Light Painting Georgia Mae at AirVenture
We have another amazing light painting project completed – and this one is another doozie! Joannie and I had the privilege of light painting “Georgia Mae”, a North American B-25 Mitchell!
Here’s our camera setup to light-paint Mitchell, Georgia Mae. There were a lot of people around, so Joannie had her hands full trying to keep people from bumping into the tripod once it got dark!
What makes this project so special is that we light-painted this amazing aircraft during the Wednesday night fireworks spectacular at AirVenture in Oshkosh! So, since it was created during the fireworks show, there’s not just one version, but six of them – each with a different fireworks burst in the sky!
Light Painting at Oshkosh Once Again
If you recall, last year at Oshkosh, I light-painted three aircraft on three-different evenings during AirVenture. All three came about courtesy of our friends Ray and Melisa Fowler, whom I met at the show.
Well, since then, Ray and Melisa have been kind enough to put us in touch with other aircraft owners. And many of them have had us light-paint their amazing aircraft in the past year. Thank you so much, Ray and Melisa!
One of those projects that they set up at Oshkosh last year was of Douglas DC-3 N728G. It was created during the AirVenture Saturday evening fireworks show, and, as you can see below, it turned out really cool!
The completed light painting of Douglas DC-3 N728G with lots of fireworks! Pretty cool!
What was unique about that project was that the DC-3 was inside the show’s flight line. Ray had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get me allowed in there to create that light painting. One of the nice folks who helped make it happen last year was Bill Gius, the Vice President of EAA Warbirds of America.
Well, Bill was instrumental once again this year, too. He escorted our vehicle into the Warbirds area so we could have everything right there on-location with us. Thank you, Bill!
The full story on the Douglas DC-3’s light painting project can be found at the link below:
Light Painting Douglas DC-3 N728G at AirVenture
The Pilot
Ray not only set up the light painting of the DC-3, but he was also the pilot of the aircraft! We flew it to Oshkosh for its owners! After the DC-3’s light painting was complete, they loved it so much that they asked us to light-paint another of their aircraft at Oshkosh this year – and that one ended up being Georgia Mae! And, once again, Ray piloted this amazing warbird to Oshkosh and back.
I managed to snap an iPhone image of Georgia Mae’s cockpit while I was light-painting the interior. There’s not a lot of room in there!
A Little History About Georgia Mae
The cool bomb compartment “Georgia Mae”.
Light Painting Georgia Mae
Many months ago, we set the date for this project to happen during the Wednesday night fireworks show at AirVenture. Earlier in the week, I wasn’t so sure we were going to be able to even attempt it, as the smoke from the Minnesota and Canadian wildfires was very, very heavy. Thankfully, by Wednesday, the air quality in the Oshkosh area finally got better!
Here’s one of the completed light-painted images with “Georgia Mae” under the fireworks at AirVenture 2026.
After Bill got us in the Warbirds area, Joannie and I got all set up before the sun set. Then, we began light painting parts of the B-25 during the early portions of the evening airshow. We continued to light-paint Georgia Mae and her surroundings until it was dark enough to turn our attention to the fireworks that were happening concurrently with the airshow. Then, we turned our attention to capturing images of those “regular” and aerobatic fireworks. Quite a few of those images are featured in our finished versions of Georgia Mae!
It was pretty fun to take a break from light painting, Georgia Mae, to enjoy (and photograph) the aerobatic pilots creating their own “light paintings” for everyone to enjoy!
There are Fireworks Shows, and then there’s Oshkosh
If you’ve never been to Oshkosh for their Wednesday and Saturday air and fireworks shows, you have no idea what you’re missing! We say this as two people who have seen dozens of amazing fireworks shows at Walt Disney World in our lives!
Those aerobatic pilots are both amazing and crazy!
To say that Disney does fireworks well would be an understatement!
Well, AirVenture says, “Here, hold my beer!”
The early portions of the AirVenture nighttime spectacular featured several aerobatic aircraft firing off fireworks! So cool!
EAA’s AirVenture in Oshkosh turns it up more than a few notches! Yes, there are certainly lots and lots of great “normal” fireworks, but what sets this show apart from a traditional fireworks show is that they also fire off fireworks from flying acrobatic aircraft!
These world-class aerobatics are integrated directly with massive pyrotechnic displays and fireworks! Oh yeah, did we mention that they use drones too? Hundreds of them! You have to see it to believe it!
This cluster of several fireworks bursts is pretty spectacular! I love how you can even see some of them through the cockpit windows!
2026 AirVenture Nighttime Performers
The aerial performers in the show this year were: Matt Younkin and his Twin Beech, Bob Carlton and his FoxJet, Kyle Fowler and his Long-EZ, Ken Rieder and his RV-8, Nate Hammond and his Chipmunk, Tom Larkin, the U.S. Army Golden Knights, the B-29 “Doc”, and the Great Lakes Drone Company!
As the AIrVenture show progressed, the fireworks got more and more intense! These bursts were captured towards the finale.
Light Painting Georgia Mae – The Movie
As always, we’ve put together a short “Build Video” of the process for our YouTube channel. The link to view it is down below. All told, Joannie and I took 369 images that night, with many of those being of the airshow fireworks and pyrotechnics! In post-production, I ended up using 97 of those images, in 141 unique layers, to complete all of the final versions of Georgia Mae.