Author Archives: Rob

Gorge Creek

The North Cascades Highway crosses a bridge at Gorge Creek. We had stopped to go to a lookout point on the lake side of the highway and the trail to this point ran alongside the creek. As we headed back, I wanted to take a quick look from the bridge. I walked out a short distance and could see the creek below. I almost turned back at this point but, fortunately, I kept walking a bit further and suddenly a waterfall came into view. I could easily have missed it. Indeed, Nancy almost didn’t come out when I told her to come and have a look as she similarly thought she had seen all there was.

The falls were slightly tricky to photograph. The top section of the falls was the first to be seen as you walked out on to the bridge. The bottom section was obscured. As you walked out further, the bottom came in to view but the top started to become obscured. Getting the full scale of the falls in one shot is not really possible. While you are there, you appreciate it of course but it is not so easy to portray to someone remotely. With the shadow of the gorge as well, getting a shot meant dealing with a wide dynamic range. This would have been a good time to try a pano in HDR. The latest version of Lightroom has that functionality automated but it hadn’t come out when I was there and, to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered trying it!

Tampa Prime Freighters

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I had a short wait at Tampa for a flight home after a work trip. The gate I was waiting at did not have a lot of traffic nearby. Indeed, judging by the total lack of lines at security, maybe none of the gates at Tampa have a lot of traffic! The view from our gate was towards a cargo ramp and there were two 767 freighters loading up. They both finished loading and taxied off while I was there. One was in Amazon Prime colors but the other was unmarked. However, a quick search tells me it is also a Prime jet but I guess they haven’t got around to painting it yet.

Stellar Sea Lions Taking It Easy

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Sealions are not small creatures when you get close to them. However, the ones you more normally come across have a larger relative. The Stellar Sealion is a big beast of a creature. The females are large and the males are huge. When we used to visit Ano Nuevo, you could see the Stellars out on the island. What looked like large rocks were actually the males. These things are big.

A colony of them was hanging out on some rocks we came across during our trip to go whale watching. They were basking on the rocks or swimming in the waters nearby. The boat was able to get quite close to the rocks so we could see the sealions out enjoying the sun. Seals and sealions seem to be very happy when they are dozing on the rocks in the sun. We weren’t close enough to disturb them but we were close enough to get a good look.

Alaska Livery A320s – Something’s Missing

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With Alaska Airlines taking over Virgin America, there is a lot of repainting to be done of the fleet. I have seen a few of the newer A321neos around in Alaska colors (mostly special schemes) but I hadn’t had any luck with the A320s in the traditional Alaska scheme. A visit to SFO was bound to change that given that this was the base for Virgin America. Sure enough I got to shoot a few of the jets in their new livery. I have to say, I think it looks quite good on the A320. Of course, there is something of the livery that is missing. None of the Airbus jets carries the “Proudly All Boeing” graphic. None of the Embraers do either although that might soon be something they can add before too long!

Refuge on Your Own Island

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There is an island out in Puget Sound which was once identified for development. Plots of land were sold to investors and the idea was for housing to be built. However, the whole thing fell apart. The reason for it not working out may have been related to the lack of a water supply or that the island is being eroded away and won’t last too long. Whatever the reasoning, the whole plan was shelved. However, one of the investors did not want to give up. He insisted on staying and legal proceedings ensued. He eventually won and now he lives on the island alone. His house sits up on the bluffs overlooking the water and it looks like quite a pleasant spot. A lonely spot I suspect but still pleasant. He has decorated the plot with some interesting things including a stormtrooper from Star Wars. He was out working on his land as we passed by.

Another FedEx Test Flight

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Our visit to the Boeing Factory Tour at Everett with our visitors not only included the escapees from the hurricane that I covered here but also included the ongoing production test flying activities. The 767 line is only producing freighters and tankers these days and the majority of the freighters have been going to FedEx. This one undertook a test flight while we were there. We saw it head out and, when it returned, it flew a missed approach before landing.

Dams

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Up in the Cascades, there are a bunch of dams. The rivers have been dammed to provide hydroelectric power. The lowest dam was not terribly cool looking but the dams higher up the pass looked a lot more like you would expect a dam to look. One of them was easy to see although it was deep in shade while the rest of the scene was very bright. HDR seemed to be the way to go. The last dam we passed was visible from the highway but it was hard to get a clear look at it without some vegetation getting in the way. Time to reach above your head while standing on a rock and using the Live View mode to try and see what you were shooting. Limited success but at least you could see something.

Three Planes per Shot?

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I haven’t shot at Fisherman’s Park before and I am glad Hayman suggested it. The location provides a slightly different perspective on the planes coming in to SFO. It also seems to be the right angle to get lots of planes in one shot. Parallel approaches will give you two but you can also get the aircraft departing off the 01s in the background too. Sadly, they were often in shade as they departed but it still provided some contrasting shots. Then it was just a question of whether you could get two arriving and two departing jets in the same shot or not. Sadly, not this time.

Swirling Wakes of Silt

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San Francisco Bay has some strong tidal flows and crossing the bay is the San Mateo Bridge. It has to resist these regular flows which it does without any problem. There is a lot of silt in the bay and, as the tide is changing, this silt can get churned up, particularly by the turbulence around the piles for the bridge. As we flew down the final approach, I was able to get some shots of the aby that included the bridge and showed clearly the turbulence behind each bridge pile courtesy of the silt. This is something that an aerial view will give you that you would no notice as you drove over the bridge.

A Little SoCal Shoot As I Head Home

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Half an hour of spare time on my way back to John Wayne Airport so I figured a quick shoot of approaches was worth a shot. It wasn’t going to be the most productive of shoots but why waste an opportunity. There were some regional jets and some airliners while I was there but also a few biz jets showed up. The sun was getting lower so the light was a bit more appealing. Even so, just a few stock shots for possible future use. Two Alaska Embraers came in but they were from different operators, Skywest and Horizon. I know someone who has a preference there (David).