Monthly Archives: April 2014

Red Flag 14-2

wpid9297-C59F9220.jpgWhen things go according to plan, the USAF holds their Red Flag exercise three times a year at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas NV.  Global Aviation Resource like to provide some coverage so, with the second event of the 2014 program taking place in march, I headed down to cover the event.  I spent a couple of days down there.  One day was on base as guests of the public affairs people at Nellis.  They started out the day with an interview panel with a number of officers from different units and air forces.  They were a good bunch and willing to answer our questions – well, most of them since they wisely avoided answering some questions that should never have been asked of them.

wpid9289-AU0E5816.jpgWith the interviews over, we headed out to the runways.  There are two runways at Nellis that are used together.  We were able to stand between them and given relatively free range as to how far up and down we wanted to go.  There are clear preferences as to which runway you want them to use based on the light.  The launch took place around the middle of the day and they launched off to the northeast.  In this case he light was best on the aircraft on the left runway.  However, you have to do what you can for those on the right as well – often the aircraft you want to focus on.  (There is a bunch of aircraft that you are told not to photograph.  Often it takes a while to realize that what is coming is something you can’t shoot but most people seemed to play by the rules.)

wpid9301-C59F0645.jpgWhen the recovery starts, they tend to use the opposite runways.  By now the light has come around so you really want them to come in on the left.  Sadly, a lot of traffic went to the right.  If you had been outside, you would have got a good amount of traffic to shoot.  When recoveries had wrapped up, we all got back on the buses and headed out.  The second day I spent outside the base.  This provides an opportunity to get a different selection of shots for the article.  It also is unrestricted in what you can shoot so some of the stuff that was restricted while on base can now be shot for the coverage.  Sadly, various things resulted in a lot of the recovering traffic going to the left.  This would have been great if I was on base but sadly it meant a lot of interesting stuff was a long way off.  Still, plenty of stuff came our way.  With the Speedway building up to a NASCAR racing weekend, the crews had been told to keep it tight.  Some certainly did that and came a lot closer to us than expected or even turned within us.  It made for some interesting angles to shoot.

wpid9293-AU0E6178.jpgThe finished article is available through the magazine we publish.  You can find it here.  Please go and download a copy if you haven’t already seen it.  Aside from my work, there is a bunch of great stuff to take a look at.

Building a New Computer

In my world, computers tell you that they want to die.  They start doing something a little odd as an initial warning and then get progressively more troublesome.  I had been contemplating the replacement of my system for a while but recently, the CPU cooling packed up completely and I was stuck between getting some replacement parts or getting on with the new system.  I went the latter route.  This was helped by having a bunch of components on the old system that had been upgrades and could easily transplant across to the new machine.  This reduced what I needed to buy.

Things did not end up being plain sailing sadly.  I built up the system and got everything ready to run.  A press of the button and nothing happened.  In fact, that isn’t quite true.  There was a brief whirr from the power supply followed by a tiny wisp of smoke.  Great!  A dodgy power supply to start with.  Fortunately, the supply on the old system was good.  It didn’t have as many power plugs and the new one but enough to do the job.  However, the system still didn’t seem to be enthusiastic about starting up.  I gave up and visited a local computer place and they had a quick look.  It turns out my first problem was that a motherboard gets tied in to an OS installation and, since I was now on a new motherboard, it didn’t like the old drive.  That means a clean install which is a bit more time consuming.  However, that did not end the trouble.  The guys in the store couldn’t see anything else wrong so I decided to leave it with them for a longer look.

A problem connector proved to be the issue and then it was a simple process to get the installation of everything done.  Things seemed to be running fine for a while but then, when processing some video, it just shut down.  I thought it might be a memory error so ran a program called Memtest.  it came up with no issues.  I tweaked the BIOS settings for the memory but still it would get upset when working too hard.  I re-ran Memtest and changed it from Default setting to multi-threading and then it quickly failed.  A bit more information but still no solution.

Another trip to the shop and I left it with them.  They tried using one of their power supplies and it passed all of the tests with flying colors.  Turns out old power supplies degrade and often don’t have their full juice anymore.  A new unit with plenty of oomph and now I have the machine up and running.  it chews through things with relative ease.  I have also avoided reinstalling anything superfluous so we have a nice lean machine – at least for now.  Not sure I would build my own machine in future.  It was cheaper and gave me exactly what I wanted but it was a lot more effort than I had planned.  The extra to buy it might be worth it.

Bryce Canyon

wpid9327-CRW_6261.jpgContinuing the theme of looking back through photos of trips I have taken in the past and that have never made their way on to the blog, we find ourselves in Utah.  Our trip to the Grand Canyon was the first leg of a journey that also included some time at Bryce Canyon.  This was a location that I was really struck by.  The beauty of it combined with the relative peace at the time of year we were there meant it was something very special.  Walking down into the canyon was a very inspiring experience.

wpid9321-CRW_6189.jpgWe spent some time there and walked along the rim of the canyon (and back again courtesy of missing the shuttle as a result of someone spending too much time taking pictures) as well as into the canyon itself.  The weather was great while we were there which certainly helped to appreciate what it had to offer.  These shots are a few of the many I took while there.  Now I want to go back!

Ryan Flyby

wpid9313-C59F1685.jpgI had not been up to Sonoma Skypark for quite a while.  Lots of things had been going on that had either kept me at home or taken me further afield but, with a nice Saturday forecast, I figured it was time to get back up there and say hello to some folks.  The weather held to the forecast and it was a great day to be up there.  During my first visit to Schellville, I had met Dave Masters and photographed his ST-A.  Dave also pays a visit to Skypark each week.  I had seen him there before but had not shot him from the good light side of the field.

wpid9311-C59F1672.jpgThis time I was determined to do so.  When he appeared downwind, I scampered across the field to get into position.  I was just in time as he came down the approach and I grabbed a sequence of shots.  Here they are.

wpid9315-C59F1694.jpg

Updated Approach to Lightroom Catalogs

I have been a user of Lightroom since Adobe release version 1 quite a few years ago.  It has been a very useful tool for me and something that dominates my workflow.  In the early days, there were issues with the number of images that a catalog could have before it started to respond sluggishly.  Consequently, I created a series of different catalogs for different subject areas.  Military aircraft were in one, civil in another, wildlife in a third, sports in a fourth and so on.  This system was fine to use although it had a few minor drawbacks in that some images would be in more the one catalog.  I would import them to one and then export them to the other.  However, as I edited one version, the other one did not always keep up despite saving the sidecar files to disc.

At some point, Adobe updated the functionality of the application and it was no longer so constrained by the number of files in a catalog.  However, I had a series of catalogs that I was familiar with so I didn’t pay much attention to this change.  However, over time, it occurred to me that I was making my life more complex than it needed to be.  I could probably cut down the number of catalogs dramatically and make the workflow a bit simpler.

I decided to have one catalog for all of my aviation related imagery and the other for everything else.  To do so, I created a new catalog for each of these and started importing from the other catalogs.  This was not as smooth a process as you might have imagined.  There were duplicate images as I knew and you could set the system up to make these virtual copies so nothing got lost along the way.  However, sometimes the import did not go well.  They were large catalogs coming into an even larger catalog and this caused some struggles.  I had to delete and start again at some points but ultimately I got it to work.  I did have to recreate some of the collections which did not transfer so easily in some cases but it is now done.

Did it make life easier?  Yes, it did.  Having just two catalogs is now a lot more straightforward.  Do they run just as well?  No.  The aviation catalog does seem to be a bit sluggish sometimes.  Usually it works fine but it is definitely not as responsive as the individual ones were.  I shall see how this develops over time.  A new machine is in the works so whether that will make a difference or not, we shall see.

SFO From the Hill

wpid9259-C59F2006.jpgMany of my recent posts have involved aircraft operating from SFO.  One of the restrictions SFO has is that, being bounded by water means there are limited opportunities to vary your shooting angles.  One thing I was ken to try was an overview of the field.  Driving along I-380, you are up on the ridge looking down to the airport and you are almost directly in line with the east/west runways.  I thought that there must be somewhere accessible where you could get a similar view.

wpid9263-C59F2148.jpgI checked with a guy I know who lives locally to see if he had any ideas.  He had already beaten me to it and had shot just what I was thinking about a couple of years before.  He suggested an area that might be suitable so I headed out.  I found a location with just the sort of view I was looking for.  The air was relatively clear so the shots of the field were quite good with one exception.  At this range, the heat haze is really difficult.  You are a long way out and everything between you and the airport is developed and has a lot of warmth rising from it on a nice day.  However, even knowing this, I still thought the difference the shot provided was worth the effort.

wpid9277-C59F2627.jpgI was extra lucky in that I met a bunch of guys working on a car in the driveway of one of the houses on the street I chose.  They were a good bunch and a lot of fun to hang out with so the infrequent nature of departures on that runway was compensated for by having people to pass the time with.  The shots here are a few that I got.  The aircraft continue on a pretty straight departure route so they end up passing almost directly over you.

wpid9279-C59F2674.jpgI would like to try shooting here another time.  Later in the day with softer light and – hopefully – less heat haze would be good.  The location might also be good for the multiple exposure type shooting I have done at Coyote Point.  After dark would also work well to generate some light trails.  Lots to think about for future shoots.

Curtiss Jenny

wpid9248-AU0E9870.jpgWhen talking about vintage aircraft, I am frequently discussing aircraft that are from the Second World War era or later.  However, one of the residents of Schellville is a Curtiss Jenny.  This is a First World War aircraft and the example here is an original.  It doesn’t get to fly very often but I was lucky to be there on a day when it was planned to take it up for a couple of sorties.  We moved it out to fuel up and then took it onto the field to launch.  (It should be noted that pushing an aircraft around the field quickly makes you appreciate where the gradients are.  What looks like nothing when you are walking suddenly becomes conspicuous when pushing an aircraft – even a relatively light older one!)

wpid9246-AU0E9866.jpgWe crewed up the Jenny and got her ready for start.  Unfortunately, fortune was not on our side.  She fired up willingly enough but a quick check of the engine compartment after start revealed a fuel leak and we shut her down.  A trip back to the hangar to troubleshoot meant that there would be no flying that day.  Once back inside, a hose was found to be split and this was the source of the fuel.  Not the sort of thing you want to find out about while flying so the sound approach of everyone was justified.  Fixing the hose was easy so, hopefully the Jenny will be flying again soon.  Now to get some good weather and availability for everyone concerned!

wpid9250-AU0E9879.jpgI also had a little video of the start up which you can see below.

Grand Canyon

wpid9199-CRW_5888.jpgMy friend Jo Hunter recently blogged about her trip from Texas to Las Vegas and back.  She saw and did many interesting things en route so I would suggest you check it out at Futurshox.  Part of her trip took her to the Grand Canyon.  Nancy and I made a trip to the North Rim of the canyon quite a few years ago.  I decided to take another look at some of the pictures from that time.  One point of having pictures is so that you can go back and take another look to remember what you did in days gone by.

wpid9213-CRW_6091.jpgAnother thing if you are a photographer is to go back and see what you did with those pictures and whether anything you have learned since might give them a new lease on life.  One thing is the different processing tools that are available.  Another is your approach to using those tools.  Consequently, I had a look through a few of the shots and decided to give them a go.

wpid9209-CRW_6058.jpgIt is a little sad to see how many cameras I have been through since that trip.  These were taken with my first DSLR at a time when it was still relevant to use the term DSLR.  Nowadays, there are hardly any SLRs around that aren’t digital so perhaps we should just call them SLRs again.  Anyway, I digress.  Despite the lower resolution, the image quality from that old body is really not too shabby.  I had full page magazine images from that camera and they looked great.  It might have been a bit restricted in how far you could push it but it still worked well.

wpid9205-CRW_6003.jpgEnough blathering, here are the shots.  It has got me excited about that part of the world again.  I suppose a trip down there may be another thing to add to the list.  Of course, the list never gets shorter.  Always so many things to be done!

Erickson Flashback

wpid9180-C59F2199.jpgI was recently looking back through a few of the previous posts and came across some images of Erickson Aircrane at work in Chicago with their S64 Skycranes.  I was thinking about the various times I had worked with these guys and it occurred to me that several of those lifts had taken place before I started the blog.  Therefore, today is a gratuitous chance to look at some older helicopter shots.

wpid9182-C59F2205.jpgThe guys at Erickson have carried out many lifts in the Chicago area.  On one occasion, they did two lifts in one day on opposite sides of the city.  The first was down near Hyde Park with some equipment being lifted onto a residential block.  The loads were lifted in a park area in front of the building.  Lots of trees were in this park and the Skycrane did an excellent job of finding the weakest and dead limbs.  By the end of the job, the ground was covered in dead wood!

wpid9192-IMG_3012.jpgThe second lift was in Oak Park and was from a garage structure up to the roof of the building.  however, next to the garage was an older building with a wooden roof and balconies which had lots of stuff stored on them.  After the morning, we were rather worried about how much stuff would be damaged.  Amazingly, the gentle breeze from the street made the downdraft totally benign and the building was unharmed.  Hope you like the shots.

Blue Angel

wpid9133-C59F7796.jpgA surprise visitor at Boeing Field timed his arrival perfectly.  I had just pulled up at the field when I saw something running in on the approach at speed and not descending.  This had the look of a military break.  I didn’t have the camera out but, fortunately, given that it looked like they would break downwind to land, I had some time to grab the camera.  Sure enough, it was an F/A-18 that broke overhead.  More interestingly, it was a two seater from the Blue Angels.

wpid9131-C59F7780.jpgI was ready by the time it was on the approach and managed to get a few shots as they landed.  They then taxied over to Clay Lacy’s FBO and parked up.  Not sure what they were in for but it could involve the planning for Seafair later in the year.  Whatever the reason, a nice surprise.