Tag Archives: photo

Baby Sloth Bears

Last in the baby section, at least for now, is the sloth bear. One of the bears at Brookfield had a couple of cubs earlier in the year. They are now out in the enclosure for the public to see. Baby bears are really quite cute. Lots of fur and everything else a bit undersized so they look very ungainly. Add to that the typical youthful energy of young animals as they explore all of the new things on offer and you get a popular spot for visitors. I can’t judge – we were there for the same reason!

Brides on the Bridge!

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Photography can be a frustrating thing. So often when you don’t have a camera to hand, you see something that would have made an interesting picture. Then again, I have had many experiences when I was shooting something else that something came along which caught my eye and I could grab some shots. Perhaps the lesson here is that there is almost always something interesting going on as long as you are looking!

I was actually shooting out of our window recently. There was some helicopter activity over the area and this was my main target when I looked down at Michigan Avenue, a couple of blocks from us. There were a bunch of women in bridal gowns walking along the street. Looking more closely at the images, the women have red paint on their faces. I have no idea what this meant since I didn’t get one of the flyers they were handing out. They continued down to the bridge and across the river after which I lost track of them. The people around certainly seemed surprised to have a pack of brides (what is the right collective noun for brides – a nightmare?) bearing down on them. That is one of the cool things about this city. Something always is happening!

More Cute Animals – Addax

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The baby animal saga continues. The Addax group at the zoo have also had new additions. A couple of babies in this case. Probably not quite as cute as the giraffe but still pretty interesting. I suspect the Addax enclosure does not normally have as many visitors as they are getting right now. Babies of all species seem to have that effect on people!

Cuteness Alert – Baby Giraffe

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This is going to be the first in a short series of cute baby animal posts. No kittens or puppies here but it won’t be the first time I have been down this route as the baby elephant post here will testify. However, one of our local zoos at Brookfield has had a bunch of new animals born in recent months. We popped along to see one of them and ended up seeing the others that we had forgotten about.

The new addition in question is a baby giraffe. Giraffes are a quite fascinating creature for many people and their enclosure always has a good crowd. At the moment, the numbers are significantly higher as the addition of a new member to the family is getting a lot of attention. If you want to see how a baby giraffe is born, go to Brookfield Zoo’s YouTube page and there is a video of the birth there. It is not a subtle event as the mother is walking around and literally drops the baby out as she goes. Apparently, the thump as it hits the ground startles it into action and it is off!

The youngster has grown a bit by now but is still conspicuously small compared to the rest of the family. Balance is good but still a little ungainly and investigating things away from the adults still seems to have some fascination. If you are in the area, you should drop by before they get too big.

New Angles on O’Hare

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I hadn’t been out to O’Hare for a while and with a sunny Sunday according to the forecast and no other things needing to be done imminently, I decided to head out. I spent the initial time out there getting some pretty normal approach type shots. A couple of new things for me to see but nothing terribly dramatic. Then I decided to try some other places.

I headed around to the west side of the field and looked at what the departures had to offer. A level of cloud had moved in which was making the sky a little gray in the shots, even if there was still a good level of sun on the planes. The sun was causing a lot of heat haze and the backgrounds weren’t making for great shots so i decided to bag that idea and head to the approach lights. With departures off 32L, I could go to the place where the approach crosses the main road and get some head on shots of the departures.

It is a bit of a game since the planes appear quite suddenly and are soon over you. However, it offered some different views. Not something I will do every time but it was good to get a slightly different perspective on what is on offer.

Other SeaTac Stuff

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The SeaTac shooting had a number of specific things that I have already covered. However, since it is an airport that serves a lot of destinations and carriers, it has a bunch of other things worth seeing. Long haul operators include Delta (serving a lot of routes that were once Northwest), British Airways and Icelandair. I have always seen the Icelandair aircraft on the ground when traveling through SeaTac but they seem to have a schedule that means one arrives at around the same time the previous day’s arrival departs. Not a very efficient use of the airframe but I guess it works for them.

The domestic carriers were also there with Alaska making up the majority of the movements – at least in the time windows I had.

Filming helicopter

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Something I haven’t seen for a while is any filming activity around the city. We have two big movies being shot in Chicago this summer but I don’t think I have seen anything of them at work yet (unless this is it). When the filming is underway, you often get a helicopter shooting film from the air. A turret on the nose holds the camera and the mount is operated by someone inside the helicopter while the pilot positions for the shots that are required.

I heard a Eurocopter Astar (Squirrel for non-US readers) flying around (not unusual since the local TV stations use them predominantly) but noticed it was a different aircraft with a more prominent mount. I have seen this Astar doing filming work in the past but not for a while. The sun was getting low but I decided to try and grab some shots as it came around.

Of course, just as I did this, it made a couple more passes and then left. However, it did return later. By now the light was getting very low. I suspect the shots he was getting of the city looked great but it was getting tricky to get anything good of him. However, it is always fun to try.

Horizon schemes

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Seattle is a busy airport with plenty of operators coming through. However, the home airline is Alaska and their regional affiliate is Horizon. Consequently, both of them are very busy. Horizon operates a fleet of Bombardier Q400s. They used to have some CRJs too but these have been moved to another operator and now they are dedicated to the turboprops.

They do seem to have really gone to town in applying special liveries to some of their aircraft. These are focused on a lot of the local colleges and universities. They do paint up a lot of planes in school colors! While I was there, I got a surprising number of them passing by. Here are a few samples of the different schemes they have (along with one normal one just to show that they aren’t all specials).

Olympia Capitol building

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I was in Olympia WA recently for some meetings. The meetings were near the state capitol and with some time free at lunchtime, I wandered over to have a look around. The building is quite similar in form to a number of capitol buildings with a domed structure topping the main building. It was very nicely decorated with it being impressive without be too grandiose. I met one of the building guides as I came in and she kindly showed me around including letting me into one of the function rooms that is normally locked.

George Washington appears throughout the building in various places as you might expect for a state named after him. Neither chamber was sitting while I was there so I could go to the visitors galleries for both and walk around without restrictions. We even got to go into the Governor’s office to see the room in which he holds meetings with visitors. (We didn’t go into the office he occupies as I think he was in there at the time!) The grounds around the capitol were very nice too and it was a great day so not a bad way to spend a lunch break.

FedEx shots

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A recent trip to Seattle gave me some time at the very beginning and end of the day to pay a visit to SeaTac. Plenty of interesting things are to be seen there. One specific area of interest for me was the amount of traffic for FedEx. They had a lot of movements with a variety of types. (A contractor operates Cessna Caravans for them which I saw but did not get any shots of sadly.) With FedEx just having announced a reduction in types in their fleet plan, this was a more interesting opportunity than it might otherwise have been.

Two McDonnell Douglas types came through while I was there. The MD-11s are busy as usual but I also got MD-10s. Meanwhile, the Airbus A300s were also in use. I don’t get to see them often and, since they are going to be retired in large numbers soon, I might not get many more chances. With movements at the beginning and end of the day, I was able to catch them several times. They were busy. I am assuming the middle of the day is quieter for them so I didn’t miss much while at work.

The only unfortunate side of shooting the FedEx jets was their departure profiles. When on the departure end of things, I was generally in a good location to catch the jets as they came by. FedEx was the exception. I don’t know whether they practice rapid climb outs due to flying into some dangerous places or just for noise abatement (they do have some aging aircraft) but the result is that they climb fast and are much higher than average by the time they reach you. Nothing much I can do about that of course but it was a bit of a shame. Approach shots were not an issue of course. The three degree glideslope is the same for everyone! Time to enjoy some of these jets before they go for good.