Shooting at SEA After Sunset

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One of the things that photographers that have only used digital cameras can’t appreciate is ability to shoot in low light conditions.  When I was shooting film, you were already struggling with image quality with ISO 400 film.  Early digital cameras got very noisy as the ISO got ramped up but, these days, the capabilities of shooting in very low light are truly amazing for those of us that are old enough to remember what it was like.  ISO1000 black and white film was adventurous!

Now I feel quite comfortable trying all sorts of silly things.  I had gone down to SEA one evening to try and get a departure that was possibly going out just before sunset.  Sadly, it didn’t play ball and the sun was gone by the time it headed out.  However, I was there and the camera can do silly ISO numbers so why not.  It still needs to drop the shutter speed down quite low but, with a fast burst rate, the chances of getting a reasonable shot are not bad.

I figured I would play around with shooting departure shots as the last of the light was fading away.  It was more about trying something different rather than aiming for the perfect shot.  I did have some interesting planes to play with but also plenty of Alaska 737s.  The  light was pretty dim  and ISO51200 is quite something to work with but the image quality is really very impressive considering what conditions you are shooting in.

Red Kites Hunting for Food

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The reintroduction of red kites in the south of England has been very effective and they are now widespread across the south.  While were were visiting recently, I was initially excited to see one but rapidly got used to them being around.  We didn’t have to go far before we saw one.  The forked tail makes them easy to identify compared to the longer established buzzards.  Getting a good shot of one was a different story.

While we were walking through Longparish, we saw one hunting near the river.  The conditions were rather overcast so, while I got a few shots, they weren’t as clear as I would have liked.  However, the next time we were walking that way, the sun was out, as was the red kite!  It was just a case of getting lucky and having it come around to the side where I could get some good light on it and then I was able to catch some shots.  There was actually a buzzard circling nearby but it didn’t come very close.  I guess it was camera shy.

Century Circle

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I got to the gate for Antelope Valley Air Show 2022 early in the morning.  We were lined up outside the security gate for Edwards AFB waiting for the time things opened up.  I was on the phone so was happy to sit in the car for a while chatting.  When I finished my call, I could see that I was a short distance away from Century Circle – a display of various aircraft associated with Edwards.  Nothing was moving so I figured I would walk up and have a look around.  I had got most of the way there when it looked like cars were starting to move. I rapidly retraced my steps to the car and we drove on to the base.

At the end of the show, I was coming back out the same gate so decided to see if it was possible to pull in and see the aircraft on display.  Indeed, there were no barriers and Iw as able to park up and have a walk around the various exhibits.  The name, Century Circle, is a reference to how many of the jets are Century Series fighters.  There is going to be a museum for the Air Force flight test center and the base for the building was not far from the aircraft.  I will be interesting to see what the museum is like when it is finished and how many of the other interesting aircraft that are currently on base will be included.

Of the jets on display, my favorites are the F-106, the F-105 and the F-104.  Nicely sequential now I think about it.  There is an F-102 which I have never been so keen on and this one is a two seater which takes a place that didn’t look that great and makes it worse.  Still, vintage jets on display is a good thing and I shouldn’t be critical of what is on offer.

The one plane that is a bit of an oddball is the McDonnell Douglas YC-15.  This was a program the USAF ran for a new jet transport to replace the C-130.  Boeing and McDonnell Douglas both built demonstrators for the program but neither was taken to production.  However, there are a lot of features from the YC-15 that will be familiar to observers of the C-17.  Having a transport jet alongside the sleek fighters is a little unusual but it is a rare beast and worthy of preservation.  Thankfully, the dry desert atmosphere is a place that will allow the airframe to survive for many years.

Birmingham Sunday Stroll

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Our UK trip was focused on the wedding of Chris and Sam.  Chris had his stag do (bachelor party for the US readers) the weekend before the wedding and we timed our arrival so I could attend.  I won’t cover any of the events that were organized by the best man but it was a bloody good time and being twice the age of the rest of the attendees might have been a touch tough, but I held my own.  The whole thing was based up in Birmingham and that is the point of this post.  It is a long time since I was last in Birmingham and even that was a brief visit.  It is a city I didn’t know at all.

During the festivities, we were out and about in the center of Birmingham, and I was quite impressed by the buildings in the city both old and new.  The following morning, after the crew had finished breakfast and before we needed to head home, I decided I was going to take a quick trip back around the surrounding area.  Things were a lot quieter on Sunday morning than they had been on Saturday night when the place was absolutely buzzing.

There are lots of new buildings that have been developed while lots of the older buildings have been well maintained.  There is also a lot of development along the canal with shops, bars and restaurants providing a ton of options for visitors and residents.  There are several squares throughout the center with a variety of monuments and sculptures.  One is in the process of being rebuilt and, while it was behind screens, it was possible to get the phone over the fencing to get some shots.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by the center of Birmingham.  When I was last there twenty odd years ago, I don’t remember it making any impression on me.  Either I didn’t see the right parts or it has been improved a lot.  Either way, it is really a pleasant city center and well worth a visit.

United 787-10 Arrival at Paine Field

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The 787-10 has a center section that is too long to fit in the Dreamlifter.  This means that they can only be assembled at the North Charleston plant.  The conspiracy theorists amongst us may think this was a deliberate part of the plan to focus production there and close the Everett line but, whether that is true or not, Everett is now only addressing issues with airframes already built and is not building any new 787s.  However, some continue to come here from the east coast for rectification work prior to delivery.  That means we get some 787-10s showing up and one of them was for United.  I hadn’t planned on it but was there for something else and got this as a bonus.

Fishing Boat Versus Gulls Versus Bald Eagle

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I started my morning of a trip to Whidbey Island at Moran’s Beach.  This is a good location for morning arrivals at the airfield but it also provides a nice view out into the water.  You can get some wildlife passing through if you are lucky and I was.  A bald eagle was hunting in the area.  It was hanging out in the trees just north of me and then heading out to the water.  There was a fishing boat working not far offshore.  It was attracting a ton of attention from the local gull population and they were swarming around the boat.  The eagle was also interested, though.  It would swoop through periodically, looking for a cheap snack.  The gulls were not too impressed by the interloper!

C-40 Follows Out The C-32

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A while back I posted about the visit of a C-32 to Boeing Field in support of the visit of the Vice President.  It wasn’t the only aircraft to be there, though.  The USAF also had a C-40 that was providing support.  The motorcade delivered everyone to the aircraft but the C-32 departed swiftly while the C-40 was in less of a hurry.  I imagine that they were sweeping up the stragglers before heading off.  Needless to say, I waited around for them to go.  They didn’t get quite the same priority as the C-32 but taxied back and took off – presumably heading back to the east coast.

Otter Carnage

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Friday evening after work, the sun was out and, with the time having changed, it wasn’t getting dark too early.  I decided to have a stroll down at Juanita Bay Park before going home.  Of course, the camera came with me.  Things were pretty quiet, and I was taking a few photos but decided it was time to head home.  As I turned to walk back, I saw a friend of mine, Lee, walking towards me.  I was about to greet him when he started running towards me and called out “otters”!

I turned around a pair of otters were swimming across the bay towards us.  They came towards the little island area and climbed out on to the shore.  It is a bit difficult to get a shot there, but I managed a few.  They moved along the shore and then back into the water.  They headed out to the middle of the bay.  Clearly, they were planning on hunting so we gave them a little time.  A short while later, one appeared on the surface with what looked like a fish.

Often, when the otters have a catch, they go to a buoy to eat it but, this time, they seemed to be heading back our way.  I was hoping that they would come up on the beach to eat.  Amazingly, that’s exactly what they did.  However, it wasn’t a fish that they had caught.  It was a duck of some sort.  One of them had caught it and it didn’t seem interested in sharing too much.  It proceeded to chomp down on its meal.

The sound of a otter’s teeth crunching the skull of a duck was hard to miss as it made it’s way through its meal.  The second otter was keen to share but the first one would the carcass up and turn around to try and avoid the interloper.  This was repeated several times.  In due course, it decided it was done and just left the remains.  I suspect some bits just aren’t that tasty.  While I did get stills, the eating process was far more interesting as video, so I shot more of that.  The feathers everywhere looked quite funny as they got stuck on the otter’s head while it ripped into the body.

How Many 747 Operators Have I Shot?

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The delivery of the last production 747 got me digging out a lot of older shots of operators long gone or unusual ones that I had come across.  This then triggered me looking through my collection of 747 shots to see just how many operators I had got images of.  There are others I have seen but didn’t photograph in my younger days like Continental but, once I added them all up, I was surprised to see that, including some government jets and some testbeds and counting freight operations separately from passenger for some airlines, I have over 70 operators that I have shot over the years.  I was rather surprised about that.

I am not going to include a shot of all of them.  That would make for a very long post and I doubt too many people would get to the bottom.  Instead, I shall just provide a selection of some of the more unusual ones.  The full list is as follows:

British Airways, Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, JAL, Asiana Cargo, Air Atlanta, Lufthansa, United, Pan Am, JAL Cargo, South African Airways, Qantas, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines Cargo, Polar Air Cargo, Air New Zealand, KLM, EVA Air, Kalitta Air, Tradewinds, NCA, PIA, Thai, Saudia, Air France, Northwest, Air China, Air China Cargo, UPS, China Airlines Cargo, Southern Air, Korean Air Cargo, Cargo 360, Northwest Cargo, Focus Air, Malaysia, Air Pacific Fiji, Air India, China Cargo, NASA, Delta, Southern Air, Great Wall Airlines, Yangtze River Express, Atlas Air, Evergreen, Asiana, Cargolux, British Airways World Cargo, China Southern Cargo, Rolls Royce, Centurion Cargo, State of Kuwait, Japan, TWA, Global Supertanker, Sands, Qatar Amiri Flight, Boeing, Qatar Cargo, UAE, Wamos, Virgin Orbit, SF Airlines, Cargo Logic Air, Cathay Pacific Cargo, Pratt and Whitney, Western Global

Bristol Docks

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When I am chatting with my sister, she often mentions her trips to Bristol for work.  While talking with her one weekend, I pulled up the map of Bristol to see where the office is that she goes to.  As I looked around the area, I realized that the docks area of Bristol looked really interesting and is somewhere that I haven’t explored before.  When it seemed that we would have one free day while in the UK and the Bristol was only about 90 minutes away, we decided to pay it a visit.

The weather was not as cooperative as we might have hoped but it was just about okay and we headed off.  We parked up right in the middle of the docks area so were able to start exploring straight away.  There was a ton to see and there will be more blog posts that cover some of the specific aspects of the area.  This is more of an introduction post.  The docks are connected to the River Avon but, as I discovered while we walked around, the river is very tidal and the docks are only functional because the access is via locks.  This allows the maintenance of a decent water level in the port.

We wandered around the docks for quite a while.  There are commercial vessels, some small remaining boatyards, lots of pleasure craft and all of the ancillary businesses that support them.  The docks boomed in the 1800s after the construction of the current configuration at the beginning of that century.  The docks are along the original Avon course but, once the locks were created to maintain the water level, a new cut was made for the river south of the docks to connect up with the river course upstream.  Consequently the river flows normally without the docks being affected.

The housing up on the hills overlooking the docks might be similarly old but they seem to be painted up in a variety of colors to provide quite a cheerful appearance on what would otherwise be rather dull architecture.  One thing about Bristol that you can’t ignore is the terrain.  There is low lying ground near the river and docks but the hills rising up are steep and you certainly notice it when you start walking around.  This means that rows of houses are visible from the docks as they are layered up the side of the hills.