I was reading the newspaper on the patio early on Saturday morning when I heard what sounded like a commercial jet in the distance. In the couple of seconds it took to fly from a distant rumble to being directly overhead, I'd worked out there was no commercial aspect to this plane & I stuffed around to get my camera & take a few shots of a very low flying FA-18 Hornet.



A few years back the RAAF had planes flying over the same area & they circle around for twenty minutes or so before taking aim & disappearing over the city. The excuse this time around was the Australia Day celebrations & when they decide to open the taps to fly over the city at high speed, the noise is pretty darn incredible. Hearing a swarm of these coming at you dropping bombs must be horrific. Saddam was deep down in his bunker for a reason & this could well be it!



I've been using a point & shoot camera exclusively for the last couple of months, with the Canon S3-IS taking some time off from daily use. Unfortunately, when I pulled it out I struggled to figure out some of the settings which once were second nature. Thankfully, the jet passed overhead around ten times, giving me multiple chances to reacquaint myself! I carry a Canon Ixus 75 everywhere nowadays due to its size & convenience, but when a 12x zoom is required, the S3 was the only choice for low-level fast-moving objects.



As always, check flickr for the original size versions of these photos.

In other Australia Day news, Muse came out on top of Triple J's Hottest 100 with "Knights of Cydonia". I remember my first thoughts on the song from "Black Holes & Revelations" as being overrated & a bit naff, but if you see the film clip, I suspect that's how they intended it to be. It's certainly hard not to throw your head around when seeing the lads play it live!