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Moon

It only seems appropriate that I should follow a sun posting with one about the moon. Having lived for the last ten years in a place that faced east, I was used to seeing the moon appear and then progress across the sky. Now I live somewhere that faces west so, when I see the moon, it is already on its way down. Having the hills to the west of us means there is even less time to catch it.

I have shot the full moon (or very close to full) a few times before. One evening I was beginning to think about turning in when I saw the moon was dropping down and it was substantially in shadow. I thought it looked very interesting and, since the time of the movement is about an hour later each day, if I didn’t shoot it then, the following day would be a bit later, the moon would be a bit fuller and who knows whether the sky would be clear anyway. I headed downstairs to grab some gear and set up some shots from outside the garage.

The sky is not the clearest and least affected by distortion where we are but it isn’t too bad. I got a few shots and then ramped up the ISO a bit to make sure of getting something with a higher shutter speed. For those of you that haven’t tried shooting the moon, it moves surprisingly quickly and the use of a long lens emphasizes this even more. Therefore, you need quite a high shutter speed to make sure it isn’t blurred. Fortunately, although it is dark where you are, the moon is in full sunlight so there is a decent amount of illumination to help you out.

I got a few shots, and then headed back indoors to bed. Sometimes you just have to grab the moment. As a related item, I also got some daytime shots as the moon got closer to full recently.

Sunset

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Sitting on the deck of our room in Albion provided a beautiful view across the Pacific as the sun was setting. As is usual with sunsets, you never knew exactly what you were going to get. One night it all looked quite promising but the cloud cover low on the horizon meant it all went dull rather than getting dramatic. On another evening, though, we had some high level clouds that started picking up the low evening light very nicely resulting in some great skies.

One evening the sun set in front of us with nothing much to obscure our view. While I was happy to be sitting on the deck watching it go down, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to grab some shots of it. A long lens meant some bigger views of it as the atmosphere distorted the view of its last gasps of west coast light. After that, someone else was getting the benefits.

The strange shapes the atmospheric distortion produces were really interesting to watch. The roundness was replaced by all sorts of shapes including one that looked more like a Mayan pyramid. It changed so often that I had to keep shooting. Only as it was almost done did I realize that I really should have been videoing this as well to show just how quickly it retreated below the horizon and how much it changed apparent shape while doing do. (As an aside, I do know that the refraction of the atmosphere means that I am seeing an image of the sun on the horizon when it has actually already fallen below the true sightlines.)

Having missed this video opportunity, I shall have to be ready to try that out in future. Meanwhile, I shall continue to enjoy the memory of the speed and rapid changes that the sun went through in the last moments of the day.

Surfers

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The bay in Santa Cruz was not only filled with wildlife. It also had a fair number of surfers. Since I was looking at a calm surface of water, I was not entirely sure what they were hoping for. Then, all of a sudden and with no apparent warning, a wave blasted up the rock face below us sending spray above our level. I was a touch surprised! It seems that there are periodic waves that come in from offshore and funnel into the bay providing some surfable waves. The guys were hanging around waiting for these.

Since I was more focused on the wildlife, I wasn’t always paying attention to the surfers. However, periodically I did see one of them getting ready to try and catch a wave and I switched my attention to them. The angle often meant that they were getting obscured by the wave they were riding. Some of them weren’t being too successful at catching a wave at all. There were a few, though, who seemed to be a lot better at this and managed to get some decent rides in. One even helped me out with a spectacular dismount!

Stearman Central

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Schellville also seemed to have quite a few Stearmans around on the day I was there. I think they were generally doing rides for people. A nice day for some open cockpit flying so I hope the passengers enjoyed themselves. Here are some of the shots I got of the Stearman.

Mendocino

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A weekend away after a bunch of home moving activities seemed like a great idea. We had an invitation away for the Thanksgiving weekend which we would have liked to have taken but the travel involved meant it was not going to be a practical proposition. Instead, we decided to drive a couple of hours north to Mendocino and have a short break there as compensation for the missed trip to friends.

This turned out to be a great idea. We chose a weekend when the weather was gorgeous and the number of people was limited. What a combination! While we were staying in Albion, a little way south of Mendocino itself, we decided to head there on the day we arrived and take a look around. It is a cracking little town. It is a combination destination with people who are getting away from the hustle of life being there as well as city folks doing the same thing if only for a day or two.

There are lots of little shops to deal with the tourists and the place is very picturesque. It is planted right on the coast and you can walk out onto the headland to see the waves crashing in while looking back at the town on the cliffs behind you. Seeing as it was later in the day and the sun was low given the time of year, it all looked even better!

One feature of the town I particularly liked was the use of water towers. You could see the evolution of the towers around the town. Some of them were as designed with a timber framework holding up the water barrel. Others had decided to enclose the tower structure to provide some additional room space under the barrel. Then there were those that had gone the whole hog and got rid of the barrel and converted the tower into part of the home. The distinctive shape was still there which is what gives it all away.

Other little details of the place appealed. The weathervane on the fire house was rather cool. If you like chocolate, you would have several places to visit to sample their wares – something that made Nancy a lot happier than me! All in all, a great place to wander around and relax in.

Cormorants

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There have been a few cormorant posts of late on the blog so, if those were not your thing, look away now. Santa Cruz may have had a large colony of pelicans as described here but it also was not short of cormorants. They were busy zipping back and forth along the coast, sadly not often coming too close to our location but we did get an occasional look.

More fascinating was watching them land on the rocks. The pelicans seemed to be clearly in charge of things but the cormorants did have some spots they were taking up. However, good landing areas seemed in short supply for them. Instead, they took a rather more direct approach. They would fly right at the rock face and flare into what seemed like an impact with the rock. In doing so, they would grab on to something and then clamber up the rocks to their colleagues.

It all looked rather like hard work but, if you are lowing on the pecking order (and with a bill the size of a pelican’s, who wouldn’t be) I guess you have to be innovative.

Flying in the Champ

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While I was with Eric, he suggested we do a little flying in his Champ. I haven’t flown a Champ before and Eric let me get some stick time. Most of the aircraft I have flown over the years have been pretty benign in yaw with not a lot of need to use my feet. The Champ is a different story. Plenty of rudder is required to fly it properly and I did nothing of the sort. A few turns later and I was starting to get a bit tidier but I certainly need a lot of practice to get comfortable with the aircraft.

Eric also flew some more dynamic maneuvers while I was shooting. I also grabbed some video clips. They aren’t a complete story but just a few clips so go the video below gives you a quick glimpse of what we did. Thanks Eric for a lot of fun and for reminding my stomach how long it is since I have flown anything resembling a dynamic maneuver!

Pleasanton

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Just a quick shot of our new location. We don’t actually live in Pleasanton but in Dublin. They are right next to each other and you would be hard pressed to notice the dividing line if it wasn’t an interstate and BART line. However, downtown Pleasanton is – well, how better to say it – pleasant. We stopped in town for a look at the farmers’ market and had lunch sitting outside a café. A nice way to spend time in October when you have lived somewhere that is a touch chilly by this time of year!

Foggy Golden Gate Bridge

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Moving means you don’t always have a lot of time for having fun. However, when your move includes a time when you are in limbo between two places and staying in temporary accommodation, you actually have more time than you think. Sitting around in a hotel room can get old pretty quickly so scheduling some exploration makes a lot more sense. One place that a colleague had mentioned was out on the Marin headlands. There are a number of areas out there that caught my interest including one that wasn’t open on this day so will be the subject of a return trip and a future blog post I hope.

We had plenty to look forward to and the forecast was promising so off we headed. Of course, we hadn’t counted on the fickle Bay Area weather. Leaving the East Bay in glorious sunshine, we got to the Bay Bridge and drove into a wall of fog. I had chosen this route as I had yet to travel over the new bridge having seen it under construction for a number of years. This time I did get to drive over it but I didn’t get to see it! Oh well, on through the city of San Francisco towards the Golden Gate Bridge and straight back into the fog.

Again we drove over a bridge we couldn’t see. Then we turned out onto the Marin headlands. The drive up the coast took us out of the fog and into glorious sunshine. Looking back at the city and the bridge, it was a different story. Below us was a thick bank of fog. It also lay over some of the parts we intended to explore. As it happened, we explored some parts and saved others for another day. The fog didn’t thin while we were there. If anything, it got worse while we were there. Now we have a reason to go back – if we can forecast the weather better than we did this time!

Bleriot XI

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I was kindly invited up to Sonoma Skypark by Eric Presten to have a look at his Bleriot XI. This is a replica that Eric and his family built in a short time span and that spends a lot of time in Wisconsin. Therefore, it was quite unusual for it to be in California and in one piece. It was about to be disassembled so I was keen to see it before it came apart again.

Eric flies the aircraft occasionally but will happily tell you that it is not a particularly fun aircraft to fly. It has wing warping rather than ailerons which are not the most effective – particularly at the speeds which this aircraft operates at. However, it is a cool replica and one I would like to see fly at some point. Eric kindly had the aircraft pulled out for me to get some shots. Thanks for the great hospitality.

Eric is an aviation photographer himself and has an outstanding collection of images of more aircraft than I knew existed. He will happily sell you copies of his books so head to http://www.prewarpublications.com/Home.html to see his work.