Thunder Over Michigan Airshow and Night Shoot 2023
Since 2019, Lerro Photography has been providing the lighting for the night photo sessions at Yankee Air Museum’s Thunder Over Michigan Airshow. The two-day airshow features a mix of WWII, Vietnam, and modern aircraft, including the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lighting II.
Traditionally, our night sessions are of WWII-era planes, but at Thunder, we mix it up with vintage and modern aircraft. The first aircraft in the night session was a P-51 Mustang. To go along with it, a WWII searchlight was turned on in the background to add to the scene. The 2nd aircraft in the night session was a Soviet Union MiG-23. The crew of the Mig also posed with the plane once we got our primary shots with the reflection of water. Unfortunately, this plane crashed the next day while flying during the airshow. Luckily, the crew safely ejected, and no one on the ground was injured when it crashed next to an apartment building.
The 3rd aircraft for the night session was a pair of Marine F-35Bs. Due to the high security of these planes, Kevin Walsh of the Yankee Air Museum did a lot of behind-the-scenes work to get us access to these planes. It was the highlight of the night.
Other highlights from the weekend included sunrise hot-ramp access flybys with various aircraft and hanging out with many great aviation photographers.
We look forward to working with Yankee Air Museum again for Thunder Over Michigan 2024.
