McDonnell Douglas FA-18 Hornet —

Incredible shot, John!

Thank You Tom!

The "Sound of Freedom".

@ED650P eXACTLY!

I'm wondering what the hell are dozens of people doing at the end of a runway there?

John..........

Definitely Favorite Pic of Mine this Week........

Experienced a Blue Angels pass like that in Duluth, MN but in the era of film.

Wow nice shot! That would have been challenging to frame and focus well if the subject was flying relatively slowly, but it sounds like he was most definitely NOT!

Sweet shot John!!!!!!

@Roland Balch ~ Having Fun my friend, having fun!

Ken, Joe, and Ed...thank you guys!

@Roland..well, I went to google earth and measured the distance, it is 1000' foot straight from the end of the runway to where we were all standing..of course it took a mere two seconds or so for the F-18 to travese that distance in full afterburner..! maybe less!

John, I hate to pick nits in comments under such a spectacular picture, but your comments are a bit hyperbolic. Above, 1000ft in 2 seconds is 300knts, which is fittingly the Blue Angel's usual max for "show-center over spectators" (over spectators btw means within 200 yards of any spectator). So, NO AB. Even if your Angel had "only" "hit AB" crossing the end of the runway, velocity overhead would have been 400knts+/-. At that speed with an aircraft that heavy (more than two fully loaded tractor-trailer rigs), that low, would have produced injuries: bruises, contusions, some impact hemorrhaging and a few 1st & 2nd-degree burns. But mostly the picture. After-burner lit would produce a distinctive exhaust plume not seen in you pic.
The rest of the description is bang on. The wingspan is almost 50 feet so his altitude would seem not a lot more than that depending on the lens used...
Brutal as it was you did get a fabulous shot!

@skylab. I appreciate your comments, but hyperbole, no. Standing where I was, the shock wave hit me like someone running full on in to you. Hit me so hard it literally spun me around, and I went stumbling, almost fell down. Others were knocked down. If you expand the photo, you can see the exhaust plume. Anyway, it kicked up quite a debris field in it's wake. the exhaust was extremely hot, and it left me with quite a headache for a couple of hours. A buddy of mine who was with me and has seen the Angels perform 26 times I think he said, said he had never seen anything like it before. If you click on the airport link above for KMQJ, go to the second page, you will see the next shot in the sequence with the aircraft banking to the right..all those specks of dirt and debris were what was kicked up by the aircraft in to the air.

Amazing shot John, wish I was standing there with you haha.