Monthly Archives: January 2016

Chatsworth House

As country estates go, Chatsworth House is probably up there as one of the more grand ones. Seat of the Duke of Devonshire, the estate is substantial and the house and grounds are quite something. We have visited on a number of occasions including touring the interior. While I don’t normally bother with the insides of these places, Chatsworth is certainly one that should be experienced. Some parts of the interior are quite stunning. This is not a collection of musty furniture that some long deceased monarch once slept on. This is a grandiose place.

This trip did not include an interior tour though. This was part of a hike that took us in to the grounds. It is fair to say that the distance we walked inside the grounds was actually longer than the rest of the hike but that is an example of how extensive they are. I will post separately about some aspects of the grounds as there are many different places that might fill up a single post. We had never explored the grounds so extensively before so some of these parts were new to us.

The house itself is a very grand structure. Located along the river with an attractive bridge leading you there, the setting is very impressive. Much of the surrounding countryside is elevated relative to the house so wherever you are, you get a view down to it. The effect is to remind you regularly of just how grand it is!

It’s Cold Up High

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One element of shooting at Coyote Point that I particularly like is the way you can get a good view of the undersides of the jets as they come in. The long haul flights often have an added feature. The wing fuel is mostly burnt down by the time they land but there are reserves still in the tanks to cover unforeseen events. Many hours at altitude has chilled the fuel down nicely so, as the plane descends into the moist air over the bay, a nice frost forms on the underside of the wings where the fuel is still sitting.

I have seen this on various jets over the years so this post is a compilation. Some of these shots are recent and some are from older shoots. Rather than show the whole plane, these are focused on the areas where the frost forms. They give you a good idea of the internal structure of the various types involved.

Cartmel Priory

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While Cartmel now seems like a pretty sleepy town, it once was a bustling center of commerce. The Priory was the heart of a local agricultural economy. While that might have changed a lot, the Priory itself is still an impressive structure and reminder of how things had once been very different. While not as grandiose as some of the UK’s cathedrals, it is still a pretty grand building to come across in an otherwise small town.

Early Morning Light at Coyote Point

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Early morning is not usually a good time to shoot anything at SFO. The sun is behind the planes as they come in so you don’t get a particularly appealing light angle. However, the middle of winter means the sun rises a long way south so, while it still starts out a bit behind things, it quickly moves to an angle that starts to work well. The planes end up with good lighting as they pass and the light on them as they head away can be very conducive to nice shots.

I was continuing my program of testing the 100-400 post the repairs it received at Canon. Coyote Point was a good place to start the day since it has better possibilities this early and it also allows for shooting down the approach path as the planes head to the runway. I also wanted to have a further go at multiple exposures to stack the images of the planes to make a composite of their flightpath. The early morning is also good because the relative humidity levels are up and the planes can trail some nice vortices.

As the light angle comes around, it is still quite low in the sky. The result is some nice lighting on the underside of the airframe – something that is not normally something that you get. Rather than the warm glow you get with a setting sun, the light seemed a lot crisper and cleaner and I really liked the way the planes looked.

Ullswater

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Ullswater is gorgeous. Not a lot more to say to be honest. A large lake surrounded by impressive hills. Add a sunny day and what more could you want. This place is lovely and, since it is not on a main thoroughfare, once you are out of the main tourist season, it is not terribly busy. What more could you ask for?

Formation of United Jets

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The parallel approaches at SFO are well enough known. I have blogged about them myself here and here. Getting two planes in the same shot is a cool result but it isn’t often that you get three and all of them from the same airline. I was out with Hayman and Roger when a pair of jets came down the approach almost perfectly together. We all got shots of them as they came in. I didn’t notice anything further until I was looking through the shots back at home. Apparently, a United jet was departing prior to the arrival of this pair and it happened to fly out on a path that aligned with my view of the pair. Three jets in one shot!

The Mason’s Arms

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When you have been away from somewhere for a long time, there is a risk in going back to favorite old haunts. They may not be as good as you remember and you can harm a happy memory of a place. Despite this, we decided to take a chance and visit a pub that was always a favorite of ours when we lived in Lancashire. The Mason’s Arms is on the hillside above Bowland Bridge in the Lake District. It always used to have excellent food and a huge selection of beers.

The beer selection has changed. It is now a pretty normal pub with a few different beers but no longer are there hundreds of different bottles available to sample. That is the only significant change, though. Otherwise, it is just as good if not better than I remember. The food was first class and the view across the valley just as good as it has always been. They have even made some small changes outside to the seating area to make it more comfortable.

There are not many places that are quite as relaxing to be with a pint in hand and some good food in front of you than looking out over the valley on a sunny afternoon. There is only a limited amount of parking so the place can get busy but it doesn’t feel overrun. One surprise it did provide was the presence of an old boss of mine from my days at BAe. He was having lunch with his wife half way around a walk they were taking. We had quite a long chat and it was great to catch up. When he left, we continued to sit and enjoy our food and the terrific view.

Leap Frogs

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The Leap Frogs are a parachute display team from the Seals. I have seen them a few times at shows in the Midwest – sometimes working with the Golden Knights of the US Army. During Fleet Week the Leap Frogs jumped to open the main part of the air show. On the day I went, they jumped from Fat Albert, the C-130 of the Blue Angels. Apparently, they also used an Air National Guard C-130 over the weekend.

Their jump routine is pretty cool. They do a lot of coordinated work once under canopies. They make a cool four canopy stack which takes a while to form up but, when formed, looks neat. I just wish they would hold it until they were a bit lower. They also do a nice pairs arrangement where two jumpers hook legs and end up plummeting downwards breaking just in time to land. Always a good way to get the crowd on edge!

My shots of parachute teams have tended to get a bit samey over time but I still like getting some shots of them as you never know whether you will get a slightly different angle on something or that the lighting will show something special.

Kirkstone Pass

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The Lake District includes a few pretty steep passes to let you get from one valley to another. The route to Ullswater from Windermere takes you over the Kirkstone Pass. It isn’t the steepest pass in the Lakes but it is pretty steep all the same. Definitely not something you want to be stuck behind a slow truck on.

At the top of the pass is the Kirkstone Pass Inn. If you were traversing the pass in awful weather (something that is not that unusual in the Lakes), reaching that Inn would certainly seem to be a very welcome development. On the day we came through, though, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. The light on the hills looked great and the view down to Ullswater was fantastic. The steepness of the descent is something that it is hard to convey in a photograph but the drop was quite something to see. As we started down, there was a turn out that allowed us to stop again and get an even better view on the route down to the valley. It also allowed some of the other traffic to move on. Climbing the hill and dropping down the other side is not terrible for a car but it is fair to say I was happier doing it with a rental car than with my own!

Heathrow Departures

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Terminal 5 at Heathrow has a massive wall of glass out on to the airport. However, it is not so easy to get any shots of the planes given the amount of space that is given over to retail. However, the piers from which many of the flights depart are a better proposition. Our flight was leaving from 5C so we headed over there a little ahead of time. Apparently, this might not always be a good idea if they change gates because transferring back is not as straightforward. However, we didn’t have any problems.

Head to the north end of the pier and you can sit with a pretty unrestricted view of the departing aircraft from 27R. They tend to rotate quite close to where you are so you have an excellent opportunity to watch the movements. Shooting through the glass is possible but not ideal. Internal reflections are, of course, a big issue but sometimes you can avoid them and other times you hope they are not too noticeable. Not material for publication but certainly useful for getting something that you would not normally see elsewhere.

I spent a happy half hour getting shots of departing jets prior to the time to head to our gate to board. The only disappointing thing was how many US airlines I got. I can get them at home! Our plane was actually in front of me while I was taking my pictures. It was connected to the terminal by a very long jet bridge so, when we finally boarded, we had a long walk to actually get to the jet. Not as long as the flight was of course!