Tag Archives: photo

Ardenwood Historic Farm

If you head across the Dumbarton Bridge at Fremont, you will pass Ardenwood Historic Farm. On the right side of the highway as you head towards the bay, this farm has been a feature of the area for over 100 years although it is now a fraction of its former size. However, it is now under the control of the East Bay Parks District and open for the public to visit. It is a combination of little bits of what a farm would be. You could say it perpetuates some of the myths you have as kids about what farms are like since we grow up thinking that all farms have a bit of everything rather than just being a cattle farm, growing a single crop or raising chickens en masse.

However, it does provide an opportunity to see some aspects of an old style farm much as they once were. The farmhouse itself is quite impressive. The family that owned it became quite influential in the area and had the house to match. The grounds are nicely laid out and it was a pleasant spot to spend some time as the chickens that were scrabbling around in the dirt near us also seemed to think.

There are goats, sheep, pigs, horses and cows in the grounds. They get a lot of attention from the visitors and we were no exception. The goats were the most active seeming to be more interested in the leaves on a tree above a bench in their enclosure than the food that they had been provided. A couple of the kids were desperately reaching under a fence. I guess the grass really is greener…

Ano Nuevo Coastline

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While the elephant seals are the reason for our visit to Ano Nuevo, the coastline there is very attractive itself. When we first got there, it was quite overcast and everything was a little flat. As we started to head back to the center, the clouds broke up and the sun illuminated the coastline. As you can see, it is a great looking place and really not too far from the city.

Tacoma

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When landing at SeaTac on the northerly approaches, you come across Seattle’s southern neighbor, Tacoma. The approach routing brings you just to the east of the city so, if you are doing this in the morning as I was at some point recently, you get the city nicely illuminated in the early sunlight. The usual issues with shooting through an airplane window still apply but you are lower so the shots can be more forgiving.

The city is home to one of the west coast’s major container ports. The view from above clearly shows how the harbor dominates the area. The container terminals and the cranes that make them work are clearly visible along with the transportation connections that take everything out of the port an on to its final destination.

The city also has a large dome which is home to many events. It is close to the main freeway from north to south, I-5, and when you drive past it seems to be pretty huge. From the air, it is still clearly seen but somehow it doesn’t have the same impact.

Variable Neutral Density Filter

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Two of my shooting requirements have led me to the world of neutral density filters. Getting a low shutter speed on helicopters often results in very small apertures which can be a pain when it comes to sensor dust. Also, when I am shooting video I also want to be able to slow down the shutter speed. This can sometimes be hard to do and again shows up the sensor dust if it is there and dealing with it on video is a bit more effort.

Consequently, I decided to try out a variable neutral density filter. There are plenty on the market but I decided to go cheap! Why not? I never spend too much cash on photographic equipment!! This was from Amazon and was only about $40 so I wasn’t going to lose sleep if it turned out to be a bust. When the time came available, I decided to do some testing. I shot a clear sky with the filter set to varying levels of light reduction. I then imported these images into Lightroom to see how they looked. The answer was not good. In the mid range, things were actually reasonable. At the low and high ends, there was a significant variation in brightness across the image. This was not going to work.

I then decided to keep things simple. I already have a filter holding system for my old Cokin filters. I decided to buy a couple of neutral density filters for this. Then I can use either of them or both if the circumstances require. Not quite as flexible as a variable filter but pretty close and certainly more reliable without going to the expense of one of the top of the line variable models. We shall see how I get on.

Working Bell 407

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I was heading back to the airport in Tucson to catch my flight when I came upon a Bell 407 doing some long line work with a person on the end of the line. Normally this sort of thing happens when you are nowhere close to a convenient place to stop. However, this time I was in luck. A turning was coming up and it had a great place off the road to stop. Consequently, I got to spend a bit of time watching the team training.

They were from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. I have no idea what that is and as a dodgy foreigner, I wasn’t going to ask. They were lifting a guy from the ground, holding him for a while and then depositing him back on the ground. They also landed briefly during the time I was there. I did have a flight to catch so I couldn’t hang around for too long but I was able to get a few shots of them at work before it was time to take the car back.

Since they weren’t too far away, I was able to use the 70-200mm. That also gave me some flexibility for playing with low shutter speeds. As I do in these cases when I have the time, I ramp the speed lower and lower. That way I figure I will get some sharp ones and then gradually increase the failure rate until nothing comes out sharp or, as is the case on a sunny day in the Arizona summer, I run out of apertures to slow the shutter speed any further. In this case, I had good luck throughout the range and was able to get some really nice discs for the rotors.

Hawaiian Airbus and Friends

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While waiting to get the shot of the Janet flight I posted about previously, there were plenty of other departures from McCarran. The majority of flights were coming out on the westerly runway rather than the one the Janets use so we were not getting the nice topside view of them turning. However, the light was very nice and so a few of them provided interesting targets. The Hawaiian Airbus A330 looked particularly nice but most looked good on those conditions. We were a bit focused on finding out how the Janet was doing so didn’t give them our full attention but some looked too good to ignore.

Egret

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Nothing terribly complex about this post. I was out shooting when an egret flew by right in front of me. I saw it early enough to get ready and grabbed a few shots as it came by. Here they are!

Moonrise and Sunset

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An evening flight out of SeaTac was my way home on a recent trip. We were due to take off after sunset so I hadn’t anticipated having the camera out. As we taxied out, the sunset looked pretty nice and I did get a couple of shots with the phone. However, there was a small moon also heading towards the horizon and I figured I should get out the real camera to make a better shot of it. The moon was just about to go down while the red of the sky still remained courtesy of the now-set sun. It was a bit of a dark shot and through the window of the 737 but it turned out pretty well.

Lone Bat

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My evening outside in Nevada with Paul and Chris included some down time while we waited to see what would happen next. While we were hanging around, we spotted a bat fluttering around. Needless to say, we had not come prepared for night wildlife photography. However, I had the ISO ramped up and a long lens in my hands so, while the shutter speeds might have been a bit low, I figured I would have a go. The little fella was not terribly close so these are cropped quite heavily and even then he is a bit small but a couple of the shots give you the distinctive outline of a bat, even if he was fluttering so fast that freezing him was not going to be on the cards.

Coyote Runway Standoff

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Sonoma Valley airport (Schellville) is surrounded by fields and there is wildlife in those fields. I saw a coyote come wandering out of the field and head for the runway. An aircraft had just landed and was taxiing in at the same time. The two of them met on the runway although with more separation than the photograph suggests. I was particularly impressed by the way the coyote seemed totally unfazed by the whole thing. It stared at the plane for a while and showed no interest in getting out of the way. However, it obviously had other things it wanted to do and eventually turned and trotted off. I’ve no idea what the occupants of the plane made of the whole thing!