Tag Archives: photo

Missing Out on the Sunflowers

Cycling around the Hampshire countryside as I have been since we moved back to the UK, I have seen some lovely scenes. One afternoon, I was riding along a road and came upon a field full of sunflowers. They looked stunning in the afternoon light, and I resolved to come back and take a photo. However, I did not realise how important the timing could be. A week later I was back and, while the heads of the flowers were still in place, the colour had really gone out of the flowers. They didn’t look terrible, but they were nowhere near as impressive as they had been the week before. Will I remember next year?

Was That Engine Supposed to Fit in There?

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The JF-17 Thunder was one of the interesting aircraft to make it to RIAT in 2025. It had been before, but this was the first time I got to see it. The Pakistan Air Force brought a pair of them. I got to have a good look at one of them in the static park and something struck me about it. The engine installation. The plane is fitted with the Klimov RD93 engine which is a derivative of the engine for the MiG-29. The diameter of the nozzle for the engine seems to be very small compared to the rear fuselage size. Afterbody drag is a big deal on fighters and I wonder how bad the penalty is for this configuration. I understand that China is developing an engine to replace the RD93 and maybe the sizing of the fuselage is for this new engine. In the meantime, it does look like someone made do with the engine available.

Keep a Safe Distance from These Guys

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This post is another on a bit of a theme at the moment. While walking through Windsor Great Park, we made a loop that brought us to the statue of George III at the end of the Long Walk. As we started to head back to our starting point, I realised the route we were taking was not really the best, so we retraced our steps and headed south down the hill. Almost immediately, we got a surprise.

Just a short distance away from the statue with the many visitors that were there on a sunny weekend afternoon was a large herd of deer. This included some quite chunky looking stags that seemed quite aware of our presence. We gave them a wide berth and, while a grabbed a few shots with the long lens, I didn’t fancy attracting any more of their attention than we already had.

Crossing of the Contrails

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Another of my early morning walks and I looked up at an aircraft contrailing across the sky above me. The low sun angle made the textures of the contrail look good, so I took a few shots. A short while later, I realised that its direction of travel was taking it towards another jet that was crossing its path. I was hoping for the relative positions of the two jets to look like a perfect cross from where I was standing but it wasn’t to be. Even so, they did look like they were crossing quite close.

Cobwebs Capturing the Dew

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The morning strolls around the nature reserve near our house can include some lovely conditions. One morning, the dew had collected on the various spider webs in the grass, and they looked lovely while backlit but the early sun. Couldn’t resist taking a few shots of them. The wider view didn’t make for an interesting shot but if you were there, you could see just how many webs there were across the field.

Festival of Flight Other Stuff

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There have been a few posts of specific aircraft from the Shuttleworth’s Festival of Flight this summer. While those planes were of specific interest to me, there was an extensive display with many other types of planes taking part. Some of these were familiar types but some were new to me. This included variants of the de Havilland Moth family and an old Sopwith. I have run through the many shots I took that day and here is a selection of images of the displays although by no means a comprehensive one!

Windsor Castle from Above and Below

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We took a visit to Windsor during the summer. The town centre is dominated by the castle, so I was bound to get some photos of it while we were walking around. Because you are so close to it, it is hard to get a feel for the whole thing. The view from out in the Great Park gives you a better understanding but I will save that for another post.

However, I did fly over the castle while on approach to Heathrow while returning from my travels. The approach path was just above the castle and my view of it was rather tight with the windows of the A320 not providing the best clarity. However, the view from above does let you see the whole castle.

Wimbledon Special Emirates Climbing Out of Manchester

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We were walking through the grounds of Tatton Park on a recent visit and I was carrying a long lens with me to be ready for the deer that roam the park. However, that was also handy given that the airliners climbing out of Manchester Airport came near us. The conditions were not good for plane photography to be honest. The clouds were often low enough that we never saw the planes but, at one point, I did get a good view of an Emirates A380 climbing overhead and turning in our direction. It had the new Emirates livery combined with special markings for Wimbledon’s tournament earlier this year. A bit of processing was necessary to get it to a reasonable shape.

No Low Flying in These Valleys Today

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There were a couple of days while we were in the Lake District when the weather was misty. In some places, it burned off as the day warmed up but in others it lingered. The Lakes can be a popular place for low level flying by military jets but, when the mist stays, there is not going to be sufficient visibility to get down low and fast. While I might have liked to have some planes come through, the contrast with the lower parts of the valleys in the clear with the mist on the hills around was very appealing.

Glasgow Airport Brings Some Variety (At Least for Me)

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I have had to make a few trips to Glasgow recently and, while some of them involved the train up, I did also fly on occasion. This meant I had some time at Glasgow Airport waiting for my flight home. British Airways and EasyJet are regular features at Glasgow so nothing new about them. However, you get some visitors from Europe and Loganair has a number of turboprops based there so this was a nice chance to see something different to the norm (although I get plenty of ATRs passing the house).