This would be a fantastic poster. I’d buy it!!

  • Ray July 27, 2015 (8:22 am)

    The pic looks like it has some HDRI filtering applied in camera, as well as some added contrast. You can see the pixilation around the planes and in other areas of the picture.

    It still is a striking image. I wish a higher quality, unprocessed version of the image was available.

  • Sandy Adams July 27, 2015 (9:07 am)

    However he took it, it is beautiful. Wonder if I could purchase a print of it????

  • newnative July 27, 2015 (9:59 am)

    It’s a photo! The clouds and afternoon Sun created some amazing contrast naturally. I tried my best but gave up trying to capture the moment on my camera.Thanks to WSB we were able to rush to the downtown waterfront for a good view of the flybys.

  • josh July 27, 2015 (10:23 am)

    some of us learned how to “filter” when it was done with chemicals and processing time in the darkroom.
    A good photo is a good photo, and sometimes the processing enhances the outcome – regardless of the medium.
    That’s a good photo.

  • cjfranko July 27, 2015 (11:03 am)

    Great photo John! Thanks for providing WSB the opportunity to post your pictures for us all to enjoy.

  • BlairJ July 27, 2015 (11:09 am)

    Breathtaking photo! Made my morning.

  • Rick July 27, 2015 (11:38 am)

    Be careful Ray.

  • Diane July 27, 2015 (12:51 pm)

    the top photo is a surprise, since I was at the Admiral viewpoint, and it looked nothing like that; it’s never occurred to me to go to Jack Block for Blue Angels viewing; glad to have this tip for rest of Blue Angels week

  • carlrogers July 27, 2015 (1:50 pm)

    Nice picture! I don’t support the air show though.

  • mustardgreen July 27, 2015 (1:56 pm)

    Triple X is a hater, and a boring purist. Edit or not, the photo rocks!

  • mozabo July 27, 2015 (5:16 pm)

    Diane, a few years ago I got great shots from the Admiral viewpoint, but now the viewpoint is so obstructed with brush and trees that aren’t trimmed. Pretty soon, there that viewpoint will be completely obstructed unless the city does something about it.

  • WSB July 27, 2015 (9:37 pm)

    Two more things re: the top photo, from the photographer’s Facebook page –
    .
    (a) Someone asked him about buying a higher-res version; he provided this direct link “for free”
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    http://www.gr8ideaspro.com/Travel/Seattle/i-2wmprvw/A
    .
    (b) for the pros wondering about what was used for the image – he replied to a question about it, “Nikon D810, ISO 100, f/6, 1/1250s, EV -0.5 Focal length 320mm”
    .
    Thanks again to his sister Dawn for sharing the photo. – TR

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