Air France A350

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Regular readers will know I am quite a fan of the Airbus A350.  Getting a new operator of the jet in Seattle is nice for me and the Air France service has swapped from the 777 to the A350.  It started a while ago but the conditions have been so bad for a while, I didn’t even bother trying to get out and shoot it.  I was coming through the area when it was due in so made a diversion to get a few shots.  Not too nice a sky but still okay and I will hopefully get better conditions at some point before too long.  They arrive at lunchtime so the light is not ideal anyway at that time.

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.

Will I See Another Lufthansa A340?

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The A340s are hard to find these days but Lufthansa is still using some A340-300s.  This is my favorite of the type and, having had them all in Star Alliance colors for a while, it is nice to see them in Lufthansa colors again.  With one coming to Seattle on a weekend as a substitute for the normal A330, I figured I should go out.  The day was a dull one but you just don’t know when you might get another chance so I figured it was worth a trip.

Cannon Beach Black Bunny Population

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We were walking through Cannon Beach back towards our hotel when we saw a couple of black rabbits eating grass by the road.  They didn’t seem easily spooked by our presence and we walked on our way.  A little internet searching when we were back in the hotel explained that there is a population of black rabbits in Cannon Beach that are descended from rabbits that people have released.  They are big rabbits compared to those we see around here.

I decided to grab the camera late one afternoon to see if I could get any photos of them.  I didn’t have long to look but figured it was worth a try.  I had walked about ten meters when I saw my first rabbits.  There were a bunch of them within a block of the hotel.  I saw some on an open area of grass and one that was closer to me did run away towards a bush.  It them leapt up on top of the bush and stayed there chewing on the leaves.  Never seen anything like that before!

Tanker Traffic

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A few tankers were flying test missions at Boeing Field last year when I spent a little time down there.  The sun was out but heat haze was not too bad, so it was a good time to shoot.  The dark paint of the KC-46 Pegasus is not ideal for shooting on a bright day (or a dark one for that matter) but you aren’t passing it up.  What was more fun was having them taxi close by and getting a good look at the jets.  They might still have a bunch of issues to resolve but there are now plenty in service, so they aren’t a rarity.  Hopefully they will get the issues fixed soon enough.

Rushing Water Under Tokul Trestle

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Tokul Creek Gorge is the waterway that runs under the trestle at Tokul.  With the heavy rains that had been falling in advance of my visit, the creek was flowing heavily.  The trestle is a long way above the water so it was not easy to get a good look at it but I did try and get some shots.  I also had a go at getting some video.

Pawnee Tow Plane

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I went up to Arlington one Sunday to see if Eviation was up to anything.  Their hangars were closed up but I did see a Piper Pawnee in an open hangar as I nosed around and I hoped it would be in action.  It is used by the local gliding club and, sure enough, it was going to get some use.  Ahead of any towing activities, the pilot took it up to get some circuits in.  I took a few shots of it as it hit the pattern.  The Pawnee is a really strange looking plane.  Very functional but not too elegant.

Our Pet Gull

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Our hotel room in Victoria was near to the top of the building.  The window was set into the roof line.  We had a flat space outside the window and it was popular with the local bird life.  On several occasions, we had a gull land on the space and stand there for a while.  It actually seemed interested in us rather than deterred by our presence.  No guarantee that it is the same bird but we started to feel like it was visiting us on a regular basis.