Tag Archives: wet

Wet Leaves Are So Vibrant

Fall means leaves and, at least in the Northwest, it can also mean rain.  The rain helps accelerate the dropping of the leaves, but it also does a nice job of making the colors look at their best.  I was out at lunchtime and saw these leaves on the ground in the parking lot.  I couldn’t walk by without taking a few shots.

A Sentinel Looks Glossy When it is Hammering Down

Based on a Global Express business jet, the RAF’s Sentinel battlefield surveillance jet has plenty of lumps and bumps to distinguish it but the paint scheme is a different story.  It is painted plain gray and, aside from one example I saw at Red Flag, it doesn’t have any interesting squadron markings.  The Friday of RIAT was a very wet a dreary day but this had the effect of making the Sentinel look rather glossy.  I have never seen them look too interesting before (aside from Red Flag) but this looked okay.  I did shoot it departing too on an overcast day and it didn’t look too bad then so maybe this one was fresh out of the paint shop?

Stormy Narita

The day I was flying out of Narita was not a good day for weather.  Another typhoon was approaching and the rain ahead of the storm had reached us.  I did initially visit the viewing terrace in the terminal but, as the rain started, I decided to head inside and go to the Delta lounge which has a great view of the runway and the ramp.  It wasn’t long before the heavens opened.  Departures reversed direction as the wind shifted.

The arriving jets were now throwing up huge clouds of spray as they selected reverse.  Combined with the heavy rain already, they were pretty obscured.  Editing the photos allows you to do a lot of work with the contrast to bring out more of the detail but the real view was surprisingly limited.  Some of the shots are so hidden by rain that there is little that can be done with them.  Departures also did a good job throwing up lots of water in their wake.

The amount of moisture in the air meant the inlets would often be fogged, even for the jets that were landing.  Trailing vortices were showing on climb out and there was lots of vapor over the wings after takeoff.  The only downside to all of this was that the cloudy background makes it harder to apprecaite the effects that were on show.  It does show, though, that a rainy day is not necessarily one to be ignored from a photography perspective.  You can sometimes get some interesting shots in conditions that seem very unappealing.  (It doesn’t hurt to be shooting this from indoors in a warm and dry room with a ready supply of food and beverages.)