Author Archives: Rob

Clipper Race Sailing Boats

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The Clipper Round the World race has been underway for many years.  It is a race of a single class of sailing boats/yachts (depending on where you live) with two qualified crew and the remainder are individuals that can pay to take part on one or more of the legs around the world.  It starts and ends in Portsmouth and stops off at various cities around the world.  It has been to Seattle since we have lived here but I never managed to get down there to see the boats.

I had a work event down at the harbor one evening when the boats had arrived.  After the event, I took a few minutes to walk along the waterfront to see them tied up.  I managed to get a few shots with my phone in the low light – how impressive phones can be in dark conditions – but couldn’t get any closer.  Then I made an error.  They were advertising that you could visit the boats to look around, so I headed down at the weekend with Nancy.  There was no one to be found.  Turns out, they weren’t doing tours that weekend.  It had been a wasted trip (combined with it being a wet and windy day anyway).  However, there is more to come on this topic.

Luke F-35s

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I have never photographed at Luke AFB before.  Mark and I spent a few hours there as part of our trip.  The base is home to the F-35A training unit and a variety of foreign F-35A training too.  Plenty of USAF F-35s were in the pattern that day.  I got loads of shots of the based jets but, with the current style of low observability finishes, the jets did look very alike.  Yes, there were crew names and unit badges to be seen but, sadly, one Luke F-35 looks a lot like another Luke F-35.

Family of Blackbirds Out for a Meal

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A family of blackbirds was a regular sight in the front garden of the place we rented in Stockbridge.  They were happily finding whatever they could eat in the grass.  There appeared to be two parents with some youngsters in tow.  The chicks were now pretty fully grown and seemed to have their feathers, but they were less interested in finding food than they were in having their parents do the work.  I will let those of you with children make your own comments.  The chicks actually looked a little larger than their parents, so they are probably eating well.

A Development Dash 8

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I may have a soft spot for testbeds, but development airframes are also something that will interest me.  While driving around Tucson International Airport, we were looking at the various airframes at one of the schools based on the field.  There was a Dash 8 sitting in the yard.  It had Series 200 markings on it and seemed to be a development airframe.  With Mark being a Canadian, he was definitely pleased to catch this but I was too.  It looks in surprisingly good shape.

What is Wrong with My Phone’s Longest Lens?

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The quality of modern phone cameras is really impressive.  I will often have the main camera with a longer lens and use the phone for the wider shots.  Other times, it will be the only camera I have.  Quite often I will shoot multiple images with the longest of the three lenses and then stitch them together when I get home.  This can be quite effective.  However, in playing with some images recently, I was getting very odd results from the shots.  I shoot RAW on the phone, but I understand it isn’t a true RAW file but one that Apple’s software pre-processes to some extent.  This seems to be resulting in some strange image qualities.

The shots will have the resolution that they are supposed to, and the file size is certainly large enough to suggest that is what is happening.  However, the shots look ridiculously smudgy.  Here are a couple of examples that show the problem.  The Allegiant jet I shot at Mesa Gateway is a particularly bad example.  It isn’t even the one shot. All three of them are rough.  I have had some shots with really great quality from this lens on the phone so I have no idea why this should be bad.  The odd thing is that, if I look into the file properties and compare with other shots with this lens, it shows a different focal length.  If anyone has any experience or background on this, please let me know.

The A-26 Makes a Long Trip in the Rain

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During the holidays and just before New Year, my friend Paul was in town for a day, so we did some exploring.  The weather started out being less than ideal.  We had swung by Renton to see if there was anything of interest and the A-26, Sexy Sue, was out on the ramp looking ready to head off.  We debated which direction they would depart and which would be most suitable for shots.  In the end, we stayed where we were figuring it would be too high at the lake end of the field.  (That proved not to be the case with a very low departure!)

Our chosen location did give us a good view of start up and taxi out of the plane.  They were flight planned to Oakland CA which struck me as quite a long trip to take in an A-26.  Sure, in combat people would have done that and when they were corporate transports it would have been normal but there are more comfortable ways to travel these days.  Anyway, before long, they were lined up and powered off.  There was plenty of vortex action from the props in such a damp atmosphere but it probably looked better from other angles.  With them gone, we jumped back in the car and decided to continue our adventures elsewhere.

Sunset Comes Too Soon for BA

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My Arizona trip with mark started out in Phoenix.  I got there earlier than he did and shot a little at Sky Harbor but, once we had met up, we decided to try what the evening shooting might offer there.  I was particularly interested in getting the British Airways A350 when it arrived.  Phoenix is a busy airport but does not have a huge amount of variety so this would be one of the more “exotic” arrivals.  It was due to make it in just before sunset, but the flight was running a touch late, and I wasn’t sure if it would make it.

Keeping an eye on the track of the flight was one thing, but we were also keeping an eye on the horizon.  There was low cloud in the distance which suggested that the sun might disappear from view before it actually set.  Sadly, this proved to be the case.  Things got gloomy rather quickly once the sun went behind the cloud bank and then, as it got low in the sky (out of sight) the light was fading fast.  That’s when the jet arrived.  Still, it wasn’t a total loss.  Sometimes low light can be interesting.  It wasn’t as good as the last light of the day glowing on the nose, but it was alright.  We watched the jet taxi in and then decided to see what low light shots we could make work.

A Shield Bug – Looks Like a Stinkbug

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I was out in the garden of our place in Stockbridge and was surprised by how many ladybirds and flies I saw on the leaves.  Then I saw something a bit different.  I reminded me of the stink bugs we see in Washington.  According to Ian, who was in the yard shortly afterwards, it is a shield bug.  In all my years in the UK, I had never heard of or seen one of these.  Now I have.

Two C-37s With One Being a Bit Shy

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The US military operates a bunch of Gulfstream jets for transportation of key individuals.  One afternoon, I was at BFI and there was a C-37 from the USAF sitting on the ramp.  It had the powder blue livery common across the USAF VIP fleet.  I was hoping to see it takeoff, but it was not moving while I was there.  A little while later, it was joined by a second example.  This one was a lot less conspicuous.  It had no livery and no obvious markings at all.  The USAF has been toning down its planes recently and this was definitely in that style.  The lack of a registration might have told you that it wasn’t a civilian Gulfstream but the bigger giveaway would be the array of antennae that were on the fuselage.  This clearly could communicate with more than the average bizjet.