Category Archives: photo

Farley Mount

I had noticed Farley Mount on a map when randomly looking at what is the area around Winchester but hadn’t planned a specific visit to it. Then, one afternoon, I was riding through the area and saw the sign to the car park. I wasn’t in any great hurry so decided to divert to take a look. There is a track that runs from the car park up to the structure and, since it was pretty quiet, I rode up there on my bike. The surface was rough, but my new bike has bigger tyres, and it seemed to be fine.

Apparently, the monument is to a horse that fell into a pit while out hunting but survived and went on to win a race. Seems like quite a strange thing to create such a large monument to but landowners have built far stranger things over the years (and still do), so why question it too much. The top of the structure is a pyramid shape. With plenty of trees growing up around it, it was a touch tricky getting an angle with the light that I liked but, since this was mid bike ride, I wasn’t working hard on the shot options. Time to get back on the road and continue home.

This is an Old Hornet!

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This US Navy Hornet was rolling out at Nellis AFB during a Red Flag exercise. Looking at it now, it doesn’t have the antenna locations that the C model had so this must be an old A model. The US Navy has now retired all of its original Hornets (although the Marines haven’t relinquished all of theirs yet). However, when it took this, I think that the Navy was mainly using C models so this must have been on its last legs. I do love the look with the speedbrake deployed. There was a Charlie as well so I shall include that for fun.

Reappearance of Something Long Gone

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I saw a post online about something coming to Lee on Solent near the Hovercraft Museum on a Saturday morning. A silhouette was posted which looked like it might have been Solent Express. This is a hovercraft that was built nearly twenty years ago and operated for a while on the Ryde-Southsea route with Hovertravel. It is a BHT130 and was found to be too large for the route and not commercially suited to the operation. In 2011 it was laid up pending an alternative operator being found. Since then, it has been stored at varying locations. I got photos of it when it was originally in operation and had wondered whether I might see it stored but hadn’t really pursued that idea.

Then, recently some images of it showed up on the pad at Ryde as it was being used for some testing and demonstration ahead of a potential sale to a new customer. The idea that it might be the subject of the Saturday event seemed pretty plausible. Sure enough, the announcement was made that it would come to the shore at Lee on Solent, everyone would be able to get a good look at it on the beach, then it would do a short demo on the water before heading off. I figured that this was definitely something I would like to do. Sure, I had a guest for the weekend, but they weren’t going to miss me for a few hours.

The weather was pretty ideal. The sun was out but the air temps weren’t very high. A bit of a breeze but nothing too serious. I wasn’t sure how busy it was going to be so got there in plenty of time to scope it out and find a location. I had plenty to work with. People gradually drifted in but there was never a completion for space. I decided to start out slightly up the bank near the slipway for the arrival. I would change later on.

While the hovercraft wasn’t due in until 10:15, it was visible for quite a while before. I saw it off in the distance heading in and thought it was going to be early, but they were busy doing some manoeuvring out in the Solent and weren’t coming ashore just yet. It wasn’t too long to wait, though. Soon they were heading for the beach. I was split in my mind about what I wanted to get. I love stills but the motion of a hovercraft really shows well in video. I decided video would be the main focus, but I would get as many stills as I could. Fortunately, unlike aircraft, hovercraft are not so fast that you can’t switch back and forth without creating a massive disconnect in the video timeline.

There was a large ridge in the shingle on the beach, but a hovercraft doesn’t have any issue transitioning such a discontinuity. They pulled up on to the beach and then settled down. A shorter time while they shut down and then the beach was back open to allow everyone to get a closer look. I think I am spending enough time on this post already, so I am going to split it into multiple parts. More to come.

Virgin America A321neo

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I recently posted a Virgin America A320 thinking back to when they were an airline before getting swallowed up. Then I got involved in looking for some other images of them and got thinking about their introduction of the A321neo. That got me to this image I took when they were early in their use. As with a lot of images recently, I took a fresh look at how to process it and went through my current approach to get a better result than I had achieved when I first took it. I like the look of the bigger engines on the neo and the A321 is a nicely proportioned plane.

The Sun Was Going Away Rapidly!

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Last summer, the evening show at Old Warden included a flight by the de Havilland Comet. It was both in a formation and making some solo passes. The light had been absolutely excellent, but I was getting concerned that the light might be gone before it flew. The bright red paint has the potential to look excellent in very low angle sun, and I wanted to see that if possible.

It started out in a four-ship formation, and I was hoping that they would then do solo performances. Instead, the Comet ended up doing a series of formation passes with the Lysander. This was an interesting combination, but I was hoping to isolate it a bit. With a bit of luck and planning, I was able to get some individual shots that I liked. Sadly, the light was definitely on the way out by this time and, instead of having some gorgeous warmth on a red airframe, things were a little muted. Even so, not a bad thing to wrap up the air show.

What is Going on With This Kite?

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Windsor Great Park has a lot of red kites. As we walked along one path, it seemed like there were more of them than we could count. The breeze along the ridge made it easy for them as they swooped back and forth looking for food. Mum and Nancy pointed me at a tree along the path. On the branch, one of the kites had landed and was surveying the scene. Something about it seemed odd as I took the shot, but it was only when I got home and looked at the images that I realised that it seems to have a rather wonky beak. I’ve no idea whether this makes life tricky or not but seemed healthy enough.

Look at the Tailplane on the Bone

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I have been looking back through a variety of shots from old visits to Red Flag exercises. Therefore, there is going to be a steady steam of Red Flag photos in the near future. Sorry if that gets a bit repetitive but I assure you that they will be different types on the whole. I start with the B-1B Lancer. This example was taxiing along the runway as it backtracked for departure. The pre-take off routine includes exercising the full range of travel for the tailplane and it really can move a long way. This shot showed it in the full nose up position.

Docklands at Night

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I was attending an event in Docklands for work, and my hosts were gathering for a drink in a bar upstairs at the hotel prior to the dinner kicking off. The view across Docklands at night was really nice but I was there for work so had to try and ignore the view for a bit. However, as we got our stuff together to head down for the main event, I figured I was going to be fine getting a quick picture through the glass. Normal reflection issues but you have to take advantage of the opportunity.

Electrifying Dash 7

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As a youth, the de Havilland Canada Dash 7 was, if not a widespread aircraft, one that was reasonably popular. This was a time when STOL operation was such a big deal with the idea that STOL aircraft would make operations from cities more of a thing. This idea didn’t last long but, at the time, a four engined aircraft with the ability to guarantee climb out in an engine out condition was important which also is why the 146 was a four engined plane.

As the focus shifted to regular airports, twin engined turboprops took over including the same company’s Dash 8. The Dash 7 has hung around in niche uses but they are not easy to find. Air Tindi operates them in Canada and one of their airframes showed up in Seattle a while back. Magnix is a company that is making electric powerplants for aircraft and it is supposedly using a Dash 7 as a testbed. It showed up at Boeing Field for a publicity event. Sadly, I didn’t see it in flight, but it was out on the ramp at the FBO for a while before it was moved into the hangar for the event.

Some Video of the Hovercraft

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I posted some shots of the Hovertravel operations previously and, at the end of that post, I mentioned that I had switched to video. Sometimes, when the lighting isn’t great, the photos can look a bit dull. However, video seems to work better in such conditions because the motion is more dominant than the colours. It also gives a better impression of what is happening. A still shot doesn’t easily convey that something is drifting sideways or turning tightly. Video gives you that.

The wind meant that the motion was pretty dynamic for the approach and departure from the terminal. Also, there were a few other vessels in the vicinity and that needed to be routed around adding a bit more interest. I realised that, while the conditions weren’t great, it was quite clear looking across to Ryde. With the 200-800mm on one body and a steady support on a post, I was able to video the departure from Ryde and the whole transit. The Wightlink catamaran did time it really badly crossing in front of me just as the hovercraft was rotating on the slipway but never mind. Since it was 4k footage, I was able to do a bit of stabilisation and zooming in when processing the footage afterwards. It would be nice to have had more natural sound, but the wind was so strong, the footage only has the sound of buffeting of the microphones. Here is the video I pulled together from all that I shot that day.