Author Archives: Rob

Meerkerk Gardens

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Spring is a good time for rhododendrons and there are a number of gardens known for their flowering in the Seattle area.  We decided to take a trip to Whidbey Island to visit Meerkerk Gardens.  I hadn’t heard of it before but Nancy had done some research so we gave it a go.  While it was not in full bloom – peak blooming was one to two weeks away – it still was a gorgeous sight.

You can get blasé about the beauty of some places as each next view is as pretty as the preceding one and you have to remind yourself that this is not normal.  It is a peak of color and shape that doesn’t last long and has to be appreciated while it is there.  I lack the vision to come up with a good way of conveying just how pretty it is but I will have to make do with sharing some of the shots I took while strolling around.

Brand New F-15SA Jets

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The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) was attending Red Flag 19-2 with some brand new F-15SA jets.  These jets had come direct from delivery so had not yet even made it out of the US.  I guess they had that new fighter smell.  They did fly the first day we were there, despite the strong winds which was a pleasant surprise.  They flew along with the rest of the jets on our second day.  I have mentioned their slightly strange approach to flex departures before so I won’t go there any further but instead will share what I have of the jets from the two days I was there.

HDR Tech Comparison – What’s Up Lightroom?

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A while back I saw a Scott Kelby video on YouTube about the HDR functionality in Lightroom and that in Photoshop.  I had assumed that they were the same prior to seeing his video but he showed that the Photoshop version of the HDR was significantly cleaner than that in Lightroom.  I was interested in how this could be but I wasn’t too concerned.  The Lightroom version was so easy to use I figured the impact was not so much that it would show up in my shots.

Then, I found out I was wrong.  I was in the cockpit of the Comet at the Museum of Flight’s restoration facility at Paine Field.  I took a sequence for HDR because the cockpit is very dark but the view out of the windows is much brighter.  It isn’t particularly important since the view outside is nothing special but I did it anyway since I was there.  The lighter shot had quite a bit of shadow noise and, when I created the HDR in Lightroom, the noise was very conspicuous on the finished version.  I decided to try it in Photoshop to see what happened.  The difference was significant.  I include both of the full shots as processed along with the section of cockpit shadow so you can see the impact.

Max 8 Departs Just Before Grounding

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Paul and I were in Vegas for Red Flag but the early morning is also a good time to shoot at McCarran International.  The morning light is ideal for the north/south runways and, with the wind playing ball, you can get the iconic McCarran shots of jets taking off with the weird and wonderful hotel buildings behind them.  Where else will you get a pyramid and the Empire State Building in the background.  Southwest has a big presence at McCarran and we saw a string of their jets head out including one Max8.  We watched it climb out little realizing that the grounding order would be coming within hours or even minutes.  Whether the jet continued to its destination or turned around, we don’t know but that was its last commercial flight for a while.

Return of the Racers

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The races at the rowing meet I covered in this post tend to overlap from what we saw.  The length of the course and the time to complete it is such that the next race was started before the last was finished.  Consequently, there is not a way for the crews to return up the cut as the next boats are heading towards them.  Apparently, they all wait in the next bay.  Then, when it is clear, they all row back up together.  The cut was full of crews rowing back to take their boats out of the water.  It made for an impressive sight!

Low and Sporty Lightning II Departure

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Speedway departures can be a mixed bag at Nellis.  Flex departures with a pull over the Speedway are the best but it does depend on how high planes have got.  Some climb out quite steeply and are way too high for a good shot by the time that they reach you.  On my most recent Nellis trip, though, we were treated to a few departures by the locals that broke the mold. They got airborne and kept it nice and low as they accelerated towards us before breaking in to the flex departure routing.

The evening light combined with the great angles made for some good shots.  It didn’t hurt that I had a lower shutter speed than usual so got some nice blur of the mountains behind the planes courtesy of them being nice and low.  The Strike Eagles also gave it a go which was nice.

Lewis Falls

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We stopped off at the Lewis Falls on the way out of Yellowstone.  The angle of the falls from the road meant I had not even noticed them when we drove into the park but, coming back south, they were easily seen ahead and off to the right of the road.  Temperatures were not so low that the falls were frozen up and they looked very pretty.  Given the number of vehicles in the area, everyone was stopping to take a look too.

Dornier 328Jet

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The FBO ramps at McCarran had a selection of Dornier 328Jets.  I noticed one at first and only later realized that there were more.  What did please me was seeing a bus pull up by one of them with the door open.  I figured we would have a flight before too long.  Indeed it did, in due course, power up, taxi down to the departure end and take off.  It was a bit far away but I’ll take a 328Jet when the opportunity arises.

ASUW Shell House

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A short walk from the campus of UW takes you down to Montlake Cut.  This is the home of the university rowing team.  Having read The Boys in the Boat, we had read a lot about this location.  The Shell House from the book is still there and is in great shape.  George Pocock is no longer building his shells there, but it obviously has a place in UW rowing lore and it looked interesting on a sunny weekend day.  It looked even better from one side but the giant cherry picker in front of it kind of ruined the chance of a photo from that direction.

Sunset Burner Departures

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Fighters departing Nellis are well out of burner by the time they get anywhere near you outside the base.  However, if you are shooting in low light, the burners can show up quite well even though you are a long way off.  The plane is a small part of the overall shot but the intensity of the burner plume can make it far more conspicuous in the shot than would otherwise be the case.