Tag Archives: bomber

How Dark Can This Thing Shoot

Every once in a while, I really test the high ISO capability of the cameras I have.  The R3 got an early test when I was at Red Flag,  I went out on two evenings to shoot some night departures and experimented with the ability of the camera to perform in those conditions.  The high ISO capability of cameras has not moved on too much to be honest.  The max ISO I used on my 1DXII was 51,200 and the R3 is still the same.  It does appear to be a bit cleaner but they have possibly hit a bit of a limit.  What I had not tried out before was an electronic viewfinder in such conditions.

The first night, I went out into the dunes to be ready for the B-1 departures.  As it turned out, they didn’t launch that night.  I did get some fighters coming out my way for a while before I concluded that this was a bust and I was heading back to the hotel.  I tried shooting a few of the jets but I discovered the limitations of the camera pretty rapidly.  When there is no light, the electronic viewfinder really struggles.  The frame rate of the viewfinder drops like a stone and tracking a subject becomes pretty problematic.  The frames per second drop too so the chances of a result are slim.  With an optical viewfinder, this is not an issue but the chances of a good shot are also slim.

I returned to the hotel feeling pretty dispirited by this result.  I wondered whether this was a real problem for adopting the R3.  The following night, I went out again with the B-1s again being my main target.  This time I had some tankers heading out before the B-1s launched.  It was a very different evening.  Sure, the lack of light still makes the chances of getting a good shot pretty low but the camera seemed to have no problem tracking the subjects and keeping the viewfinder frame rate up to a perfectly acceptable level.  If I had only gone from the previous night, I would have concluded that it was unusable.

The embedded images in the RAW files looked pretty good but the Lightroom edits required a lot more work.  DPP might be the answer or DxO PrimeRAW could do a good job.  However, that is not the issue.  Will the camera allow me to shoot at night with very dark subjects.  Apparently, the answer is yes.  It can handle it.  However, it can’t track an almost black subject with a couple of navigation lights like an optical viewfinder can.  That is a limitation that I may have to live with.

Sexy Sue Returns

An A-26 Invader, marked up as Sexy Sue, is based at Renton.  It is flown pretty frequently.  It is normal for it to take off and head up towards the San Juans before looping around and coming back down to Renton.  A flight lasts about 40 minutes which means, even if I knew exactly when it got airborne, the chances of getting to Renton in time to get its return are pretty limited.  I have caught it out and about one time when it landed from over the lake on a cloudy day.

My day off with the planes had me at Boeing Field when I got a notification that the A-26 was airborne from Renton.  I was anticipating the arrival of something at BFI so wondered where I should put my priorities.  It is about fifteen minutes from Boeing Field to Renton so a quick reposition is possible.  I figured I could probably just make it when my other arrival touched down.  However, I had assumed incorrectly about the direction of flight and the A-26 was heading off through Snoqualmie Pass instead of going north.

I tracked it for a while anticipating a turn but it kept going and eventually landed at Walla Walla.  I did wonder whether they were heading to Oshkosh or not.  Once it was on the ground, I forgot about it for a while.  Then, when checking something else a little later on, I realized that they were up again and heading back home.  Again, there was a question about something inbound to BFI but timing looked good so I waited for the first shot to be made and then hopped in the car to Renton.  The lights all seemed to take forever but I was at the overlook in plenty of time.  I wondered whether they would try for an approach across the lake and I would need to relocate but there was a lot of light aircraft traffic so they slotted in to the normal pattern having gone north a way before turning back in.

They were easy to see while downwind and then turned across the housing around Renton before lining up on final with Mt Rainier in the background.  I decided to risk a slower shutter speed since the light was very bright and with such a cluttered background, I needed to blur things as much as possible to try and make the plane stand out.  It worked a bit but it was still noticeable how much the background takes over shots from that location.  As soon as they touched down, I was ready to head back to BFI since more things were due there.  This day off was proving very fruitful.

Random B-2 Spirit Shot

I was working through some shots and came across a sequence a little before a bunch of shots I have used a lot in the past.  It was of B-2s on approach to Nellis just before sunset.  I had some clear shots of them in the distance including as the gear was traveling.  Here is one of those shots.  I just liked it and thought I would share it here.

Red Flag Night Launches

Adobe periodically updates the processing algorithms that are used by Lightroom and Photoshop. Each update provides some improvements in how raw files are processed and it can be good to go back to older shots and to see how the newer process versions handle the images.  I find this particularly useful for images shot in low light and with high ISO.

I have some standard process settings I use but have also experimented with modified settings for use with high ISOs and the higher noise levels that come with them.  I got to some night launch shots from an old Red Flag exercise and had a play with the images.  The E-3 launch was actually as the light was going down but it still had some illumination so it didn’t need much work.

The KC-135 and B-1B shots were a different story and were at high ISOs and with very little light.  I was able to update the process version and apply some new settings I had worked out since the original processing and it resulted in some pretty reasonable outputs considering how little light there was to work with.

A Bonus With the A-26

Aside from my two HondaJets and a little other traffic, things were not looking too busy at Boeing Field.  I was contemplating my next move when I glanced at FlightRadar and saw a Douglas A-26 was flying over Seattle.  This is one that is based at Renton and used as a personal transport by the owner.  I have never seen it in action before.  Consequently, I was quite excited.  At first, I thought it looked like it was turning towards Boeing Field which would have been handy but then it headed north up towards the San Juan Islands.

I figured that, even if it was landing up there, it would be coming back to Renton later on so headed off in that direction to work out what flow the pattern was using.  The A-26 had departed over the lake to the north but all of the movements now seemed to be from the north so I figured it would come in from that direction.  No chance of shooting it from above at the overlook point at the south end but still plenty of options.

Unfortunately, they have closed off part of the park at the north end of the field and erected fencing.  This takes away an area of higher ground which gives a good view of the threshold.  However, with a couple of Cessnas bashing the circuit, I was able to see roughly what would be good and what wouldn’t.  A check on FlightRadar showed that they had finished flying around the San Juans and were coming back over the city.

They followed the water from the coast in to Lake Washington and I thought would be coming straight for me.  However, they continued over Bellevue instead.  I wondered if they were off somewhere else but soon they had turned back and were heading for Renton.  Looking up the lake, I could pick them out a long way out, long before they had even configured for landing.  With the fall foliage still evident on some of the shorelines, it made for quite a nice shot – something that wouldn’t have been the case at the other end.

The A-26 is pretty speedy so they were soon on final approach and I grabbed a bunch of shots both tight and wider.  Then they zipped by and behind the newly erected fencing!  I packed up my stuff and headed off but, as I drove back south, I saw they were still on the ramp outside the hangar.  I pulled in a watched them put the plane away.  Only at the last minute did I realize that I could have got a closer shot from near the gate but I shouldn’t complain given how lucky I had been to see them out on my day off.

Bones Retrospective

The B-1B Lancer (or Bone to almost everyone who cares) is an impressive piece of hardware.  It might have some performance limitations resulting from the redesign it underwent from the original canceled B-1A to the B-1B – changes that might not look that obvious but run quite deep – but it is still a very capable jet.  The blended airframe shaping really appeals to an aero guy like me while the swing wing is now a concept that is disappearing as other types retire so it is becoming the last of the line.  Add to that four afterburning engines and you get something that makes an impression.

It used to be a regular performer at air shows but these days you don’t see them as much.  However, it can still turn heads when it makes fast passes and plugs in the burners.  A bit of vapor can also be pulled as they get the speed and load on.  Seeing them launch from close to the runway is always worthwhile.  They are such an imposing jet.  Sadly, their limitations and the cost of supporting them will probably mean they get retired long before the B-52s that they were once considered to replace.  Here are some shots of my Bone encounters.

B-2 At Fairford

I was thinking back to previous RIAT shows when I was putting together the 2006 post here.  RIAT was my first encounter with the B-2.  I recall it showing up to a show one year for a flyby without landing.  It flew through accompanied by a pair of F-15Cs, one on each wing.  Then, another year – maybe the next but I don’t recall for sure – one was actually deployed to the show.  It was parked up so close to everyone on the flight line.  I took quite a few pictures of it because it was so new and interesting.  (A few pictures in the film days was a let less than it became in the digital days!)  Even now, I think a show would consider it quite a coup to have a B-2 on the ground.

Farewell Nine-O-Nine

A text message from a relative let me know that the Collings Foundation’s B-17 had crashed in Connecticut.  Such a terrible shame for those who died or were injured and those associated with them.  The loss of an historic airframe is also very sad.  I have seen the Collings Foundation tour on a number of occasions are different locations including earlier this year.  I hope they will continue with the other aircraft because it brings so much joy to so many.  Here is a selection of my shots of Nine-O-Nine.

Collings Foundation at BFI

The Collings Foundation made its annual visit to the Seattle area recently including flights from Boeing Field.  The weather had been rather uninspiring but I figured I would head along and hope for some gaps in the clouds.  The Mustang and the P-40 didn’t fly while I was there.  The B-24 and the B-17 did though.  Sadly, the B-24 only flew once.  The discussion was whether Seattle being a Boeing town meant that everyone wanted to fly on the B-17, despite the rarity of the B-24.  The clouds had a habit of parting at just the wrong time and place with good light up the approach and down the runway but not where I wanted it to be.  Even so, it was still nice to see these vintage planes again.

Spirited B-25 Pairing

The two B-25s that live on Paine Field are regular performers.  When they both went up at Skyfair, I have to admit that I was not so excited.  However, I was not anticipating a series of flypasts that were significantly better than I had seen from them before.  They brought them in with a tight formation and some angles that allowed some great topside shots as they curved around on to the runway alignment.

Watching them line up, you could see that they weren’t going to come so close and ruin the photo opportunities.  Instead, we got lots of banking and pulling with far better shots than I had achieved previously.  I was not alone in appreciating the effort.  Everyone around me was most impressed by the performance.