A previous post covered a recent Westwind arrival at SEA one weekend. As I mentioned in that post, I was shooting from a new location for me. Having not shot there before, I didn’t want to make the Westwind the first thing I photographed. I used some of the preceding airliners to try a couple of spots to see what the angles were like and how much the surrounding trees obscured things. These shots are from the experimenting.
Seafair is mainly about the airshow for me. However, there is a lot more to it than that and the hydroplane races have long been a key part of proceedings. I didn’t worry too much about the races as I was only planning on getting to the lake in time for the flying. I did have an easy journey and got to the lakeshore earlier than expected and there appeared to be some qualifying underway on the water. I was not well positioned to see the course, but I could still see them as they ran around the southern part of the track. Consequently, I got a few shots and here are some pretty serious look hydroplanes.
The Comox AFB air show was the first public display of the special anniversary painted CF-188A Hornet for the Canadian Air Force’s 100th birthday. There had been some photo sorties undertaken in the weeks before the show to support some upcoming appearances, but this was its first public outing. They pulled the jet out to the center of the crowd line for crewing and start up and it returned there after its display was complete.
The paint scheme is really impressive, and I hope the aging jet can stay serviceable throughout the season, so air show attendees get to see it in the air. It does look very good. The RCAF does seem to have a good history of painting demo jets really well and they must be very pleased with this one. The light was a bit variable while it flew but I was happy with some of the shots I got of it. One the ground it also looked great, particularly close up.
In a previous post, I had a heron that was being challenged for its meal by an eagle. That was not the only battle underway for food I saw recently. An osprey came flying towards us while carrying a fish. I was disappointed that I hadn’t seen it make the catch, but the bay is large, and it had been off in the distance when it made the take. It was flying at us with the fish hanging down in its talons. We were not the only ones to spot it, though.
A bald eagle also had noticed what it was carrying and started to make a play for the meal. There ensued a bit of aerial jousting as the eagle swooped at the osprey and the smaller bird turned hard to evade its pursuer. It was able to keep away, but it wasn’t ever getting any separation and, I presume, it decided this was going to keep going until it was worn out unless it dropped the fish. The fish fell to the water, and I didn’t see the eagle find it so maybe it sank (unless the fish was still alive, in which case maybe it swam off).
A Boeing 787-8 showed up at Boeing Field a while back. It is listed as operated by Korean Air, but it is not in their markings, and it is identified as being used as a corporate transport. I don’t know the details about it, but I doubt I will ever be needing to charter it, so it probably isn’t an issue. I went over by the terminal to see it arrive in the morning. I hadn’t anticipated where it would park but it did need to clear customs first and they parked it at one of the larger ramp areas near the customs pad. This meant it taxied back to where I was which was handy. Plenty of people were on hand to handle it when it taxied in. I don’t know how long it stayed for.
Cleveland Browns Stadium was across the way from the hotel I was staying in while in Cleveland. There was a bar up on the roof of the hotel with an outdoor area, so I headed out there one evening to get some images of the stadium while it was illuminated. There was glass all around the area, so I had to make use of the small gaps available and then stitch the images together to make a pano of the whole stadium. It worked out pretty well for some night images with the phone.
While Luke AFB is now predominantly an F-35 base, there are still some F-16s based there. The Singaporean Air Force has its US based jets at Luke, and we were glad that they were active on the day we were there. Their two seat jets have the enlarged spine and so stand out compared to US aircraft. They also have some special paint jets on base, and we did get a look at these. One of the jets did a low approach followed by a go-around which resulted in it passing by low with the gear up, which was a welcome piece of action.
The light was bright and harsh, which isn’t ideal for photographing dark jets, but you go with what you have. Trying to get the most of the markings of the jets meant playing with the images in post quite a bit. If the high clouds make for a bad backdrop, nothing much you can do about that.
Hanging from the ceiling of MOHAI in Seattle is a hydroplane, Slo-Mo-Shun IV. According to the museum information, this boat brought innovative design concepts to hulls that continue to be relevant to current boats. It is quite a striking looking boat and will have been cool to see in action. August in Seattle is Seafair time so the latest generation of boats will be competing, but this one is now preserved in pristine condition.
Alaska Air Cargo has been having a tricky time with its new freighters. These are conversions of some of its older 737-800s and will provide more capacity than the current 737-300BDSF fleet. I got the first of the jets not long after it arrived, but it then was out of service for ages. They have finally got it in regular use now but the delivery of the second aircraft was delayed while they sorted things out. It is now delivered and operating regularly, and I caught it climbing out of SEA one weekend. The second shot is the same airframe back when it was in passenger service a few years ago.
The German day at Exotics@RTC included some rather high-end Mercedes and there was one with a lot of little aero details that caught my eye. When I see how someone with a good eye can find the details on a subject in a way that I can’t I am very jealous. It doesn’t stop me from looking to see which details do gain my interest, though. Carbon fiber can be tricky to shoot on a sunny day since it is dark but can also be reflective. I used a polarizer to try and cut the glare and show off the texture of the layup.
