Monthly Archives: November 2012

Goodbye Zeppelin

A little bit of sad news recently came through to me from the West Coast. Airship Ventures have ceased operations. They are a company that bought a new generation Zeppelin airship from the manufacturers in Germany and based it in the Bay Area around San Francisco. They provided tours around the Bay as well as operating further afield in the state. I got to catch up with them when they undertook a national tour that included a stop not far from Chicago.

I was writing an article for the website at Global Aviation Resource which you can see here. I also blogged about it here. There is an effort underway to rescue the business. We shall see whether they are successful or whether someone buys the assets at a discount and sets up something new. I hope it works out and wish them well.

Festival of Light Fireworks

Every year in the run up to Christmas, the traders on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago have a parade to get the shoppers interested. The parade has a strong Disney theme to it and attracts large numbers of families with small kids. You might be surprised to know this is not a big deal to me. However, they do finish it off with a fireworks display on the Chicago River and that is something I am happy to see.

Finding a spot to watch them from is something that is not so easy since a huge number of people are already there to see the parade. I had intended to stand on the Wabash Avenue bridge which provides a good view along the river to the display. However, that was not possible since the bridge was full of people looking at the parade, even though it was a long way away. However, dropping down to the river level provided a spot that did not give a good view of the parade but was absolutely fine for the fireworks.

I got set up with two cameras, one for stills and another for video. Rather than take a full tripod setup, I took a couple of Gorillapods to mount on to the railings along the river. This proved to be a good setup. It was flexible, easy to carry and didn’t get in anyone else’s way. One downside is that a tripod does tend to act as a bit of a deterrent to passers by. This setup seemed to encourage people to bring their kids close to my stuff so I had to make sure the kids kept their hands to themselves since their parents didn’t seem bothered about what they were up to.

Solomon Island

We had the great pleasure of traveling to Maryland to stay with our friends Mark and Rosie a while back.  They are friends of ours from the UK who are currently in the US for work.  We spent the weekend with them and got to enjoy a part of Maryland that neither of us had spent much time in before.  They live down near where the Patuxent River meets the Chesapeake Bay and there is plenty of water around you wherever you go.

As someone who grew up by the sea, I have always enjoyed being by the water.  A good local spot to visit is Solomon Island and we decided to head there for a walk around and a spot of lunch.  Since they have a boat, Mark and I decided to go by water while Nancy and Rosie took the car.  I wanted to have a blast about in the boat and Mark wanted to go a bit faster than he would if Rosie was aboard so this worked for all of us.

United 787

A while back I was in Seattle and headed up to Everett to see the large numbers of 787 airframes parked up awaiting rework and delivery to their customers.  When you see that many of them lying around, sometimes it is hard to remember that some of them are now getting delivered and entering service.  One of Chicago’s local airlines (if you have a local airline these days) is United and they are the first US operator to take delivery of the aircraft.

Houston is the base of operations for the early aircraft but as they are trying to build experience for the crews, they are carrying out internal flights before taking the planes overseas.  The first revenue flight was a leg from Houston to Chicago O’Hare.  I was interested in covering this for the magazine since they were planning a reception for the aircraft when it got to O’Hare.  The Chicago airport media relations people were not handling the event but they gave me the contact details for United.  Sadly United were not inclined to respond to inquiries.

However, I decided that it was worth heading up to O’Hare anyway since the forecast was looking quite pleasant.  Admittedly, these things will soon be a very common sight but getting the first arrival seemed like something worth spending a morning on.  (In truth, the 787 had already been to O’Hare a few times on proving flights but let’s not get too picky!)

I was not the only one there.  A lot of people had shown up and the place under the approach to 28 was pretty busy.  That is until they changed runways shortly before the 787 was due in.  A convoy of cars suddenly headed out to get around to the 10 arrivals.  I was part of the convoy and found a spot that seemed reasonable.  I had barely got out when the 787 came into view.  Fortunately, the sun was being cooperative and the 10 approach actually was better for putting the light on the nose of the aircraft rather than the rear.  I wonder how long it will be before I get bored with United 787s showing up.

Half Dome Sunset

One of my goals while in Yosemite was to go to Glacier Point later in the day and watch the sunset casting its warm light over Half Dome.  Half Dome is always an impressive sight to behold.  Taking pictures of it never allows you to experience the scale and impressiveness of it but you do the best you can.  I got up there about an hour before the sun was due to set in order to get a few other shots.  I had intended to hike up to Sentinel Dome but I was running out of time so that part of the trip got scrubbed and saved for another day.

Shooting sunset type shots is a funny thing.  The view looks great and you take a few shots.  Then, as the sun dips lower, the light gets better and you shoot some more.  This continues until suddenly it stops getting better and it is all over.  You have to shoot a bunch of stuff since you never know whether it is at its peak or not.  Consequently, you end up with a lot of shots that you will never use again.

The other odd aspect about this shoot was the discrepancy between the view and the atmosphere.  Sunset at Glacier Point is a popular thing as you might expect.  Plenty of people are there.  Lots of them are families and families often include small kids.  Small kids are not so enthusiastic about sitting around for an hour waiting for the sun to set.  Consequently, the scenery looks great but all you can here is crying kids and desperate parents trying to buy off a tired and grouchy kid.  Not quite what you had in mind.  I just hope the parents still enjoyed the beautiful view since the rest of it looked painful for them.

Mariposa Grove

The last time I was in Yosemite, it had just snowed and so the access to Mariposa Grove was cut off.  It is a shame since visiting the groves of sequoias is one of the high points for me.  The redwoods at the coast are impressive, certainly, but they don’t have the massiveness that the inland relatives have.  Previously I have taken the tram ride around the grove so this time I decided to walk it.  It was a pleasant temperature but the altitude is a bit of a factor so there were times when I was wondering whether my plan was so clever.

However, the nice thing about the grove is that you are heading downhill when you are on the way back and suddenly everything seems a lot easier.  Walking does give a great way to experience the whole place at your own pace as well as see some areas that you wouldn’t see on the tram.  You also get some exercise!

The lower part of the grove has some big trees but not as many as the upper grove.  Getting up there allows you to be surrounded by some enormous living things.  Every once in a while, I had to look at a normal tree (big by most standards) to remind myself just how much bigger the sequoias are.  They are vast!  Again, this is a tricky thing to accurately portray in photographs.  However, sometimes you just have to enjoy the prettiness of it all.  Having something in to scale it every once in a while helps too of course.

Paia

Up near the near side of Maui is the little town of Paia.  We checked Paia out on our way to get lunch.  There isn’t a huge amount to see in the town – a selection of shops and places to eat as you might expect – but its claim to fame is that it is populated by some of the more out there members of society.

Going there is as much about seeing unusual people as it is about seeing the town itself.  How long this reputation has been in place and whether it is still valid I couldn’t say.  Certainly there were a few people wandering around who looked like they fitted the bill.  There were far more people visiting, though, and maybe they were all there looking for the strange folk.  By coming in such numbers, maybe we are driving away what we came to see.  Despite all of this, we did see a few cool looking places and some signs that the community is not totally conformist!

Veterans’ service

With Veterans’ Day upon us, the city of Chicago held a service at the Vietnam War Memorial.  This is located just across the river from me and, when I saw that something was being set up, I went across to see.  It is the fiftieth anniversary of the Vietnam War and there are additional elements of remembrance that are associated with that.

The mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel was speaking at the event as was an alderman who served with the Marines in Vietnam.  It was not a huge event but there were plenty of people there and it was all done in a very classy yet personal way.  All of the services were represented and there were many veterans in the crowd as well.  I am certainly glad I found out it was going on.

Iao Valley

If you head inland from the airport on Maui, you can travel up a narrow route called the Iao Valley.  It is a pretty valley to travel up but the main attraction is at the head of the valley where there is a visitor center.  Here is a place that has much historical significance for the people who populated the islands in years gone by.  Battles were fought here and the interesting shapes of the hills have significance as well.

The variation in climate was noticeable.  Looking up into the hills, you could see a lot fo cloud moving through and the foliage was green and dense.  Look the other way and you could see the warmer drier areas appearing in quite a short distance.  There was a river running through the valley which was feeding a lot of cultivated garden areas.  A lot of people visited although not many seemed to stay too long.  If you took your time, it was actually a very nice place to be.

Sunrise Over Chicago

My journey to the top of the Sears was explained previously in the context of the helicopter lift that got me there.  However, while I was there, I did have plenty of time to see other things.  The job was due to start at 6:50am so we were up on the building quite early.  However, there were some delays before the lift finally got underway so we were up there for a while.  We got to the top before sunrise so I got to see the sun rise over the lake.

The sunrise has a great affect on the buildings.  Gradually the warm morning light washed across the various buildings and they glow with the early morning warmth (ironic since it was pretty chilly up there.  Watching the skyline light up around you is a lot of fun.  With hindsight, I should have set up one camera for a time lapse video but never mind.

The new Rush Hospital building looked particularly good as the sun came up but everything around looked great.  Also, while the sun is low, the shadows are long – none more so than that of the building I was standing on!  I wonder is someone a couple of miles away could see my shadow puppets!  Midway was off in the distance and we could see straight down the runway.  I didn’t take a really long lens with me so no closeups of landing or departing traffic.  However, we did get some O’Hare traffic passing overhead and, being 1,300′ up, they did seem noticeably closer!  What a way to start the day.