Monthly Archives: February 2017

Customs Citation

Cessna Citations are not the most exciting business jets. The original versions are particularly uninspiring with their simple design and unswept wing. Normally I might not even bother if I came across one. This example showed up at Davis Monthan while we were on the ramp and it obviously wasn’t a standard version. It belongs to the Customs people. I imagine it spends a lot of time looking at what is going on along the border. Flying out of Tucson would support that idea. I imagine the sensors on board are a lot more interesting than the plane itself.

Updating Your Keywording Standards

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I provide a number of images to stock agencies. They require keywords to tack what is in the images. This has never been a problem because I have been keywording my images for a long time. Some people keep their images in folders based on shoots but I have, for a long time, been more bothered about putting keywords in for my shots. This way I can use Lightroom to find shots of any topic really easily.

However, I have become a lot more diligent about my keywording standards in recent times. I used to not get too bothered about adding too much detail to my keywords. Now, when I am looking for something, I search on a keyword but the result doesn’t show up an image that I know I have. When I look at older shots, the keywords are rather sparse and not as specific as they would be now.

The result is that I am making an effort to improve my old keywords. This is not a quick task. I find little fixes I can make for clusters of shots and implement those. It usually triggers something else I can do. I don’t try and do everything at once. I just build a list of little tasks and tackle them one by one. I am now also more diligent about keywording new shots more aggressively. Fixing this afterwards is a lot harder so now they all get tagged with everything relevant. I hope this will eventually pay off for me.

Vipers Sneaking up on Strike Eagle

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Before I say anything else, this shot is not original. I didn’t think of this and I certainly wasn’t the first to shoot it. Indeed, it is the exact opposite. This is a shot that I have seen from other people a bunch of times but that I have never achieved. The recovery for Red Flag has a lot of jets coming home at once. Jets will break into the pattern and will be turning final when more jets are coming in to the break. You can get jets coming in overhead directly behind the jet on final turn. It looks cool but I had not got it before. This time I got lucky. I don’t know whether I am pleased with the shot or just glad that I finally happened to get it!

Sunset on Big Island

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Gratuitous sunset shots are not usually my thing. However, where we were staying on Big Island provided a great place to watch the sun go down. It was easy to have the sun go down in line with a little headland by the beach so why wouldn’t I do that? I watched a couple of the sunsets from there. The sky was better for one of them but there wasn’t a lot of high level cloud to really light up.

It’s interesting to see how many people that came out for the sunset disappeared right after the sun went down. They missed some of the more lovely sky colors that resulted as the sun illuminated the clouds from below once it had passed beyond the horizon. A little patience is worthwhile, although it doesn’t seem like such a sacrifice for a photo when you are standing by a tropical beach.

More Parallels

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Not too much description to go with this post. SFO is well known for its parallel approaches (and departures) and I have been seeing a lot of them recently. Here are a few of the examples that have cropped up. As an extra, I include a shot of two on approach with a departure in the background. Combine a parallel pair with the other traffic a little further out on the approach and the sky looks a little busy. However, while it looks interesting in person, it doesn’t make for a compelling shot.

Shooting RAW on the Phone

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The update to iOS 10 brought with it the possibility to shoot in RAW on the iPhone. For some reason Apple didn’t bother to incorporate this feature in the base phone app but they did make it available to other camera app developers. Camera+ is one that I use a bit so I figured I would start shooting in RAW via that. Obviously RAW means larger files but, since I download my files to the desktop frequently and tend to clear out the phone, this wasn’t a concern.

First thing I found out was that other apps could see the shots. I had taken a few shots and wanted to upload to Facebook and it turned out there wasn’t a problem doing so. However, the main benefit was anticipated to post processing back on the desktop. With the SLR shots (is there any point to saying DSLR these days?), it is possible to recover a lot from the highlights and shadows. Would the same be possible with the phone? Sort of. You can get a bit more in these areas than would be the case with the JPEG when things are quickly lost. However, the sensor data is still not anywhere close to being as adaptable as it is for an SLR. You get more flexibility to pull the sky back but it is still pretty limited.

Is it worth using? Definitely. While it might not be the post processing experience you will be used to with SLR files, it is certainly better than the JPEGs provide. The increase in file size is hardly an issue these days so I will using it from now on. The camera app doesn’t have the pan and time lapse stuff so easily to hand so the phone’s base app will still get used but, aside from that, it will be my choice. My main gripe now is that they have a random file naming protocol that is a little difficult to get used to. Small problems, eh?

Some FedEx Vapor

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Damp conditions are not uncommon in the Bay. Getting some vapor over the wing during a climb out would not be a surprise. Getting it on the approach can also happen but not so often. A FedEx MD-11 was on the approach to Oakland while I was walking along the shore. As it headed away, they were configured for the final approach as some flashes of vapor showed themselves above the wing. I happened to get them this time.

Rainbow Falls Doesn’t Work in the Rain

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We were heading out of Hilo and starting back in the direction of where we were staying but our route took us almost directly past the Rainbow Falls. Having already seen some good falls on this day, we were curious but not determined to see these falls. Moreover, it was looking a bit overcast as we drove up. This was the beginning though. As we pulled into the parking lot, the heavens opened. It was hammering down. Having got there, I figured I would take a look anyway although Nancy was quite happy to wait in the dry. Your intrepid photographer had to bear witness though.

Rainbows require two ingredients. Water vapor and sunlight. Without the sunlight, there was not going to be a hint of a rainbow. The falls were pretty cool looking though. I bounced around the perimeter checking them out from various angles while getting progressively wetter. It wasn’t just wet, though. The wind was really picking up so combine and damp and cold guy in some low light with a lot of wind blowing and getting the shots was beginning to be tricky. Instead, I took a good look at the falls and then admitted defeat. Back to the car to peel off the wet jacket and try to dry off on the drive back across the island.