Category Archives: photo

The Conflict of Sharpness and Prop Vortices

Damp days can make for great prop vortices on takeoff. However, I have been feeling less than satisfied with my results recently. As I was going through some shots, I made a discovery that should probably have been something I worked out before. I like to have a good amount of prop blur so drop the shutter speed down when I can. I go with a high frame rate with the aim of getting a good sharp shot amongst the more blurry examples.

As I go through the shots, the sharp ones have okay prop vortices but not great. Then I will come across some really nice vortices but the shot is otherwise not sharp. It seems that, in panning with the plane to get a sharp shot, the trailing vortex gets blurred out. If I am not panning well, the vortex can be the thing I have tracked better and it shows up well. I have seen shots from others with the props almost frozen with a high shutter speed and the vortices easily seen.

Consequently, I am going to have to make a decision in future. How much prop blur do I want versus the ability to see the vortices well. A little trial and error will be involved. At least it is fall/winter so the Pacific Northwest will probably provide me plenty of damp days on which to experiment!

Tokyo Station – Home of Different Shinkansen Fleets

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I have posted a variety of pictures of the Tokaido Shinkansen system from my visits to Japan. Tokyo Station is the end of the line for JR Central. However, it isn’t the only Shinkansen service from this station. JR East Shinkansen services also serve the station. They head north out of the station while JRC heads south. The lines are not connected so this is a terminus for both companies. However, when you look down on the station, you can see both operators. I took these pictures from our office window looking down on the station and you can see a variety of Shinkansen equipment on the JR East Platforms as well as a JRC train passing underneath.

Never Heard of 21Air Before

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One Saturday morning, I was scanning what was moving around the Seattle area and saw a Boeing 767-200 coming to SeaTac, operated by 21Air. I had never heard of this operator before and the picture online made the jet look like it was painted more interestingly than the average freighter. I figured I would pop down to get some shots, even though the conditions were not great. The light actually perked up a bit when the jet arrived so the results were better than I hoped. I asked a buddy about the operator and he, having never seen them before, was actually looking at two of their jets in LA. I wonder why they are suddenly on the west coast.

Seattle Public Library

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The visit of friends seems to provide us with ever more new things to learn about Seattle. Mark and Rosie were in town and Rosie told us about Seattle Public Library being worth a visit. I had never been to the library and was totally unaware of it. I must have been within a couple of blocks of it many times but never saw it. As we got close to it when walking up the street, we were all taken by the external architecture.

The outside was great but the inside was just as worthwhile. Each floor seemed to have a different style to it. There was a lot of open space within the building and you could go to the top floor which gave you a high view outside the building as well as a view straight down throughout the whole of the building to the first level. As someone with little love for heights, I took a look down but didn’t spend too much time up there. It was a long way down!

Founders’ Plaza at DFW

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I had heard about Founder’s Plaza at DFW before but I had never been there. I took a couple of trips there during my free weekend in Texas. It is a nice place to watch the planes and had a steady stream of visitors while I was there. Not only are there seats with sunshades, but there is plenty of grass on which to hang out and kids can run around without parents being too worried. You are close to the approach path for the western runways at DFW and there is a lot of traffic to watch.

You also see the planes taxiing out for departure on this side but the shots of those planes are sketchy as heat haze is a bit tricky for most of the day. It does appear that you are able to walk around towards the centerline of the outer runway but I didn’t try heading over there on this occasion. As the evening light settled in, the conditions got better and better. I imagine it gets a bit repetitive if you are a regular but, as a visitor, it was great to try somewhere new. I did end up with a lot of American Airlines jets, of course.

Fort Worth Stock Yards

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A work trip to Texas included a weekend where I was free to do some exploring. I decided that the Stock Yards in Fort Worth would be worth a look. I knew a little about it but not much. There were the buildings left from the time when the yards were actively trading cattle. These are now repurposed for the tourist business. They also have some of the surrounding buildings like the hotels and bars that probably are still serving much the same purpose as they always have.

A lot of exhibits were set up with people in costume cooking or working with traditional crafts. These were in a variety of tents. They didn’t seem to be getting a lot of visitors and I felt a little conspicuous photographing them as a result but I guess that is all part of the attraction. There was more to come but that will be another post.

Tornados and a Jag – My Old Handling Buddies

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In my days in the aerodynamics department at Warton, I spent time working on the current aircraft handling section. This included a number of types but the main focus was on jaguar and Tornado work. When we were walking around the hangars at Duxford, there were examples of both jets on display. The Tornado was a big part of what I worked on and I had always loved the jet as it was coming in to service at the time I was getting interested in aircraft. The GR4 version is on display.

The Jaguar had been around a long time when I was getting into planes and the Tornado ended up replacing the Jaguars in the RAF Germany strike role. The jet continued for a lot longer though and got some decent upgrades late in life. I had a great time climbing over a jet in the hangar at Warton as we were looking at clearing a new store on the overwing pylon. A lot of fun!

Gastown Steam Clock

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One of the tourist attractions in Gastown in Vancouver is the Steam Clock. Sitting on a street corner, this looks like a giant grandfather clock with steam whistles on the top of it. It was surrounded by tourists and the number of selfies being taken was substantial. We were there close to the top of the hour so we waited around to see what happened. Below is some video of the lock striking the hour if striking is the right word.

Sunrise on Stored KC-46s

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Boeing is now delivering KC-46s to the Air Force at a rate that is a bit of an improvement. There are still plenty of issues with the project (with some only recently discovered) but at least jets are now making their way to the customer, even if they are not flying them too much! However, there are still a lot of the jets parked at Paine Field. The early morning sun provides some nice light on the line of aircraft. It is a rather cluttered view with plenty of airfield material in the shot but the light makes it a bit more appealing.

Ribblehead Viaduct

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The Victorians built railways across the UK in a serious way. Geography was not a barrier and tunnels would get you through hills and viaducts would address valleys. They also liked them to look pretty cool. There are numerous viaducts across the UK – some of which are well known and others of which are rather anonymous. One of the more famous viaducts is the Ribblehead. It is part of the Settle to Carlisle line which was once lined up for closure but now seems to be secure.

The main shot here was taken from my friend, Mark’s, Ercoupe as we had a flight from Blackpool and up over Yorkshire and Cumbria. We were flying after work so the evening light was setting in and the shadows of the viaduct were very nice. Since this was the days of film, there aren’t lots of shots to choose from. However, this one worked out well enough. Nancy and I visited the area from the ground when we lived up that way and here are a couple of additional shots of the viaduct from the ground.