Author Archives: Rob

Mesa Arch at Canyonlands

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I was watching a YouTube video recently where they discussed photographing Mesa Arch in Canyonlands. This is one of my shots from my visit there and, while I had some similar experiences to the guys on YouTube, I also had a great overall experience.Mesa Arch is famous for the sun rising through the arch. I wanted to be there for that so an early start was required. Getting there requires a reasonable drive from Moab but we were staying a bit outside Moab anyway so we had a longer drive. I wanted to get there in plenty of time so we started out very early.

As we drove into Canyonlands, I could see some large taillights ahead of me. It looked like a coach and where else would it be going at this time of the morning. Sure enough, we followed it in to the parking lot near the arch. The coach disgorged a group of tourists from Japan and we followed them up the trail.

At the arch itself, a ton of people were lined up directly in front of the arch. We decided to hold back a short distance and see how things played out. Everyone was waiting for the sun to appear over the horizon. The good thing about shooting landscapes instead of aircraft is you know what time things will happen. Sunrise is never late and, while it might be overcast, the sun doesn’t go tech. Up it popped. What followed was quite funny. There was the sound of lots of shutters clicking as soon as the sun popped up. I’m sure it wasn’t immediate but it then felt like everyone turned and walked away. About fifteen minutes later there were probably half a dozen of us with cameras and tripods left alone. The group worked well together moving around and giving each other space and time.

Here is the best bit. The sunrise was okay but nothing special. However, after about fifteen to twenty minutes, the light started to really illuminate the rock surfaces around us. The walls and the underside of the arch were glowing. It was infinitely better than when the sun came up and hardly anybody that had trekked out early that morning saw it. They had all gone. Those of us that remained had a great time. If you ever go to Canyonlands, be patient!

YF-23

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A YouTube video showed up in my feed recently that involved the Northrop YF-23.  I have only seen one of the prototypes.  The one at Torrance has eluded me so far but I did get to see the one in the Experimental hangar at the Museum of the USAF at Wright Patterson.  I think things have been rearranged a lot since I was last there with new hangars having been opened but, when I visited, the hangar was a pretty cramped experience.  Getting a good view of the aircraft was tricky.  The YF-23 is a fascinating looking airframe with some very unusual shaping so I tried to get shots that emphasized this instead.  If I could have another crack at photographing it, that would be great.

Eagles Over the Marshes

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We stopped off for a spot of lunch during our trip to Fir Island.  We had a recommendation in Edison that we took.  As we headed back out after lunch, we were driving across some marshland when we saw some bald eagles.  Pulling off the road, we watch them swooping across the marsh land.  At one point they came right over where we were standing.  An immature eagle was the one that came closest to us but we got a good look at several of them as they went looking for their lunch.  Obviously they didn’t try the place we had been too!

Random Dreamlifter Action

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I have been gathering various shots of Boeing Dreamlifters over recent months and so figured I would just combine a bunch of them into a single post.  No overriding theme here and some conditions were way nice than others.  It is just a selection of shots of one of the more unusual looking aircraft around.  Hopefully, one day, I shall get to shoot the Airbus Belugas too.

Video Editing With DaVinci Resolve

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While it is not what it was designed for, I have been using Adobe Photoshop for my video editing for quite a while now.  It did enough for my purposes so I couldn’t see the point in investing in new software purely for video.  However, I was talking to someone hat was starting to play with video creation and they wanted something to work with, so I looked around at what was available.  I saw that DaVinci Resolve, while available as a full feature video editor commercially, came also with a free version that seemed to have a lot of the features that the basic user could want.

Since I was potentially going to recommend this, I figured I ought to try it out myself first to see how it worked.  I have to say I have been very pleased with it.  There are clearly plenty of features in even the free version that I am unlikely to take advantage of.  It is also a lot more user friendly than Photoshop when editing video (which is hardly surprising given that is what it is designed to do).  I have played with a few edits now and I am starting to get the hang of it.  One lesson I have learned so far is to choose the continuous save option.  I spent a lot of time on an edit and the software locked up after lots of work.  The whole thing was lost.  Now it keeps a running save going (although I haven’t tested that properly as it hasn’t crashed since).  This looks like it is my new go to for video work.

Bye Bye Prowlers

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I should probably have planned this post better and timed it to coincide with the actual event but that didn’t happen.  The Marine Corps recently retired their last EA-6B Prowlers and the web was full of shots of Prowlers to celebrate the event.  I like the Prowler a lot so I thought I would get in on the act.  I have shot Prowlers a bunch of times over the years whether it was on flight lines, on exercise, during training or at an air show.  Here is a selection of some of my favorite Prowler shots.

The Hot Shop at Work

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The hot shop at the Tacoma Glass Museum proved to be a lot of fun.  We went in there as soon as we arrived because we had been watching them at work on a monitor while we were in line to buy our tickets.  We also knew they would have a break later in our visit so wanted to make sure we saw the work underway.  The shop is laid out to provide a lot of options for the visitors.

There is a seating gallery area built up at the back of the studio so people can sit and watch what is going on.  A camera operator moves around the shop providing close up shots of the work which are shown on monitors to give a more detailed view of the work.  Meanwhile, a guy was providing commentary on what was happening and answering questions from the crowd.  There was also a walkway that went above and behind the work space so it was possible to look down on exactly what they were doing from quite close in.

The team were working on a candelabra in glass which appeared to be a new idea that they had.  They got quite well through the work when it shattered.  They went back to the beginning and edited the design the second time around.  The simplified some elements and reinforced others and this time everything worked out well.  We were fascinated by the whole thing and watched them all the way to completion of the work.  Even if the rest of the museum hadn’t been there, this would have been worthwhile for a visit on its own.

50th Birthday

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This year has been a good year for 50th birthdays.  I can think of three that immediately come to mind, two of which are the 747 and Concorde.  The 747 is still in production and service so it shows up on here pretty frequently.  Concorde, on the other hand, has been gone from service for over 15 years.  I could have posted this on the 50th anniversary of the first flight but that would have required planning!  Instead, today we have a selection of shots I have got over the years.  Having had the chance to see Concorde in service a lot, I consider myself pretty lucky.  As a student in London, I used to watch the arrivals out of my bedroom window each evening.  You always knew it was Concorde.  The noise level was unmistakable, even on the approach.  Takeoff was something else!

BC Ferries at Work

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Our ferry ride to Swartz Bay was on one of BC Ferries larger boats.  There were multiple decks to explore and a great view to watch passing by once we got in amongst the Gulf Islands.  We also saw a few other ferries as we went.  The ferry running the opposite service to ours passed us by as we made our way through one of the narrow passages between the islands.  While not identical, it was a similar size to our boat.

The smaller islands also have service.  Since they are not generating anything like the traffic that Vancouver to Victoria generates, the ferries are a lot smaller.  We saw some docked up as we passed while others were making their own crossings.  The waterways were pretty busy with ferry traffic for a November weekday.  I wonder how many were tourists like us and how many were people going about their normal business.

Salt Lake City is a Scenic Airport!

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I had a long layover at Salt Lake City when connecting on a Delta flight.  The sun was out and the mountains in the background were covered in snow so it made for a rather pretty backdrop for the airport operations.  It was a bit Delta-centric given that they hub at the airport and we were in one of their terminals but it did make for some nice light and scenery for aviation shots.