Monthly Archives: March 2011

Dying the River Green

A couple of weeks ago, Chicago had its annual celebration of St Patrick’s Day.  The city goes quite nuts for this and it certainly isn’t a good day for dropping into your local bar for a pint unless you want to be with several thousand of your closest friends!

Anyway, part of the celebration involves dying the river green. If you are celebrating a Welshman who went to Ireland with a vendetta against snakes, this makes perfect sense.  It is good fun though.  This year, I was not feeling particularly well having gone down with a bit of a cold.  March is not the warmest month in Chicago and the temperatures were being matched by quite a strong breeze.

Consequently, I took the chicken’s way out and watched the whole thing from my window.  The two shots here are actually from a few year’s back but I thought it would be fair to show you what is going on.  Instead, I tried shooting some video with the point and shoot from our vantage point.  Below is the result and you can get an idea of what is going on.

 

Bye Bye ADVs

In 1993 I was working at BAe’s plant in Warton when we had a special event.  It was the last delivery of a Tornado to the RAF and the aircraft was AT051, a twin stick ADV (or F3 in RAF parlance).  We all received a print of a painting of the aircraft to celebrate the event and trooped out to watch the aircraft depart.  I don’t have pictures of that since cameras were not permitted inside the security perimeter at Warton.

It therefore feels slightly more personal to read all of the information online about the demise of the RAF’s ADV fleet.  They have been on the way out for quite a while but the end has finally come.  Since I made it across to RIAT last year, I did get some final shots of the remaining aircraft and I am glad that I did.  My transition to digital shooting coincided with my move to the US so I don’t have many ADV shots that aren’t on film and I certainly didn’t shoot as many shots before going digital.

I only have a limited number of shots which amazes me given how often I saw ADVs over the years.  I guess when they were common I didn’t make much effort to shoot them when film was something I treated as precious.

 

 

So here are a few mementos and good bye to a plane I liked working on.

The Chase Yields Results

A few weeks ago during one of my many trips out of Midway, we were taxiing to the departure runway when we passed one of the FBOs on the field. Parked up ready to board was a Lockheed Jetstar. Not endangered perhaps but certainly a rarity. A mental note of the registration and I checked up on it when I got back on the ground.

Turns out this aircraft makes a regular appearance at Midway. Now to find a chance when we can both be in the same place. It doesn’t fly a huge amount so finding the chance would be the tricky thing. Not only must it be flying in to Midway, it must do it when I am in town, not tied up with other work and preferably when the weather is good.

An email alert told me that she was coming in today so all things were aligned.  I headed down to Midway and looked to find a spot to shoot from.  Midway allows you to get very close to the approaching aircraft but it is well developed and has an abundance of power lines so getting a clear shot is not that easy.

I arrived just in time to miss a very attractive Global Express that was landing.  Had I not originally gone to a bad spot, that would probably have been added to my shot list but never mind.  It did seem to be a busy time for corporate aircraft though.  In about 10 minutes, a Hawker 800 and a Cessna Soverign arrived, bracketing the arrival of my target.  Not too bad when you think about it.  Considering Midway is usually wall to wall Southwest 737s, this should be counted as a bit of a result.

The Hawker gave me an opportunity to check whether my lens choice was right.  The 70-200 was okay but perhaps a little short so, keeping an eye out for the imminent arrival, I swapped to the 100-400.  No drama this time and I was ready when the Jetstar came across the roof tops.

She is an interesting looking aircraft.  Certainly dated in her appearance, big fuel tanks on the wings and four engines mounted at the rear.  Not, perhaps, as graveful as some more modern aircraft but more interesting for being such a classic.

It is a brief moment as an aircraft passes by on approach so a rapid series of shots and then she was gone.  Originally, she had a flight plan filed for a departure half an hour later so I was ready to run to the other end to catch her again but this was cancelled.  Even so, a worthwhile expedition to catch a great looking aircraft.

Making the new site work

So, I have finally taken the plunge and moved the old version of the website offline and transferred to the new version.  I immediately notice that my two trial posts when the site was in beta seem to be in reverse order.  I have no idea why that might be so I will keep on posting and see whether everything shows up in the right place eventually.

The photo life has been a tad restricted recently.  Other work commitments have had me on the road and basically without a camera for a while so I have been plotting my next ideas.  One good opportunity was, of course, the moon coming so close to the earth.  Saturday was a lovely day here in Chicago so I was hopeful of some good shots.  However, when I made my way out to the planetarium (and I was not alone out there!!), the cloud cover drifted in.  It started out on the horizon but with clear sky above.  Patience my young Padawan.  Of course, as the moon rose, the clouds spread out and covered the sky.  Lots of disappointed people went home.

I actually tried the next night but the result was just as bad.  Ho hum!  The results you see here are not impressive although given the low light and the shutter speeds, they could have been worse, I assure you!

Fun with warbirds

Since it is the beginning of the year from an air show perspective, it is time to get the aircraft up and ready for the new season. The winter is a great time for maintenance to be undertaken and the great team at Warbird Heritage Foundation is no exception. A couple of their aircraft were recently up and about being wrung out after winter maintenance tasks and I was lucky enough to spend some time with them while they were undertaking some test flying.

The WHF team is always very welcoming but they are not alone. Jim’s team at Waukegan airport is also really helpful when trying to get in position to get some good shots of the aircraft as they are being tested. The two aircraft at work this time were the A-4 Skyhawk and the A-1 Skyraider. Two great looking aircraft. The weather is not always going to be cooperative at this time of year – not only from a photography point of view but also from a flying perspective. However, you make the best of the chances that come along.

What better way to spend a day than hanging out with a great team of people and photographing some unusual aircraft. What more can I want? Thanks Paul and team and also thanks to Jim at the airport.

Day One!

Today marks the first day in a new phase for me.  I have read and heard so many people saying that it is important to have a blog that the pressure has finally got to me.  Here is the first installment of my new blog.  As I write this, I find myself thinking many things.  Do I have the capacity to regularly make entries in my blog?  Do I have the imagination to create anything that is meaningful that might provide some interest for someone out there?  Is this talk about the importance of blogging as short lived as the need for a website – something that is now seen as so common as to be irrelevant?

So, I am embarking on this at a time when everyone else is already far ahead of me and the chances are that blogs will be passé before mine has even really got going.  However, I am always willing to be a follower rather than a leader so, while some of you out there are already plotting the next great thing, I shall start on the previous great thing.

Having made that step, I now find myself debating what to write.  Am I going to be contemplative in this blog, factual, a diarist or just a periodic poster of my work?  Am I going to strict this to me photography or branch out to cover my other work?  Can the two go together or is it even advisable to discuss my other work in public?  How will my clients feel about it?

I guess today is not the day to answer all of this questions I have.  Today is the day to get the first post together and to start worrying about the second (and third etc.).  As we progress, I imagine that some of the other issues will gradually fall into place.  We shall see together – assuming there is anyone else reading this!