220-242jpeg Once apon a time I took my nearly brand-new Nikkor 70-200mm vibration reduction (VR) lens to an air show at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach. I have been photographing air shows for years and I though the vibration reduction feature of the lens would be the difference between a semi-sharp photo of a high-speed jet and a tack sharp one. I had never owned or shot with a lens that had vibration reduction. I slapped the lens on my D1X, put some sunscreen on, and started shooting. It was a gorgeous sunny day with puffy cumulus clouds and a rich blue sky. The air was moist and the F-18s and F-14s in the show were pumping out massive clouds of vapor in their high-G turns. The Blue Angels did not make it to the show due to a hurricane down south, but no worries there. The Grumman F-14 Tomcat (one of my all-time favorite airplanes) was the star of this show. Due to the fact that the F-14 was slated for retirement early the next year, this would be last big F-14 air show at the Navy’s only F-14 base. A dozen Tomcats took to the air to strut their stuff. Incredible! 220-218jpeg I was shooting and shooting. Great images filled my viewfinder. Click. Click. Click. I was getting great shots and loving every minute of the show. Pyrotechnics sent black clouds of smoke into the air and the jets on the sunny side of the clouds of smoke had their dull grey paint illuminated by the sun in front of a dark backdrop. Photographically speaking, this was the single best show I had ever seen! The show ended. I packed up my gear and headed home. In New York a few days later I downloaded the two memory cards onto my laptop to see the awesome spectacle I had just witnessed unfold on the screen of my PowerBook. I opened the photos and found several hundred blurry images of blurry jet fighters in front of those puffy clouds and dark smoke. What the frack?!?!?!? How could this be? I have taken hundreds of photos at air shows with less capable lenses and gotten photos hundreds of times better. 220-216jpeg The problem was VR. The lens could not keep pace with the speed of which I was panning when the jets flew overhead. The photos ended up blurry. I would have been better off shooting with my old 80-200 or turning VR off all together (an option on VR lenses). The lens has an active mode, but it is only for horizontal panning. I shift from vertical to horizontal while I shoot the aircraft zooming in front of me, so I never have tested it. 220-163jpeg To this day I still get sick to my stomach when I think about that day. I really wish I had learned the limitations of VR before that air show. I was not looking at the photos on the LCD while I shot them, it was too bright and the action too fast. Anyway, some of the photos of that show are on the site…. artistically blurry. I have dozens on my hard drive that you can look at and say, “Wow, if that photo wasn’t blurry it would be one of the greatest air show images ever taken!” 220-144jpeg My advice: Turn your vibration reduction systems off when shooting high-speed objects. Do not learn the lesson through trial-and-error. The planes you are shooting might be retired before you can get to another air show!