Category Archives: photo

Port Townsend

The great thing about old towns is that they have interesting buildings. (They sometimes have interesting people too but that is a separate issue.) Port Townsend was a funky little town to look around. As a port, it has been around for a while and obviously was quite a thriving location. The grand design features of the buildings show that there was plenty of cash around when they were built. If you head up the hill you come to the town hall which is pretty impressive itself so the town has obviously been a center of things for a while.

In the heart of the town, the buildings are of a similar style but are showing their individuality. Getting shots of them is a little inhibited by the excessive number of power lines that are strung along the streets. It would be nice to not have those there but nothing much I can do about that. I imagine plenty of people wouldn’t notice them but they are the sort of thing that really catches my eye. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned it. You might not have noticed them but now I have said something, they will be conspicuous to you too!

There seemed to be plenty of activity in Port Townsend. Lots of shops and restaurants with plenty of variety so I assume that the area is going to be okay. Having lots going on means that a cool town center is likely to survive and thrive. That is good news.

United 747 Flying a Display

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Air shows include a lot of planes that are regular performers. However, some shows manage to include something a little different and having a big airline with a local hub will help. The Chicago Air and Water Show would feature American Airlines jets when I lived there. San Francisco Fleet Week gets United to bring a jet. This year they brought a 747-400 to the flying display. Seeing a big jet like this thrown around the bay is really cool. Whether it is flying low over the bay or turning in near the Golden Gate Bridge, this is something you don’t get to see too often.

Carmel Day Trip

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Carmel is close enough to us to be a nice day trip. We have been there a few times in the past. Previous vacations have taken us there and it is an easy add-on when going to Monterey or enjoying 17 Mile Drive. This was the first time in a while we went just to enjoy Carmel itself. Most of the time we were wandering around the shops or finding something good to eat. It was not a photo trip per se but I did have the camera with me so here are some shots of buildings that caught my interest while we were there.

Cal Bears Travel In Style

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The college football season included a special game at the beginning of the season. The game was scheduled to take place in Sydney Australia rather than the US. Apparently, the NCAA is trying to increase interest in the sport in other countries and hosting a game in Australia was part of the plan. One of the teams was the Cal Bears. To get to Australia and back they chartered a jet for the team and support personnel. Given the number of people involved, it was cheaper than flying commercially.

They chartered a jet from Virgin Australia in each direction. The outbound leg was a jet that had made the LAX flight. Instead of flying the return, it positioned to SFO for the outbound flight. They then repeated the process in reverse after the game. I missed the departure rotation but I was there for the return journey. I may have shot Virgin Australia jets before but this was a bit different since they don’t normally appear at SFO. (Cal also has a sponsorship deal with Oakland so this was out of the way for them too!)

Crescent Lake

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The drive to the rain forest from Port Angeles took us alongside Crescent Lake. I suspect I don’t need to tell you roughly what shape the lake is but, if you don’t know, check it out on a map! It was a pretty overcast morning when we drove by but this provided some soft lighting on the surrounding hills and also gave some interesting clouds to sit in some of the valleys and near the hill tops.

There were plenty of pull off locations along the road that skirts the south side of the lake. It appears that the north side is pretty inaccessible by vehicle when looking at the maps of the area. Only when you get to the west end of the lake do you start to see properties on the other side so I guess the road access up there does not go too far. The water in the lake was very calm and the whole thing had a very ethereal feel about it.

My First Lear 75

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After building on the basic Learjet family for many years, Learjet decided to update things with the Lear 45. This was a new design for them, even if it was based on many of the original Learjet design features. It also spawned a shrink with the Learjet 40. For a while this was a popular jet but, with many manufacturers adding new types to the market, the Lears were beginning to look rather dated and the sales suffered.

The response was the Learjet 75. A new engine and a bunch of revisions were introduced to try and reinvigorate the type and get some more airframes moving out of the production halls at Wichita. The result has been mixed. Some customers were pleased with the new type but the competition is still strong and some customers are not coming back. I hadn’t seen one in the wild until recently when one showed up at San Jose. It is still the same basic airframe so it looks okay (although if you ever get inside one, you will be surprised how cramped it is). Whether it is enough to save the brand, we shall have to wait and see.

Well Trained Dogs (or Well Trained Sheep)

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Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton are home to more than just the Alameda County Fair. They also held the Highland Games. This was a mix of Celtic sports and other rural activities from the UK. Part of that included some sheep dog trials. A variety of owners and their dogs took turns in herding a group of sheep around a variety of obstacles and in to a pen – all done against the clock. I love watching sheepdogs at work. They are so controlled in the way they move and keep the sheep where they want them. We have seen them in action for real while in the UK and they really do know what they are doing.

In a more controlled environment such as a show like this, things are a little different. There are people all around them and you can’t help but wonder whether the sheep are beginning to learn the routine after a while. Then again, I have crossed paths with sheep on the hills and they really are the dopiest of creatures so expecting them to learn is probably a stretch. My favorite pose for the dogs is when they are crouched down on the ground waiting for the next sign to move. They look so intent.

Lumps and Bumps on the Sufas

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Lockheed Martin has been evolving the F-16 over the years. It has been massively transformed from the original F-16A (which was a big change from the YF-16) to the Block 50/52 version. The development of the F-16E/F for the UAE took the jet up another level. When the Israeli Air Force decided to buy an updated jet, they created the F-16I Sufa. A lot of local electronic systems are incorporated to the LM designed airframe.

As you take a closer look at the airframe, you see all sorts of bits that are specific to the jet. The big spine is a common feature these days although it was pioneered on Israeli jets a long time ago. Aside from that, there is a circular antenna on the spine. On the sides of the inlets are some more antennae. Head back on the spine and some more side antennae seem to be present (although not on all of the jets I saw). Then there are sensors on the canopy (which I guess are related to helmet sighting systems). The jet is covered in devices. I assume there is a great system for integrating all of the information these sensors are gathering. The crew should have plenty of data to work with.

Trying to Remove the Traffic on the Bridge

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The suspension bridge at Lions Gate in Stanley Park, Vancouver is a magnet for photographers. I was only passing through but, as we watched the traffic moving across the bridge, I was thinking about how to get a shot that didn’t have cars on it. The traffic was steady so there was not way I would get a clear moment. Indeed, while we were there, they changed the lights and reversed the center lane based on the traffic demand.

I didn’t have a tripod but I did decide to experiment with an alternative technique. This is best done using a tripod and a lot of exposures but I figured I would go with shots that were pretty closely aligned and about half a dozen shots. This didn’t work perfectly but it didn’t go too badly. When you get back to the computer, you open up Photoshop. Click on File and Statistics and a dialog opens up. Select all of the files and change the option at the top to Median and check Align Images. Then send it on its way.

If the shots are good and there are enough, the algorithm will look at each shot and see the changing items – cars in this case – as the oddities. It will see what is consistent in each shot and get rid of the odd stuff. If you have it right, the cars will vanish. In this case, there were some overlaps and not enough shots but it still did a reasonable job.

Grand Caravan Go Around – Thank-you

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We spent a day in Stanley Park in Vancouver. This was not a day for photographing aircraft but there are so many operating in the area that it is hard to avoid. As we were walking along the shore, a Grand Caravan made an approach. I didn’t have the camera to hand so just watched it. Having made a dive at the final approach, it floated long (in the air, not on the water) and the pilot elected to go around. This gave me an opportunity to get the camera out.

Meanwhile, I could hear it coming around. It seemed rather loud for the approach path it had taken previously. Indeed, this time they took a path right across the bottom of the park. I got out from under a tree just in time to get some shots of it turning on to final. A far better angle than its first approach. Maybe the pilot deliberately went around because he knew what I wanted?