Tag Archives: photo

Bye Bye JAL 747s

When I was a small kid, I had a book called Pictorial History of Aircraft. This was the 1970s and so the Boeing 747 was still a relatively new kid on the block. It certainly wasn’t the times of the 400 series being knocked out at the rate of one a week. The pictures in this book showed Japan Air Lines (JAL) as an operator of both passenger and freighter versions of the jet.

As time passed by, JAL grew its fleet substantially and was for a long time the largest operator of 747s in the world. Therefore, it is hard to come to terms with the fact that the poor financial state of JAL combined with the introduction of more efficient big twins has meant the 747 has gone from JAL’s passenger operations. It is odd to know I won’t see one again (except perhaps at a storage yard). Every once in a while the airline industry has a big change – the end of Pan Am is one that springs to mind. For me, this is one of those moments.

Anyway, they are gone but I have a few shots of them to remember them by. I wonder what will be next to go?!

Swallows but no Amazons

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When trying to be smart and come up with an amusing play on words for a title, I realized I could be on dangerous territory with this one. Instead, I decided to play it safe but dull! Back to the topic…

I was sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan recently watching the swallows do their thing. I find them a fascinating bird to watch since they have a level of agility that is hard to comprehend. I guess when you eat by catching insects in mid air, you have to be pretty sharp. Catching a swallow on the wing is a trickier proposition altogether. They are hard to pan with and they are small so a long lens helps keep them visible but makes the panning so much harder!

Getting them standing on a non-moving surface makes for a far easier time. Of course, that isn’t so exciting. There is always the option to keep trying to get a bit closer without scaring them off.

Then again, you can always try and get the flying shot. These will never be published but they were better than I expected!

Flashing at the birds

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While hanging around up in Door County in Wisconsin, I have been taking a bunch of pictures of the local wildlife. Mainly a lot of birds in the vicinity of our hotel and that is always a fun challenge. To add to the challenge, one of the afternoons that we were back at the hotel, the weather closed in and it began to rain. There was a patch of grass outside our balcony that seemed to be a popular spot for some robins so I started taking some shots.

As you are probably aware, robins are quite bold creatures so, with a little patience, you can end up with them coming reasonably close in. However, with the light having faded fast as the weather deteriorated and the natural shade of the area, it was not looking good to get a good shot. I started out by bumping up the ISO but that was only helping so much and, without a tripod, I was still going to get mixed results.

At this point I decided to try something that everyone who shoots wildlife a lot probably does to some extent but that I had not tried before and that was using some flash to boost the excitement. I had no idea how much to use so experimented with a little extra FEC, then zero and ultimately one stop under on FEC. The latter seemed to have the best results judging by the quick view on the back of the camera – always such a reliable indicator!

I was using the flashgun straight with no boost like a Better Beamer (if that is the right name) so it was a bit of a raw experiment but the results seemed to be be pretty pleasing so this is something I will have to think about further in due course.

Hovercraft Reminiscences

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Having taken the chance to shoot one of the LCACs while in San Diego the other week, I decided to have a trip down memory lane for some other hovercraft moments. I have some relatively recent shots of the hovercraft that operate between Ryde and Southsea. I also have some old scans of the massive SRN4 Super 4 hovercraft that used to run across the English Channel taken when I was about to make the crossing on vacation. No great explanations to follow. Just some shots if you want a look.

ISAP Field Trip – Part 3

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Back in the bus and it seemed to be running okay now – that is if you didn’t count the clunking that was coming from the suspension almost directly under my seat! Of course, there was still a question as to whether our driver knew where he was going. However, after a few wrong turns, we did arrive at our last destination of the day.

This was Gillespie Field and, more specifically, Bill Allen’s collection. Bill has developed a series of properties on the field that are combination homes and hangars. They are designed to have a really vintage look though and create a mini village at one end of the field.

Bill was an excellent host. Aside from making his place open to us and providing very welcome refreshments and food, he had some great aircraft on display including Stearmans and a Bucker Jungmeister. This was the day preceding the field’s airshow so a variety of interesting aircraft were arriving while we were there.

As I walked in, a familiar dace wandered up. Paul Dunn if Global Aviation Resource was there. Work had brought him to LA and he had taken the chance to come down and spend time with the subject of one of his articles, Captain Eddie, owner of an immaculate Fairey Firefly. Paul suggested I head around the corner to see it before too many people spotted it. Indeed it was a beautifully restored example and I grabbed a few shots.

We all then retreated to the grass near the Jungmeister. As the evening drew in, the light was just getting better and better. There was no urgency to shoot so we relaxed on the grass, occasionally hopping up if something new appeared. A beautiful evening in great surroundings with friends was pretty idyllic.

As the light finally faded we had a couple more treats. A pair if the Stearmans fired up for some dusk passes across the field. Meanwhile, another aircraft was staged for a lighting demonstration by Joe McNally. He put together the shot and built up a selection of flashes to light it, showing us the whole process as he went. Very interesting, even if I did feel a touch guilty running off occasionally when the Stearmans made another pass.

Finally it was dark and time to bid farewell to Bill and Gillespie and head back to the hotel. What a day!

ISAP Field Trip – Part 2

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We all gathered outside the Air and Space Museum to get on the buses for the second part of the trip. A few people got on the opposite bus to the one that they had come on. This apparently was a problem from a security perspective since our next stop was to be the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar. It would transpire that some would be glad they got back on their original bus before too long.

Miramar is a short drive north of San Diego. Now it a Marine Corps base, Miramar has operated under the control of a number of services through its life. It is probably most famous and the center of US Navy fighter operations in the 1980s when Top Gun was filmed there. Fightertown USA now is home to some marine F/A-18 Hornets as well as a lot of V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft. These have now almost completely replaced the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter with the marines at Miramar.

We were to be hosted by one of thes tilt rotor squadrons. However, first we had to get there! As we headed up the freeway, the bus suddenly went rather quiet. We coasted to a halt, our driver/comic hopped out, disappeared around the back and before too long we were on our way again. This was not to last though. Very soon we repeated the process and this time we were sitting on the shoulder of the freeway.

One errant bolt apparently was killing the cooling fan and the engine, in full self preservation mode, was shutting down before any damage could be done. To add insult to injury, we were actually in sight of the base. While a rescue plan consisting of a mechanic to fix the bus and the other bus making a return trip to pick us up was put into effect, we got to stand on the side of the freeway and watch the Hornets bashing the pattern.

Eventually we were on our way and got to join the rest of the party in the Officers’ Club at Miramar. There was food left for us and fortunately nobody decided to try and do any Top Gun song routines in the club. With a little compression of the time at lunch, we were able to get back on schedule. Off we went to the squadron.

We were given access to the squadron hangar (at least most of us were until the security gate got over its concern about how many people were coming in and locked a bunch outside for a while). There were a couple of aircraft in the hangar we had access to shoot and the doors were open to the ramp although we couldn’t venture outside. Plenty of Ospreys were out on the ramp and there was some flying activity. A Super Stallion also came in and some Hornets and and Orion were also flying in the distance.

The sun was out and the vast expanse of concrete was throwing up a lot of heat haze. This frustrated any attempts to shot anything too far away but there was still plenty to look at. Unfortunately, as our time was running out, we gathered together for the group shot. Just at this point a bunch of aircraft returned. The security minders were most insistent that we stop shooting and head to the group photo which was a bit of a shame but never mind.

After the group shots it was back to the buses for the final part of the day’s fun. Another installment will be forthcoming soon…

Hello froggy

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Our hotel in Door County Wisconsin had access to the beach across some marshy land. Resident in these marshes was a colony of frogs. You were in no doubt they lived there since most of the time they were trying hard to let you (or more likely every frog of the opposite sex) know that they were there. During the day this blended into the background a little but at night it was a steady sound that actually became quite soothing after a while.

I decided to go and find some of these frogs. This is less straightforward since, while they advertise themselves constantly when you are a distance away, they get awfully shy as you approach. They switch off as soon as you get reasonably close and wait for you to go. Get a distance away again and they are back making whatever noise it is that a frog makes.

Spotting them as they lurk in the water is a little hard at first until you get used to what you are looking for. They head will be just proud of the surface of the water, probably surrounded by weed to he camouflage them. The regularity of the head shape is the giveaway. Once you get too close they disappear under the surface with a plop!

What I don’t know about frogs is whether they are very confident in their ability to get away or whether they are a bit dopey. If you approach slowly, you can actually get very close to them indeed. Maybe they are constantly assessing the threat I pose or maybe they don’t realize I am there until they have an “oh crap” moment and dive for safety. Anyway, whichever it is, I was able to get some good face to face time with a couple of them.

Thankfully not too many people were around or they might have been wondering why I was lying on a wooden walkway across a marsh!

An alternate canvas

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I guess the title is a bit of a lie in this case as the alternate is actually canvas. I haven’t done any canvas printing for a while. I used to have some canvas that printed in one of my previous Epson ink jets but I haven’t used that stuff since changing printers and haven’t ever found profiles from the manufacturer so they must have disappeared not long after I bought the stuff.

I have experimented on printing on a number of finishes in recent times with some printing on metal that has come out well. However, I gently had a client who was interested in a large format panorama. I was hunting for a good printer for this since my regular print outlet does not cater to large format panos at all. I had used another place as a trial but they had produced a really crappy result. While searching for an alternative, I mentioned to the client that I had heard good things about a place that specialized in canvas prints including larger format panos and was he interested. It turned out he had already been wondering about a canvas print.

I prepped the files and sent them off to the place. I told him to hold off paying for it until I had seen whether it was worthwhile. If I don’t like the result, I am not going to have a client paying the price if my name is on the work. The turnaround was really pretty speedy.
I received the canvas and I have to say I was impressed. It was mounted on a wood frame ready stretched. The finish was excellent and the colors looked very vibrant. The packing was also good and the whole product was well protected. I will certainly use this place again if I have anyone after a similar product and I now find myself contemplating some panoramic options for myself to justify a print for home.

Panning for gold

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While the title might be a bit inaccurate, you are probably not going to struggle to guess what the topic really is. I have always enjoyed playing with panos since my days of film when it would be a lot less complex and consist of sticking together a large number of 6×4 prints to make a larger collage. The effect was rough and ready but there was something rather cool about the way they came out at the highly accurate results possible today doesn’t have.

While stitching together shots is straightforward given any number of software tools (although Photomerge in Photoshop has got sufficiently good that I rarely need to use anything else), achieving a good pano with the camera in my phone was a different challenge. Without control of the exposure and the white balance, it was hard to make the shots merge cleanly. I then got hold of an app called 360 which would shoot a pano as you gradually moved the camera around. It overlays a grid so you can see the coverage still available and you could pan up and down as well as laterally.

Originally the results were less then ideal. It would have discontinuities on some of the straight lines in the scene and was particularly unhappy in low light or when panning vertically. However, the latest version of the app is now out and it is a dramatic improvement. After playing with it at home briefly, I tried it while on the road the other day. We were heading up passed Green Bay and so stopped off to see Lambeau Field. I’m sure the Bears fans I know will be cursing me for such treachery but I wanted to see such a famous stadium. Anyway, it wasn’t a photo trip so I only had my phone in my pocket at the time. I decided to give the pano a shot using the latest version of the app and I think it did a pretty good job. It was fun to watch new areas that had a different exposure suddenly get corrected to merge with the existing image and straight lines that were originally out of position get jumped to the right place as the app worked out what was wanted. It isn’t perfect yet. Some lines still don’t line up and the resolution is surprisingly low compared to a normal shot by the phone.

Nice work by occipital who are the developers. I like what you have done so far and look forward to what you come up with next.

Indy Air Show

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The beginning of the air show season has already arrived but my plans for the year are rather sparse. Some things I had originally planned to go to have been overtaken by competing events so there are relatively few shows that are presently a firm fixture in my calendar. That is fine. If the other things weren’t things I wanted to do, they wouldn’t have taken precedence. Besides, when I am looking at a show, I am looking for something a little different since there are a bunch of acts, all good in their own right, that I can see any number of times through the year.

The show in Indianapolis caught me off guard therefore. I hadn’t really been thinking about heading down to it. I had read that the lighting is a bit harsh and had originally thought I had something else on. However, I ended up being free and they had some aircraft that piqued my interest. Besides, it is only three hours to drive down. The forecast was looking mixed but I decided to give it a go.

The drive down was not inspiring! Crappy conditions in Chicago as I left got worse as I drove down through Indiana. At some points, the fog was quite bad with the wind turbines looming out of the murk as I headed down I-65. However, as I reached Indy, the skies parted. We were pretty lucky for weather for the rest of the day to be honest. There were bursts of sun but mainly clouds. However, I watched a few heavy looking downpours approach and they all passed east of us – at least until I was back in the car!

The show had a nice mix of performers. I had never seen the PV-2 or C-1A fly before and that was nice. They organized some warbird combined flights which were pretty good and photogenic – well, if the light had been better they would have been. Overall, a good mix of things to keep me interested. The light was tricky all day and there are a lot of shots that will never be seen in public because they are just blah!

All in all, though, a good day out and it was nice to get back into practice of shooting things moving rather fast. Also nice to bump into some familiar faces during the show. Good to see you guys!