Tag Archives: san francisco

Breitling Jet Team

There are a number of jet display teams that are operated by militaries around the world. Private jet demo teams also exist although there are a lot less of them. The Aero Vodochody L39 Albatros is an airframe that has proved popular with private teams. In the Midwest, the Hoppers used to display with four jets while out west the Patriots team are a regular fixture. In Europe, the Breitling team has been around for a long time. I saw them when we still lived in the U.K. at a couple of shows but they decided to bring the team to the US for a couple of seasons.

My first chance to see them was at San Francisco Fleet Week. I didn’t have any expectations about how the show would be and I wasn’t super excited about seeing the team. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the show that they put on. The display was well planned and kept something going on in front of the crowd. The Albatros is not a powerful jet so they need to manage the energy well to keep the display going and they did this effectively. The backdrop of the bay was obviously a good addition to the display. They did combine the individual jets with the formation jets well. They also made good use of flares at one point during the vertical maneuvers. That is something you don’t see enough these days. Sadly, it doesn’t always translate as well on photos as it appeared when you are seeing the display.

I don’t know what the plan is for the team this year but I imagine they will need to go back to Europe at some point. Two years away must have been an expensive proposition and means they will not have made any appearances over there. Maybe they will be here again but I can’t count on it. I think they are done. Good job though.

LA Dodgers and Emirates Have a Thing

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Emirates A380s are a regular feature at SFO. They usually look pretty much the same with maybe the occasional graphic added for an event or other. This one was a bit out of the ordinary though. Apparently Emirates must have some sort of promotional tie in with the LA Dodgers. The side of the jet was adorned with a large graphic about the team. The side of an A380 is pretty sizeable so there is plenty of real estate to adorn with whatever you want to include. In this case, they made good use of it.

Getting WOW in Better Light

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My first encounter with a WOW A330 was towards the end of the day when the jet was a little backlit. I hadn’t had another chance to shoot one since them and wanted to try and do a little better. The deep color of the purple scheme should look more vibrant than the slightly washed out version I had managed before. The timing of the flights is such that they depart in the late morning. Since the jet is not too heavy, they go off the 01 runways which means they have a nice light on them during the lower winter sun. Unfortunately, they seem to like using 01L rather than 01R which puts them a little further away and a little more susceptible to heat haze. However, I got lucky this time and the conditions were okay.

Sutro Baths

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A once popular attraction for San Francisco residents was Sutro Baths. Located on the shore looking out into the pacific, the baths were fed by sea water and covered a large area that was enclosed by a glass and iron structure. A railway brought visitors around the cliffs from the city for their day out. Landslides eventually did away with the railway while other entertainment took visitors away and a fire eventually dealt with what was left. However, the underlying structures of the pools are still there.

The water is not recirculated as it would have been in the days of operation so some of the pools have a decidedly murky quality to them. The concrete dividers between the pools are still mostly intact so you can walk along them to check the place out. If you aren’t confident with your balance or are likely to be freaked out by having to pass someone coming the opposite way, this might not be for you. If you do lose your footing, you will be damp!

There is a tunnel under the cliffs that comes out amongst the rocks where the waves are crashing up. Halfway along the tunnel is another hole to the shore and, as the waves rush in, you feel the air pressure change briefly. It is certainly cool and damp in there. Given how derelict the place is, it is hugely popular with visitors. Cars circled the lot looking for spaces all the time we were there. The opportunity to hurt yourself was certainly available but, despite the current risk aversion of locations, this one seems remarkably open to allow you to explore and (if you are not careful) do yourself some harm! It’s like being a kid again.

Is Shooting in the Rain a Good Idea?

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It might be sometimes, but this was probably not one of them. The forecast was for wind and rain which was suggesting that SFO would be using reversed operations to normal. I thought it might be worth a shot. The rain was obviously a concern but I was hopeful, as I have been in the past, that it might make for some interesting shots. I had underestimated just how wet it was though.

The cloud base was very low. The jets landing on 19 were barely visible until they rolled out. The ones taking off were also heavily obscured. The rain was really making things difficult to see and a lot of adjustment in post is necessary to get anything. Only one jet seemed to perform well for me. The Singapore A350 must have gone in a gap in the conditions and it seemed to be the one that was cleanest when I looked at the shots. I won’t give up on things like this but I know the odds are not great.

Get Those Shock Waves Showing

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The Fleet Week air show in San Francisco is wrapped up by the Blue Angels. The sneak passes made by the pair are an opportunity to try and get something interesting. Since they display over the bay and the city is known for having high relative humidity, I am always hoping to get some good vapor shots. This time out, that wasn’t to be. The air seemed to be pretty dry and there was not a lot of vapor on show. However, the fast pass from left to right takes the jet in front of the hills and Alcatraz which provides some detail to show up the distortion caused by the shock-waves. The large number of boats and associated masts meant a clean shot was tricky but I got a couple I was pleased with.

Sutro Heights

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A weekend day had us over in San Francisco having a mooch around some places we haven’t visited before. I had been reading something online about Sutro Heights and wanted to check the place out. This is an overlook up on the cliffs that had been the home of a guy called (unsurprisingly) Sutro. He had built a large house on this land and added gardens around it that included statues and artworks that were available for people to visit.

The house is long demolished but the gardens have become a city park. We stopped off to look around, enjoy the view and use the place as somewhere to have our lunch. The view down to the beach below, while rather hazy when we were there, was still rather nice. You could see plenty of people having fun down on the sands. The gardens themselves were rather relaxing. You could climb up onto the area where the house had once stood and try to imagine what it had been like. A few signs included images of how things had been laid out. Given how close we were to the Cliff House, the baths and the trails, it was a little surprising how few people were there. However, it isn’t heavily signed so maybe it is easily missed. If I hadn’t read about it, we would probably never have known either.

More Parallels

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Not too much description to go with this post. SFO is well known for its parallel approaches (and departures) and I have been seeing a lot of them recently. Here are a few of the examples that have cropped up. As an extra, I include a shot of two on approach with a departure in the background. Combine a parallel pair with the other traffic a little further out on the approach and the sky looks a little busy. However, while it looks interesting in person, it doesn’t make for a compelling shot.

Air Berlin

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I wonder how long this plane will continue to show up at SFO. Air Berlin runs a service to San Francisco which is seasonal in nature. However, Air Berlin is currently in some difficulty and they are reorganizing the operations. Some of the services are moving in to Lufthansa control while the long haul stuff may be what remains. Consequently, they might still come to California but, for now, who knows. They aren’t a daily feature anyway so I haven’t seen the, very often. Here was a nice day when they did show up.

The French Government Comes to Town

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Catching a cool bizjet is nice but coming across one that is a bit special is even better. I almost missed this one. I was focused on something else when I looked up and saw something on the approach. At first I thought it was a parallel approach but I lifted the camera up to my eye and saw it was a colorful fun that was getting my attention. It was a Dassault Falcon 7X. It was in French government colors. The fin was the French tricolor. This was a cool thing to catch and quite a surprise.