The tide was obviously low when we were at Pescadaro State Beach. The exposed rocks were showing all sorts of signs of what might live under the water. There were large outcrops of mussels attached to the rocks. They were sealed up tight waiting for the tide to come back in when they could open up again to feed.
A trip to the beach can only be improved on by one thing. Fast jets! A four ship of T-38s flew over while we were walking on the beach. What more can I ask for?
Nancy and I included a trip to Pescadaro State Beach as part of our weekend in Half Moon Bay. There are a number of lovely looking beaches on this stretch of the coast but the guide books suggested this was a good one so we headed there. It is a lovely location with a lot of rocky outcrops upon which the waves crash. We strolled along the shore and enjoyed the waves thundering into the rocks, sometimes sending plumes of spray way up into the air. I love waves and could watch them for hours.
The President was visiting the Bay Area for a couple of days recently. This meant the arrival of Air Force One, the VH-3D helicopters, the C-17s to transport them and the V-22s that support the VH-3Ds. What more could an aviation guy want? I took a look at the temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) listed online to see when the airspace was going to be shut down. When the president flies, the airspace around him is shut down for security purposes. These closures are published (otherwise, how would the other pilots know not to fly) so it means we know when to expect things to happen.
Sadly, the arrival was on a day I was at work and was timed to come in to SFO around sunset so, even if I could be there, there was a chance that the light would have gone. (As it was, the arrival was just before the light went completely and a friend of mine did get some good shots.) The departure, on the other hand, was scheduled for Saturday morning. That I could manage. I figured that getting there early would be wise since I would not be the only one trying this so getting somewhere to park might be tricky. Plus, if they went early in the slot, I wanted to be ready.
I checked the TFR the night before and got up early the next morning. I had some breakfast and headed out. I arrived in plenty of time but did need to park quite a distance away. I got to the bayshore trail and found a few other guys with cameras. However, word quickly reached me that he had gone. I bumped into a friend of mine and he told me that he had checked the TFR earlier that morning and saw that it had been brought forward. He rushed out and got there just in time. I arrived about 20 minutes after they took off. Curiously, as I had been driving across the San Mateo bridge, I had seen a large jet airborne near the airport and wondered. Now I knew.
There was a silver lining to this disappointment. With Air Force One safely on its way, the V-22s were free to head out. The three of them took off in close succession and turned in our direction to head off down the peninsula. They didn’t come terribly close but I did get my first shots of them since they replaced the CH-46s that used to provide support. (Many moons ago I did see the CH-53Es that used to be undertake this role. They looked fantastic!)
Last summer my friend Paul had been across and we had hatched a plan to shot some time lapse and night streak shots of SFO from a hill that overlooks the airport. The plan seemed like a good one but it was thwarted by two things. First, there was some cloud in the area which obscured some fo the view. Second, it doesn’t get dark until late in the summer and Paul was on UK time so was pretty worn out by the time we could do anything.
Instead, we concluded that a second attempt would be made when he was over during the winter. So it was that we found ourselves back up on the hill. We had come well prepared this time with sturdy tripods and good cable releases. The only thing I had forgotten was the chairs since you have a lot of time to hang around on a dark hillside taking shots like this. I took a long sequence of shots that would be edited into the time lapse. When I got home, some quick work in LRTimelapse and the video was together as you can see below. I also decided to see how well the sequence would blend together to get a streak image. I have never tried to work with quite so many layers in Photoshop before. It certainly struggled with it but it did work. Unfortunately, there must have been some very slight movement on the tripod because the ground lights did not exactly align which made for a blurry foreground when using the Lighten blend mode. To counter this, I duplicated one of the base layers and masked that back in to give the ground a clearer image. The blended version is the one at the top of the post.
The corporate jets we saw at San Jose were supplemented by some airliner traffic too. The airport appears to be a bit of a Southwest hub but there were other types as well. Alaska was on the move too including one of their Disney jets. We also had a CRJ in American Eagle colors with actual paint rather than polished metal. This will soon be repainted in the new scheme no doubt.
San Jose is not an airport I had even shot at before. Paul and I decided to try it out on our way back to Dublin. There appeared to be a parking area near the threshold so we figured that was worth a shot and put it in to the GPS. As we drove there, Paul checked out Flightaware to see whether there was much due in. A few airliners and a couple of corporate jets were on the system but nothing too dramatic.
We got to the location and, sure enough, there was a good parking area with a pretty clear view of the approach if you avoided some trees. As we pulled in and sat in the car, a Global Express flew by. I was a touch bummed by this since, if we had missed a cool movement, would there be anything else. As it turned out, I was wrong to worry. San Jose seems to have a steady flow of corporate jet movements. Many of them are blocked on Flightaware, hence us not knowing they were coming. We didn’t have long before we had to be somewhere else but, in that time, we got a lot of biz jet traffic.
San Jose is convenient for a lot of high tech companies so they base their aircraft there. We got the Apple G650 in the short time we spent. I have to say, I thought Apple would have made it look a bit cooler but there you go. Maybe they want to be inconspicuous. One of the local guys told us which ones were regulars based on the field. He was less bothered by them but we were interested as first timers.
Boeing is building 787s at something like ten a month these days. Consequently, seeing a Dreamliner is not such an unusual event any more as they are getting to the airlines at a rapid pace. However, it does mean that more airlines are getting the type. I have not seen a whole lot of different carriers using them yet although that will, no doubt, change. However, when a new one shows up, it does get my interest. China Southern started flying them to SFO and I saw my friend Roger had caught one. It has a pretty interesting color scheme so I wanted to get one too but they only fly three times a week and I hadn’t been there on one of those days.
Then I did end up in place when one was coming in. I heard it call up on the approach so knew it was coming in. At this point, my brain shut down completely. Another Asian jet was taxiing out of the international terminal area and came straight across the runway to taxi up alongside the bay. This provides a good view and some nice shot possibilities so I starting shooting it. Meanwhile, guess what was landing. I only realized at the last moment. I did get some shots of it on the ground but not exactly what I had in mind. However, since they will be coming for a long time, I guess I needn’t beat myself up too much. There will be another chance. In the mean time, here are a selection of Dreamliners I have shot so far, even if some of them are not in pristine condition!
The Shed is a nickname that has been shared by three aircraft built by Shorts Brothers. The Skyvan, the 330 and the 360 have all, at times, been given the same nickname. Small numbers of all three aircraft continue in service but they are not a common sight. However, a cargo operator does bring a 360 into SFO on a daily basis. I caught it departing recently and felt its rarity value deserved a post. It is not going to win prizes for looks (and some guys I used to know who flew them were less then complimentary about their handling in icy conditions) but here you go anyway.
While most of the attention at Ano Nuevo is on the males as they fight for dominance of each other and the females, there are moments when you get the pups alone or with their mothers. Some of these moments fit the cuteness requirements. After the hulks of the males, here are some more gooey pictures.
