Monthly Archives: March 2016

Red Flag 16-1 Launch

AU0E6309.jpgI might not be as regular at Red Flag exercises as some of my colleagues but I do try and get to at least one a year. The different events have differing levels of appeal. The winter means less hot weather but the sun angles can be very tricky. Sometimes there is a lack of overseas participation. In the case of 16-1, there was a planned attendance from the Royal Australian Air Force with a variety of types as well as the RAF bringing Typhoons and a Hercules. My UK friends would be interested in the other participants but I like to see the RAF stuff because I don’t normally see it.

C59F3356.jpgLaunches follow a pretty regular pattern. The AEW aircraft gets up first followed by the tankers. Then the bombers head up and the rest of the aircraft stream out. They tend to launch to the northeast and recover in the opposite direction. The launch means a lot of backlighting of the aircraft. There have been times when they launch to the southwest but, sadly, I have never been there for one of those. Recoveries are into the light usually which helps. Unfortunately, some changes in the procedures meant that we did not get a full recovery on base.

C59F3291.jpgWe were quite lucky as the following day the winds picked up and the recoveries were made in the same direction as the launch which would not have made for good photo opportunities. The launch is always an interesting challenge. They launch from both runways so you find yourself deciding which side is going next and scurrying back and forth. You also have some aircraft on the banned list so you have to make sure you know what each plane is before you shoot it. This can involve being able to shoot one unit’s aircraft of a given type but not another’s. Still, it’s better than being at work.

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Malham Cove

Scan 2-183.jpgI can’t remember how the conversation developed the way it did but I was talking with a friend and got on to the subject of Malham Cove.  Located in Yorkshire in the UK, this is a stunning location.  It is a horseshoe shaped rock formation that once was an impressive waterfall.  The water is still there but now the majority of the rock face is dry and it provides a great place for a hike.  To illustrate this post, I am digging back in to the archives in a big way.  This involves a trip I took there with an old friend of mine.  I will not give his name but I will be interested to see if he reads this and what he thinks of photos of himself from twenty years ago!

Scan 2-190.jpgYou can park your car in Malham and walk straight up to the cove.  However, we took an alternative route to make for a more interesting walk.  We walked up a narrow valley named Gordale Scar.  The valley gets narrower and narrower until you come to a waterfall.  Provided the water is not flowing too hard, it is possible to climb up the side of the waterfall.  Once at the top, you continue on a steady climb alongside a river – Gordale Beck.  Even as young and energetic fellows like we were in those days, I recall this being a pretty hard slog and, while neither of us was going to show weakness to the other, I seem to recall a few stops to enjoy the scenery – nothing to do with catching our breath.

Scan 2-181.jpgThings gradually flatten out and you cross some fields to come to Malham Tarn, a moderately sized lake.  This is the turning point for the walk.  Now you head back towards Malham itself.  You end up coming across a limestone pavement to the tome of Malham Cove.  Here you will meet a bunch of people that have walked up the steps from the valley below.  Having made a far longer trek, you are tempted to be a little dismissive of these people taking the easy route but there are still a lot of steps so they have had to make some effort.

Scan 2-187.jpgThe view from the top is stunning.  The drop down is a long one – about 80m (240’) – and there are often climbers testing themselves against the rock faces.  The cracks in the limestone can be quite large as you step across and it is fun to imagine the whole thing being under rushing water.  The formation is about 300m wide so, while it might be busy, you probably won’t feel crowded.  When you have finally enjoyed the scenery enough, you can descend the steps at the side to head back into the village.  This still gives you a chance to appreciate the view back up at the cove as you head away.

This place is stunning, particularly on a lovely day.  If you live in the UK and have never been, try and get there.  If you don’t live in the UK, add this to your itinerary when you go.

Farewell to the Junglies

Scan 2-583.jpgThe end of the line has come for another UK military type.  The Sea King HC4 has come to the end of the line for the Royal Navy.  The Navy operated many Sea Kings in the anti-submarine role and for search and rescue before the Commando role was taken on.  The Wessex fleet was aging and Westland had already come up with an assault version for the export market.  Distinguished by its lack of radome and sponsons, the RN decided to use them as the replacement for the Wessex.  I have seen them on many occasions.  Living near Portsmouth as a kid, they frequently flew by.  I also saw them at Navy Days.  However, I have far fewer shots of them than I expected.  They were not big airshow regulars.

Scan 2-611.jpgThe Junglie name had come from operations before their time and will, I suspect continue with their replacement in service, the Merlins that have been transferred from the RAF.  With over 30 years of service, I guess they have done their job well.

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Update on the Negative Scanning

IMG_3820.jpgI wrote about the set up I had created for scanning negatives using a digital camera a while back.  Since writing that, I have been working on a lot more scans and have gained some additional experience.  This has resulted in a few changes to the configuration so I thought I would share those too.  Overall I am very happy with the results I am getting as a result of the updates.  Things could be better but that would involve considerably more expense and the need just isn’t there.

The first change I made was to use a different lens.  I had been using the 24-105.  It was pretty close to the film plane and was sensitive to getting the alignment spot on.  I had a few times when focus was not consistent across the shot.  I thought it might be better to try a longer lens further away and this proved to be a big help.  I have my old 100-400 still so I hooked that up.  It makes for a slightly higher position but I can use the zoom quite well although it needs more of the extension tubes to focus properly.  It does result in good focus although I tend to focus manually as the autofocus does not seem happy in this setup.

IMG_3822.jpgI was using Liveview quite a bit and I discovered that the old batteries I have were not lasting long at all.  Rather than buy new batteries, I went to Amazon and picked up an AC adaptor that replaces the battery for about $15.  Now I can scan as long as I like without having to have batteries charging in the background.

I also have modified slightly the light pad.  I found I was moving it around a lot more than I realized as I moved the negatives and swapped strips.  A little gaffer tape now holds it pretty much in place.  This means I can have the lens zoomed more closely to the full frame of the film which allows for a higher resolution scan.

With everything tethered in to Lightroom, the import process is pretty smooth.  The preset I use is okay but I am regularly tweaking for the white balance and exposure.  This is not too big of a deal.  I find I can get better detail out of the shots than was possible with the scanner and using the raw convertor gives me plenty to work with.  They are still limited by the quality of the original shots of course!

Overall I am very pleased.  I can scan a lot of stuff very quickly compared to the old way and now I am happy to scan a whole shoot without worrying about whether any of them could be ignored.  It is quicker to scan them and then discard them afterwards.  I am scanning stuff that I have been thinking about for a long time and rescanning shots that had been done before but really were not great.  Of course, now I have even more stuff to do in whatever spare time there is so maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all!

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Huey at Hayward

AU0E0932.jpgGiven the number of times that I have been specifically trying to catch something out in the wild, it is a little funny when I get completely lucky and come across something cool without ever trying. I was out walking along the shore in Hayward through the parkland that includes the marshes out there. The weather was not particularly nice but I was checking out the area as a place to walk on another occasion. While I was walking along, I heard the unmistakable sound of a Huey in the distance. I scanned the horizon for a sign of the helicopter and picked it up low and coming towards me. Could I be so lucky as to get it coming right by me?

No, as it got closer, it turned away. I was a bit disappointed but not too surprised. It dropped out of sight and I figured it had landed at Hayward airport. I went on with my walk and didn’t think much more about it. Before too long, it popped up again and a similar situation occurred. As I headed back to the car, the same thing happened again.   I was a bit closer at this point and got some shots but it was still some way off and the sky was a bit grey so still nothing worthwhile.

AU0E0888.jpgAs I got to the car, some rain started to fall so I figured I was heading home. As I drove away, the rain stopped again and I figured I was going to be coming right by the airport so I might look and see if I could see the Huey or not. When I got to the fence, the sound returned and right behind me was the ubiquitous shape on its downwind leg. It turned in to the field and ended up hovering a short distance from me. Not only that, but the sun came out! A dark background with sun on the foreground is always a great combination. They were flying a bunch off circuits so I stayed around for a while to catch a couple of them before the light went away and my desire for lunch started to take over.

The aircraft is a restored airframe run by a volunteer group to commemorate the emergency medical service provided in Vietnam. They are called EMU Inc. and are based around here. I hope to spend more time finding out about what they do so watch out for more in the future.

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Dog Sled Demonstration

C59F1513.jpgUnless you live in the mountains, California winters are not a time for much thought about snow.  However, I did find myself thinking back to an event we went to a couple of time when we lived in Chicago.  Morton Arboretum is located in Lisle, west of the city, and was a favorite place for us to visit.  In any season it was a pretty place to walk.  During the winter, they would put on a demonstration of dog sledding and this could be fun to watch.

C59F1367.jpgA course would be set up through the trees so there were plenty of places in which you could set yourself up to watch the action.  The runs would take place at various times throughout the day and between them you could go and talk to the people and meet the dogs.  They were certainly energetic creatures and, I imagine, they would be a real handful to have in a house.  Let the buyer beware!

C59F1479.jpgThe snow was not too deep on this occasion so it was relatively straightforward to head out around the course and get set for the teams when they came through.  Most of them had things well under control but sometimes a single dog sled would appear and the dog might get a little distracted by all of the cool smelling stuff around them.  At this point, the person would appear to be doing more of the pushing and the dog less of the pulling.

C59F1635.jpgShooting in the snow is always a little interesting.  The brightness of the snow itself contrasts a lot with the shadows in the surrounding trees.  This is when shooting RAW really helps as you can get a lot more out of the shots.

ASRAAM Self Portrait

C59F5739.jpgWhile waking along the ramp occupied by the RAAF Hornets, one of the ASRAAM missiles on the wingtip launch rail of an A-model Hornet had its seeker cover removed. It was dangling by a strap and I was going to ask one of the ground crew if we should replace it. Then I got distracted by the seeker itself. It looked pretty cool and was reflecting light in an interesting way. Naturally, when you are near something reflective, the idea of a self-portrait jumps to mind if you are a little self-obsessed so I couldn’t help myself. Many years ago I worked on an ASRAAM seeker development related task using the company Jetstream testbed so I can pretend all of this is a technical interest and not narcissism at all.

New Apple Campus

C59F8742.jpgThe bottom of the peninsula runs in to the San Jose area and it is full of the tech businesses that are dominating the news these days.  The departure from Oakland if you are heading south takes you out to the coast and then back over this part of the world.  If you are sitting on the left side of the plane, you get a good view of the area.  One of the most high profile companies is Apple and they are in the process of building a huge new campus.  This is like a giant spaceship shaped as a circle that has landed in Sunnyvale.  Given how big it is, it isn’t hard to spot from the air.  We might have been high but it was still conspicuous.  Here is the view I got.

Another Night Launch on a Cold and Windy Night

C59F5307.jpgThe evening launch at Red Flag is something I have had a go at on a number of occasions. Consequently, regular readers that pay close attention may feel that this post is a bit repetitive and they would be correct. I was a bit better prepared for the night launch than on previous occasions. I had brought a cable release and a Gorillapod to allow me to have a bit better a set up for the time lapse video of the launch. Meanwhile, I was shooting handheld with the second body.

C59F5147.jpgSadly, a couple of things were not working in my favor. First, it was pretty windy and, while I had the camera set up on the hood of the car, it was a bit vulnerable to movement as the car moved in the wind and the camera vibrated on the pod. Consequently, some of the video is less than ideal. However, conditions did seem to settle down a bit and the later part of the video seems to steady up a bit.

C59F5534.jpgSecond was that there was no moon. It was very dark and cold out there. I managed to get some shots of the B-1B launches but the only illumination was from the burners. No ambient light at all so they didn’t look as good as on previous attempts. I did try to stay for the whole launch and not to get the time lapse showing things in full swing when it ends but there is a limit to how long you want to hang out in the cold when everyone else has gone. I got most of the launch but I did see a bunch of jets head out as I passed the speedway. I probably should have tried getting some shots from there as they were still in burner at that point.

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Any Expensive Jets Here?

C59F1981.jpgAirliners were not the only thing we got to see above LAX. On the south side of the field are some FBOs and they had an interesting selection of planes parked up on their ramps. As we passed overhead, it was a good time to see what was around. There were plenty of Gulfstreams on show. The view from above shows just how large the wing is on the largest of Savannah’s products. We also had some BBJs, a 757 that appeared to belong to a casino and some Cessnas, Challengers, Falcons and Hawkers. I am not sure I would be able to choose which one to use today. Maybe I will rotate them?

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