Category Archives: Travel

Wind Turbines

When I took the flight to DC for work recently, I got to see the countryside to the west of DC in nice light as we descended later in the day. Shooting the ground form an airliner window is never an ideal thing. The window quality is not going to be great so having a clean shot is a crapshoot. The distance also means that things are never as contrasty as they seem to the naked eye and editing often leaves a result which looks a bit harsh.

Low light can help a bit but being lower down is the best way of getting something reasonable. As we came across the hills running in towards our destination, I saw a lot of wind turbines. These were in line along ridge tops on the hills to maximize their exposure to the prevailing wind. The shadows they cast looked neat too. I tried my best to get some shots with my M6 and some of them came out okay. Shooting through multiple layers of non-optical quality transparencies is not going to be ideal though.

Flying Into Washington National

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For the first time in two years, I made a work trip by plane. I was heading to Virginia for some meetings and was flying into Washington National Airport. I picked a seat on the left side of the plane in the hope that we would make a river approach. That gives a good view of the Mall and the surrounding area as you are on final approach. The weather was lovely with a sunny day and low sun angles as we were arriving later in the day.

At first, we appeared to be heading the right way and then we were too far to the south. I thought we were going to approach from there but then we made a 180 and headed back towards Dulles before starting down and turning on to the river approach after all. I could see the area around the mall coming in to view as I looked forward obliquely, but aircraft windows are not good enough to get a shot like that.

I waited until we were closer in getting shots of Georgetown, the Watergate complex and the Kennedy Center. Then everything was in sight and I was trying to get shots as quickly as I could. Of course, we are not moving slowly at this point so it is not long before any shots have been missed so it was a question of getting as much as you can. I was a little hinder because I was shooting on the back screen of the M6. To see this clearly means taking off my glasses but that isn’t ideal for seeing where to look out of the window. I think I made it work well enough though.

BC Ferries And A Competitor

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On our trip to Victoria, we took the BC Ferries crossing to Vancouver Island. On our return journey, we got to the terminal at Swartz Bay quite early and the sun was shining so I wandered down to the water edge near the ferries to see what was going on. There were more BC Ferries vessels in place along with a competitor ferry, Seaspan, that appears to be focused on freight traffic only.

That ferry left before we loaded but it ended up following us through the passage towards the Strait of Georgia. We made a couple of turns through the passage which meant it appeared and disappeared from view for me but I managed to catch it a couple of times. The passage is also the place where the ferries pass in opposite directions since it is mid journey. A chance to get some more ferry shots. After a pause, it seems I am back on the ferry photography trail!

Hatley Castle

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About half an hour from the center of Victoria BC is a large estate called Hatley Castle. It is a pretty grand place in a lot of land. Much of the land is now turned over to a university with the campus buildings spread out through the estate. The old house is still there and I think it now an administrative building for the university. I read that it is also used for a lot of filming work.

The house is quite impressive and there are also some formal gardens. We wandered around the outside of the house and up the hill a little. We could look over one of the gardens from the terrace area but it appeared the access to the gardens was restricted when we were there. Not sure whether that was a COVID issue or just for work to be done. The lawns slope down towards the sea and there is a nice view from the terrace. It isn’t hard to see why someone chose to build their home there!

Geology Lessons In Stratification

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Short Sand Beach was a pretty place to hang out but it also would be great place for a geology field trip. There were some very clear strata in the rock and they were angled from the level. It appeared that the corner of the beach was in the middle of the slope of the strata with the angles opposed on either side. Low winter sun makes the shading on the strata stand out. Every time I see something like this, it reminds me of a friend from school who used to impersonate a teacher whose Welsh accent really made the words sing! You know who you are…

Patterns In The Sand

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Another repeat of a previous theme. Water flowing over the sand on a beach creates some interesting patterns. The sand on Cannon Beach included a lot of very dark grains. These made the visualization of the movement of the sand easy to do. It also allowed you to see where the water was flowing deeper or shallower which helped when walking through the water running across the beach.

Backlight For A Seastack

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During the evenings at Cannon Beach, we could see lots of lights out on the water. Fishing boats were out at work and their lights were very bright. I am not sure whether they only fish at night or not. During the day, it would be hard to spot them without the lights giving you a clue since they were generally quite far out. However, one boat was closer in than the others. It was right behind on of the sea stacks near Haystack Rock. With a lot of mist in the air, the light from the boat was diffused and provided a backlight to the rock. It wasn’t lone before the boat came out from behind the rock and the effect was lost.

Pacific Fleet Home At Esquimalt

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Across the water from Fort Rodd Hill is the Canadian naval base of Esquimalt. This is the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet for the navy. From where we were, you could see some of the ships in the harbor. There were a few small patrol boats that were in use but the larger ships were tied up.

Short Sand Beach

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We had a sunny, if chilly, day while down in Oregon. We headed south of Cannon Beach to Oswald West State Park. There was an easy trail down to a bay with a sandy beach, predictably named Short Sand Beach! The parking lot was very icy and we wondered whether the trail would be okay but, once you were on the gravel, it was a good surface. Coming out of the trees on to the beach, was a lovely entry. You couldn’t see much until you got there and it was a gorgeous beach.

Plenty of people were down there. It was popular with surfers and a number of them were out in the waves. Headlands were on either side of the bay so the beach was sheltered from north and south. The sun was low in the sky since it was December, so the south end of the beach was pretty cold. Get a bit up the sand and out in the sun and it was a lovely spot to be standing and walking. I imagine it will be very busy during the summer.

Ships Look Better From A Distance Part 2

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A while back, I produced a post about the way in which ships look a lot rougher when up close compared to from a distance. In that case, it was a Washington State Ferries vessel I was considering. In the shipyard in Victoria that was across from where we were staying, there was a catamaran ferry undergoing work. The bow of the ship was very close to the fence and you could see exactly the same thing. The steelwork welds were easy to see at that range and remind you that these ships are heavy engineering.