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Back from ISAP

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Another year’s ISAP symposium has drawn to a close and we have all headed home (or straight off to other assignments for some!).  This was a good year overall and I had a lot of fun.  Having been to a number of them over the years I have built up a number of friends that it is good to see as well as enjoying the content of the presentations.  Not everyone was there this year and I missed the presence of a few people but, hopefully, they will be back at the next event.

I saw a lot of fun things and got some shots so expect to see a few more posts in the coming days that show some of what we saw.

128th ARW Open House

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A short drive north of Chicago is Milwaukee.  The main airport at Milwaukee is General Mitchell International and, aside from the commercial services that operate there, the Wisconsin Air National Guard also has a unit based on the field.  It has a fleet of KC-135 tankers operated by the 128 Aerial Refueling Wing.  Periodically, they have an open house  and I went up to the recent event.

This is not an air show.  The field remains open and normal flight operations continue.  However, the ANG unit takes the chance to show off what they do to the local community and let them know what is going on with their tax dollars.  They also invite others to bring aircraft in to give the visitors a variety of things to see.  These visitors include aircraft from other Air Force units, a helicopter from the army and a variety of vintage aircraft, many from the local area.

The event took place over two days of the weekend.  The Sunday looked better from a weather perspective so that is the day I went for.  It proved to be a good choice with plenty of sun but temperatures staying very comfortable.  What I didn’t appreciate was the additional benefit of it being Mother’s Day.  I got their early for the better light but most people were spending time showing their mothers that they love them.  Since I am 4,000 miles from my mum, a personal visit was a little impractical!  It did make for a quiet ramp for quite a while though.

As the day progressed, plenty more people showed up and they probably achieved their goals for sharing with the local community.  I got to chat with a number of interesting people and, since it was quiet, was able to have more than a passing conversation.  I also met a few people who might be interested in some follow up work for the magazine so the trip was productive as well as fun.

I got a few shots of airliners as well as the aircraft on the ramp.  We were also lucky that one of the based KC-135s launched on a mission while I was there so a shot of that flying helped out a lot.  Since it isn’t an air show, that was a nice extra!  I hope to get back up to the unit in due course and find out more about them and maybe put together a more detailed piece on their history and operations.

Some Minor League Fun

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A recent work trip took me to Indianapolis for a few days.  A client was down there at a facility and I was meeting with them on a number of topics over a few days.  Since we were all staying away from home, we had free time at the end of the day when we could go out and see what the local area had to offer.  The first night I was there, the rest of the guys had already worked out what they wanted to do so I was happy to tag along.

Indianapolis has a minor league baseball team, the Indians.  They are based at a nice ballpark close the the heart of downtown.  For those that have been following this blog for a while, you will recall that Nancy and I had a weekend in Indianapolis last year when the baby elephant was first appearing in public at the zoo.  The hotel we stayed in was very close to the ballpark and from one end of the building you got a great view of it from above.

This time I was going to get to see the inside of the park and enjoy an evening of baseball.  It should be noted that I am not much of a baseball fan.  I know some imports like me that are huge fans of the game but I have never really got into it.   I used to think that it was something you had to grow up with but that is obviously not the case given the friends I have that have got into it.  For me, it is another sport I am happy to watch but one that doesn’t get me passionate.  As with many sports, though, seeing it in person is so much more fun than watching it on TV.

A trip to the ballpark is a social experience for me.  You get to hang out in a (usually) good-natured crowd, watch some sport, eat some food that you wouldn’t normally bother with and drink some beer.  On a warm evening, there really isn’t much to complain about with that.  If you don’t know either of the teams, you tend to root for the home guys and, in this case, that worked out pretty well since they won convincingly.

I took my camera along because I knew that we were heading to the game before I left home.  It was an evening game and the stand was blocking the sun from the west so light was always going to be an issue.  As the game wore on, the ISO settings went higher and higher.  Looking at the shots at full zoom, they really show the impact of the noise.  However, since these are small versions of the shots, they shouldn’t look too bad.  They were never intended for publication so it is far better to have clarity of the shot than to have a lot of blurry shots with low noise!

I was shooting with the 100-400 which is not a great low light lens at the best of times but it did reasonably well.  I also took along the fisheye zoom since a sports stadium is an interesting shape for that type of lens.  The park allowed you to walk all around the perimeter so I did take a stroll at one point to see what everything looked like from other parts of the ground.  It was nice to see the different perspectives.

I did try shooting from directly behind the batter’s position as the pitcher faced me.  The netting is a problem here, of course.  A faster lens may have better allowed me to take the net out of focus but it was already pretty dark by then so I was fighting on a few fronts.  It didn’t really matter of course.  I was doing this for fun and if the shots are not quite Sports Illustrated standard, I am not going to lose too much sleep.

A fun night out and a win for “our” team.  In the end, that was enough and getting to take a few pictures along the way only made it better. Thanks for the idea guys.

Glorious Cheating!

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The moon was supposed to be at its biggest recently. I was all ready to head down to the lakefront and get some shots as it rose and the atmosphere magnified it to the greatest extent possible. However, as the afternoon started to wind down, the fog started to roll in. As the sun was setting, the fog banks were wafting between the buildings around us and you couldn’t see the harbor wall let alone the horizon. Oh well, what can you do?

As the evening rolled on, the fog finally cleared out but, by then, it was too late. The moon did appear amongst some of the buildings so, while it didn’t look significantly different to normal, I still decided to get a couple of shots. The problem with this is that the moon is effectively in sunlight while the city is in night. The top picture is the cheat that resulted. Below are the two shots I took next to each other. One was exposed for the buildings and the other was for the moon. A bit of layering and masking in Photoshop was necessary to get the result at the top. I am not a Photoshop wizard and I suspect those that know their stuff would tell me why it is not as well executed as it could be but this was hardly a client job! Just a bit of fun.

Theater With the Personal Touch

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Our trip to Woodstock included poking our heads into the Opera House on the square.  An old building that has history dating back to the early days of the town, we were nosing around the front door when a passing lady told us to head inside.  I was not going to bother but she was quite insistent so we did head in.  One of the staff was in the lobby and greeted us warmly.  He suggested that we should wander around upstairs if we wanted.

We headed up to the auditorium.  It was great.  A small venue so everyone was very close to the stage.  It seemed really cozy.  There was a balcony too so we checked that out as well.  They have a variety of acts throughout the year so the place seems very busy.  They had a musical on that evening but they also had music acts performing at varying times.

The restoration of the place was nicely done and it was in great condition but also felt suitable period.  While Woodstock is not a big town , it does appear that you could keep yourself entertained with the the various acts coming through on a regular basis.  Not only that but the friendliness with which we were greeted by everyone really made you glad to have made the trip.

One last picture of something interesting.  Some of the original seats are on display in the lobby by the box office.  Not a comfy as the present seats, perhaps, but they do have a feature that few seats have today.  Under the seat is a wire frame in which a gentleman can slot his wide brimmed hat during the performance.  Probably a common feature in years gone by but certainly a novelty now.

ISAP Here I Come

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It is that time of year again when ISAP members get together to share knowledge, learn knew things, see what each other have been up to and generally have a lot of fun.  Throw in some chances to shoot some great airplanes and you have a great time.  I can hardly wait.  Hopefully more to report from the trip.  We even have an air show tucked in at the end of the weekend so it should be fun.

You shall find out more when it happens – or a little while afterwards…  Blogging might be a bit sporadic while I am gone.

I Went to Woodstock – Well, Not That Woodstock!

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We may have lived in Chicago for quite a while now but there are still plenty of places to explore that we haven’t visited.  One of those places is Woodstock IL.  Nancy found out about it from a website on great small towns in the US.  We decided to pay it a visit.  The day was supposed to start out overcast and clear up into a sunny day.  That bit didn’t quite happen to plan but everything else about the town proved to be a success.

It was about an hour from home to get to Woodstock.  The GPS had a location with a parking lot close to the town square programmed in and that worked out to be perfect.  We were a short stroll from the square and a small farmers’ market was underway.  We are always suckers for good food at these markets and so were soon carrying a few bits around.  We wandered around the square looking for somewhere for lunch.  This is always worth doing when there is food for sale because you otherwise end up buying way more food than is a good idea!

The town square is a great spot.  The buildings are a mix of styles but all look pretty impressive and in good condition.  The old style of the place is obviously appealing to movie makers.  Have a viewing of Groundhog Day and you will recognize the town as Woodstock – a long way from Pennsylvania.  It had some other treats but more will come about that in due course.

In one of these shots you will see a crepe restaurant.  We stopped there for lunch and the food was really good.  There were other places around the square that had more traditional fare but this one seemed to have a different approach and we were not disappointed.  This blog has never really been a dining review place but here is one recommendation for you!

Lightning Up the Mood

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A little night shooting today and a confession about my role in what was going on. We moved to Chicago eight years ago. When we first got here, we were amazed by the storms we got. There seemed to be lots of them and they were really pretty spectacular. When looking out of the window we would see lightning all the time. Sometimes the storms went on for so long it was hard to believe that it was a storm and not someone planting an emergency vehicle outside the window – a neat trick at the height of our place!

Strangely, for the last few years, we have had very few storms. They seem to miss the city and go either north or south of us. Some people are getting a lot of them but not us. This was a bit disappointing to me because I love storms! They are so dramatic and very cool. They are, of course, rather destructive but watching them is exciting. This week we got a good storm. The sky was alive and it was a lot of fun. It was also rather late and I needed to go to bed. Consequently, I cheated.

My 17-40mm lens is not enough to cover the full view south of us so I went with the fish-eye zoom instead. I set the camera up on the tripod, added the intervalometer and basically set it on its way. The gap between the shutter closing and the trigger for the next shot was just long enough to allow the file to write out. Then I went to bed. The result is a LOT of pictures with almost all of them of no use. However, it did capture a couple of shots that I really like. I even tried using the new lens correction facility in Photoshop CS6. Our view is a little less impressive since the Trump Tower blocked a big chunk of the skyline but it still gives a nice look to the storm. Hope you like them too.