The cool cars were not just restricted to the main gathering area. As I wandered through the lot, a guy found himself a parking spot and pulled in with his McLaren. He hopped out, gave it a quick wipe down and then wandered into the crowds after chatting to a few of us. I only asked him one thing. Had it proved to be all he had hoped it was. “Oh yes!”
While I am not ever going to have my own business jet, I know the various types that would be high on my wishlist if I happened to go shopping for one. The Global Express jets from bombardier are right up there. They are big, comfortable, can go anywhere and they look pretty cool. They are also getting more common as sales have been very strong recently (although they are going to cut production a bit – I guess because the line is in need of a bit of a refresh). NetJets have also started operating the type which boosts the number you are likely to see around.
A visit to Boeing Field included the appearance of some Globals and this was a nice surprise. I got them on approach and departing which was nice. They also tend to taxi directly past where I was so you can have a good close up look at the jet. It was a busy day for business jets with a Falcon coming down the approach while one of the Globals was holding for departure. Bombardier did a nice job with this plane. The new Global jets are currently in development. I look forward to seeing what they look like when they start flying.
The Farnborough Air Show used to be a regular feature for me. I started going when I was studying at university and would go to the trade days each two years as the show came around. When I worked at BAe, they would sometimes make it easy for us to get there. One year I got to ride down on the 146 to RAF Odiham and they took us the rest of the way by bus. Not a bad way to travel for sure.
The Russians started showing up at the shows from, if memory serves, 1988 onwards. They started off with a pair of MiG-29s the first time around and progressively brought more with them each time. 1992 was a particularly good year. Not only were the MiGs there again but Sukhoi SU-29 Flankers were there and, the highlight for me was the Yak-38 Forger and the Yak-141 Freestyle. Sadly, it did not fly the day I was there but those I know who saw it hovering can attest to the noise and spectacle it created. Meanwhile, there were other excellent types there such as the SU-24 Fencer although it was rather brightly painted for an operational type. Support aircraft and airliners were also part of the display as Russia tried to expand its business following the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the sudden downsizing of their forces.
Times have changed and I doubt we will get Russian attendance like this at a western trade show for a while. However, nothing stays the same forever so there may well come a time again in the future when some variety will be added to a trade show. With the number of types in service in the west reducing, it would be nice to see things like this again and some of their more recent types would be good to see too.
The Cars and Coffee meet in a previous post came with a whole bunch of Aston Martins. Obviously, there are a few people in our neck of the woods who like their Astons and I was happy to see what they had brought along. There were lots of late model cars looking particularly lovely on a sunny morning. The two lines of cars were great to see. It was hard to get a wide shot of them though. Plenty of people were all around them at any one time.
There were a couple of interesting old Astons too. One was a DB5 that appeared to be in spectacular condition. The owner was close by and chatting with anyone who stopped by. The one I was most taken by was an old Vantage. It turned out to be the car driven by George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. A far later model of the Vantage showed up in a Timothy Dalton Bond movie which shows how long the basic design lasted. Seeing this earlier version with an interesting pedigree was great.
There are limited options for shooting at SFO and I have tried quite a lot of what is on offer. A buddy of mine was flying in a while back and he looked at a park on the bayshore which he suggested might be of interest. It is a bit further out but has some elevation so he thought it might be worth a look. I took a look on Google to see exactly where the place was and found it was Seal Point Park.
There is a small parking lot up on top of the hill with a far larger lot at the bottom of the hill. I figured I would try the top first just in case and it turned out to be almost deserted. There were some benches so I settled in for a while to see how things looked. The planes are a bit far out but they are higher which reduces the effect of heat haze. Even so, the conditions are not ideal. Quite a few shots were just not going to be of use.
There was a good view along the shore towards the airport. When the parallel approaches were being shot, you could have a nice look at the two planes heading down together. Coyote Point (another spot I have used on plenty of occasions) did obstruct the view as they got closer to landing though. I’m not sure this is a place I will shoot often but it is not bad and provides a bit of variety. You are also far enough out that sometimes the gear is still up on the planes which makes for a slightly different view.
While hanging out at Livermore Airport to see the Collings Foundation, I ended up in conversation with another photographer and we started talking about cars as you do. We got onto the topic of the Blackhawk Automotive Museum and he asked if I had been to Cars and Coffee. I knew nothing about it so he explained a little. I was intrigued and decided I needed to go.
On the first Sunday of every month from 8am until 10am, the parking lot of the museum is a gathering spot for owners of cool cars and those who want to see cool cars. It is a case of whatever turns up so you never know what you will see. I got there a little after 8 and realized my error immediately. I did get a parking space but only by being on the opposite side of the lot. There were tons of cars there and plenty of interesting looking motors were just mixed in with the rest of the spectator cars.
I decided to head to the core of things to see what was around before starting to work my way back in the general direction of my car. This ended up working well. The mixture of cars was outstanding. There were more cars than you can probably imagine and the variety and quality was incredible. Some exotic machines from the latest product ranges were in with vintage cars that head been beautifully restored. If you have a ‘Vette, Mustang or Camaro, you were given space but we’re on the edge of things because of the more exotic types thrown in there. If you wanted to see a Ferrari, for example, you were going to be spoilt for choice. They were everywhere!
I was happy to see some Lotus models too. The more modern ones were nice but I was particularly happy to come across an old Esprit Turbo SE. This was a dream car for me when I was a teenager. Seeing one in such great condition was great. As with these type of gatherings, there was nothing between you and the cars and often the owner was around to show you their pride and joy. There were a few special things to add about the event so there will be a few other posts on specific things I saw coming up. Stay tuned!
Go to any zoo and, if there is a gorilla enclosure, you will find a lot of people. I suspect there are many reasons why people like gorillas but the similarity they have to us is probably one of the big ones. The hierarchy of their groups is also interesting and so it proved to be while we were in San Diego. One male seemed to be testing how much of the enclosure he could control. He would sit quietly in one spot for a while and the other male would find a spot to hang out somewhere out of the way.
Then the prime would decide to move. Surprisingly enough, he would always go roughly where the other male was. He would make himself scarce. He might then sneak around the back in the diction of the spot the prime had previously been. I think you can guess what happened next. This game went on for quite a while – longer than I was prepared to watch it.
Needless to say, if you are looking for similarities between gorillas and humans, go for the intimidation and pettiness elements. You should see some close parallels. It is hard to see which one is more advanced in that case!
If you wanted to get a bit of an aerial view of Half Moon Bay and the Dream Machines show, one option was a helicopter flight. Two Robinson R-44s were running flights all day. The flights were not long and not particularly cheap but that obviously was not a deterrent. The two seemed to be flying almost constantly all day. They barely had time to refuel and swap crews it seemed.
The two 44s were similar in appearance but my usual fascination with helicopters took over and I ended up taking way more pictures of them than was absolutely necessary. I even told Hayman to stop me if I kept shooting them! He obviously wasn’t too thorough on that one as I have a fair few shots. I even got some when we stuck in the traffic leaving as they were coming right over us for a while. When going through the shots, it is sometimes fun to see the passengers watching me watching them!
Plenty of wildlife shots make their way on to this blog. However, the ones that get the most responses are those that involve baby animals. The cuteness factor usually does the trick. Today we shall combine a creature that is not usually known for being cute (although I do find them fascinating) with the baby element to see what results. Is a baby hippo cute?
If the responses of the visitors to San Diego Zoo are anything to go by, definitely. This baby was really very young. It was in the enclosure with its mum and the mother was teaching it to swim. They were hanging out in the water under some foliage to make the most of the shade. Periodically, they would take a swim with her pushing the baby ahead of her under water. If it popped up to the surface, she would push it back under to get it used to being under for long periods of time.
A couple of laps of the pool and then back under the foliage to take a break before repeating the process. Getting shots was not easy. First, mum was pretty protective and blocked the view of the baby a lot. It would pop up occasionally. Of course, shooting through thick glass doesn’t help. Once they were swimming there were better chances. However, the tank glass is thick and the distortion at angles is significant. Also, there were a ton of people also trying to get a view.
Despite all of this, we did get a chance to see the baby swimming around. It really was a very cute looking thing. The pictures will not be worthy of anything beyond the blog but they are a nice snapshot of the early days of a creature that will soon be a lot bigger. By the time this posts, I imagine it will have grown substantially.
The Dream Machines show included the opportunity to take a step back in time and experience open cockpit flying the way it was a long time ago. Two vintage bi-planes were offering rides and were doing a roaring trade. The two planes in question were a New Standard and a Travel Air (that lives at Skypark and can be seen up there on a regular basis). The opportunity to sit in the front of these lovely looking machines resulted in a long line throughout the day and frequent opportunities to see them in the air.
The wind speed was actually quite high so, while their downwind legs were quite zippy, any movement upwind seemed considerably more labored. The approach and landing could be made from quite a high initial point with dropping down not needing much in the way of side slipping.
I have seen both these aircraft before but they are still a nice looking pair and, with the hills overlooking the airport providing a nice backdrop, we could get some nice shots.
