Monthly Archives: December 2014

Oklahoma City Memorial at Night

In previous posts about the federal building memorial in Oklahoma City, I talked about how it is lit at night and that I wanted to go back. This I have now managed to do. I showed up around sunset and walked around the whole memorial. I was traveling light so no tripod, only a GorillaPod. This worked fine for most things. I was interested to discover text on the end of the memorial which lit up at night. I had thought it was a blank wall previously.

The subtle lighting across the memorial was very nice. As the sky color faded, I got a bunch of shots, some with quite long exposures which helped to blur out the other visitors of which there were plenty. The gentleness of the scene was what I wanted to convey since it was even more apparent in the dark than during the day, even though it is a calm place then too. That the place feels so peaceful while remembering such a violent event is a tribute to those who created it and maintain it.

Fleet Week

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Fleet Week in San Francisco was something I had been looking forward to since moving here. The air display over the bay had looked great in shots I had seen from previous years and that combined with the parade of naval ships sounded good. Sadly, things didn’t quite go to plan. The parade of ships happened but there weren’t very many of them so it was not a huge parade. Then the flying started but, with cloud cover coming in from the Golden Gate, the flying tended to be pushed farther into the bay and away from us.

We did get a couple of V-22s doing a tour of the bay before the real flying display kicked off and the weather improved for Fat Albert’s part of the Blue Angels’ performance. However, the cloud came right back and the Blues did a few orbits above the clouds over us and then gave up. Apparently the weather was better on the following days but I could not be there for that so I missed out. However, I got to spend the day with a couple of friends so it was still better than being at work!

Mustangs Day

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Another day out took me to Vacaville to visit Nut Tree Airport for their Mustangs Day. While I wasn’t planning this as a feature for Global Aviation Resource, I did end up putting together a BloGAR piece for the site about the day out. A slightly less formal write up which is more about my day than the event. If you want to check it out, the link is below.

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/11/14/bloggar-rob-edgcumbe-nut-tree-mustang-days-2014/

If you don’t check that out (please do though), here is a smaller sample of the aircraft that were around that day. I was getting a little silly playing with very slow shutter speeds so some things did not come out as planned but it was fun all the same.

Night Flight to Oakland

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Heading home from a work trip meant an evening flight back into Oakland. Our run in brought us across Tracy and Livermore and I could get a good view of the towns before we crossed the hills near Fremont. The lack of lights is a good indication of where the hills are sometimes. There was a lot of cloud lurking over parts of the area and this was lit from beneath by the city lights. The effect was rather cool as I looked out so I tried to get shots that expressed that too.

I grabbed a few shots out of the window. Something interesting was happening with the camera as the first shot of the burst was what I was expecting but subsequent ones seemed to go for a far longer exposure with the associated increase in blurry failures. I shall try and work this out but if you know why this might happen, please let me know in the comments.

Red Bull Air Race

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The Red Bull Air Race series was restarted for 2014 after a three year break. I have to admit I thought it wouldn’t come back when they stopped previously but I was wrong and this year seems to have been a successful one for them. The neutralized engine approach has certainly made the competition a lot closer. I was covering the event for Global Aviation Resource and the link below will take you to the article I wrote.

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/wp-admin/post.php?post=40015&action=edit

The Red Bull team provided a great facility for the media. We had three rooms with power and internet connectivity and food was provided throughout the day. Needless to say, if you wanted something to drink, there was plenty of Red Bull available! It had been a while since I had drunk it (and previously it might have been close to some vodka) but it was actually pretty good stuff. Doubt it shall be a regular feature for me though. These shots are some of the racers combined with a few of the other parts of the event that didn’t get so much attention in the feature.

Rock Climbing

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The scenery in Yosemite attracts a lot of people but some of them want to get a bit more personal with the rocky landscapes. Climbing is very popular and, when you stop to take a look around, a quick look up may well reveal a few brave fellows scaling the heights. I initially didn’t notice a group above us at one of our stops but then I saw someone else looking up and took a more detailed peak myself. I saw some people up on a ridge and only then noticed some people lower down on the face of the rocks as they descended. The long lens doesn’t quite give you the impression of their height but I assure you they were a long way up.

Wings Over Wine Country

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After a bit of a dry patch for GAR, I have been able to put together a number of pieces for them. Some are more interesting than others to me. I prefer to be able to tell a story about a person or operation that is not something people will normally see. However, I will have the odd report from an air show if I end up going to one – something that I do less than I used to.

One show I did get to was Wings Over Wine Country in Santa Rosa. The link will take you to the piece I wrote on the show. It was a good little show. It had a pretty reasonable selection of performers for its size. Some were of more interest to me than others. Photography was tricky since the lighting gets progressively worse as the day goes on. http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/10/06/airshow-review-wings-over-wine-country-2014/

I did enjoy shooting the finale of the show. A USMC V-22 Osprey wrapped up proceedings. It was not a very dynamic display but it did give me a chance to try a lot of shots of the tilt-rotor in flight. The slow turning rotors are a nightmare for photographers since they appear frozen at all but the lowest shutter speeds. I took the chance to see just how low I could go!

Top of the Resort

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Ski resorts are great places in the summer because they have an available way to the top of the mountains to enjoy the view. Mammoth Peak was no exception and a trip in the gondola too you via a mid station to the top of the mountain at 11,000′. While people were making the trip, we were outnumbered by the mountain bikers who rode up in the gondola and down on the bikes. Seems like a good idea if you want to focus on the fun part rather than the lung busting part – particularly at that altitude.

There was a bit of haze in the air but it was pretty clear so I could see a decent distance in all directions. I imagine the mountains look great when covered in snow but it was still a lovely place to be for a while.

Clear Lake Splash In

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I took a trip a few hours north of here to check out the Clear Lake Splash In. It is a gathering of float planes and amphibians on (surprisingly enough) Clear Lake. I should note that I have no idea why this lake is so named because the green weed that lined the shore and got bound up on anything entering the water was anything but clear.

I was writing up a piece for GAR and the article can be seen at the following link. http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/10/09/aviation-event-review-clearlake-splash-in-2014/. There are plenty more images from the day there. The ones here are just a sample of the day. My friend Eric took his plane there and was the one who let me know about the day in the first place. He says it was a lot smaller than in previous years. That is a shame but it was still a fun day out. The location is very pleasant, the atmosphere relaxed and, as the day drew on, the light just got better and better. I will be back!