Category Archives: Pacific Northwest

Boeing 787-10 on Test

I wrapped up some work in Seattle and was about to head back home when a quick check on FlightRadar24 showed me that the Boeing 787-10 test aircraft was en route back to Boeing Field.  It would be rude to ignore that.  The weather had been pretty crummy and there was plenty of heavy cloud in the area but it looked like it might brighten up a bit and, as the sun went down, there was a chance of it lighting up beneath the clouds.  I sat in the car dealing with some emails and waiting for the arrival.

Sure enough, as the time approached, the sun did start to peep out from beneath the clouds.  It was intermittent at first but it became more consistent as Boeing 01 Heavy called up on approach.  Meanwhile, a nice black cloud was still lurking in the background.  What a great combination that type of light makes.  The plane glided down the approach, its trailing static cone hanging from the top of the fin and then it was down.  A nice result.

Another Go at Stitching iPhone Raw Shots

As I posted a while ago, I have been experimenting with stitching shots from my phone.  Since I am shooting in raw on the phone, I have some latitude to play with the shots in post that wasn’t there before.  This time, though, I thought about it a bit more and put the camera into manual mode to fix the exposure.  This should make the stitching and blending easier than when it changed between shots (although, to give the Lightroom team credit, it did a pretty good job anyway).  I allowed plenty of overlap and the merge seemed to go pretty well.  Since it outputs a dng file, you still have the chance to edit more aggressively than would be possible with a jpeg.  Meanwhile, you get a higher resolution shot than with the internal pano mode.  This may be my go to method from now on.

Time Lapse Cloud Formations

I will fall into a stereotype about our new home here.  We have actually had some very nice weather but this one is about rain and clouds.  I was sitting in the office on a call and the clouds were visibly swirling outside.  I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for a time lapse so I used that most valuable of photographic tools, my phone.  I switched it to time lapse mode, propped it against the window frame and went back to my call.  The swirling is emphasized so much more when accelerated.  I can point out, though, that it all passed through and we end up with a blue sky!