US Marshal 737 Moving People Somewhere Else

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This 737 was sitting on the ramp at Boeing Field, apparently getting ready to move.  It showed up online as a variety of possible owners including Aramco.  However, I thought I knew who it really belonged to and it did indeed turn out to be used by the Federal Government.  I think it is part of the US Marshal service and I suspect it is being used to transport individuals that are not popular with law enforcement to a new location.  I don’t know whether that is internal transport or deportation but I suspect I don’t want to be on one of those flights.  They certainly don’t divert any funding to painting the jets!

How Desperate Do You Get in Quarantine? A Garbage Truck?

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Being quarantined at home and working from home means you have limited things to shoot.  It also means you get to see things that happen during the day which you normally miss by breaking at work.  I put the trash out on Monday evenings but would not normally see it being collected during the day on Tuesday.  Now I see that.  Also, I get to enjoy the engineering of modern trash collection and the skill of the operator sweeping in to pick up each can in turn.  These little thins amuse the engineer in me although I guess I am probably a long way from the rest of the populous in this.  For a small percentage of you, here is some video I put together of our trash guy.  Let’s hope we get to go out again soon and I will look for more exciting subjects!

 

Some Old SFO Jumbos

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The 747 was still the mainstay of many long haul operations when I started shooting digital and SFO was a place that was served by a bunch of airlines using the type.  I used to go to SFO quite a bit when I lived in Chicago because work brought me to the Bay Area frequently.  That meant I got some opportunities to shoot the movements there.  Of course, in due course we moved to the Bay Area so I got more chances but, by then, the 747s were swiftly disappearing and the 777 was becoming dominant.

Here is a selection of shots of different marques of 747 and different operators all operating in to SFO.  Hope they amuse a few of you.

Printing Things While Stuck At Home

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I got lucky on the timing for one thing during this whole adventure.  I was sitting at home playing around with some images and decided I wanted to create a couple of prints.  One was a print of the hummingbirds from the back yard and the other was a poster I decided to make of a bunch of lifeboat shots from our visit to the UK last year.  My usual print outlet is Mpix so I created the files, uploaded them and sent the order.  A few days later a large package arrived on the porch.  Shortly before it arrived, I got a message from Mpix saying that they were suspending work as a result of the virus.  They are based in Kansas so I guess it took a while to get to them.  I am really happy with the prints and it reminded me of how much a physical print is better than looking at something on a screen.  I will have to print more when they are back up and running.

Drone F-4s at Mojave

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Before the F-16s became the drone target conversion of choice for the USAF, the F-4 was the jet. The contract for conversion was run by Tracor which ultimately ended up being part of BAE Systems at the time I saw these jets.  They did the conversion program at Mojave Airport in California.  We were a bit of a distance from the ramp where they were parked but it was early in the day and the heat haze was not yet a problem so a long shot was feasible.  Looking at these, I think they were both RF-4C jets that had either been converted or were about to be.

Airport Birds

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The viewing deck at Haneda is not a place I had gone to photograph wildlife.  However, despite the usual concerns about birds and planes not mixing well, there were a lot of small birds that seemed to be hanging out on the roof of the terminal buildings.  I imagine the number of visitors to the viewing decks means there will be crumbs of some sort for them to feed on.  They were pretty close to the people but just the other side of the fencing.  I guess they knew they were safe.

Misty 330s

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While at Boeing Field, you get a steady stream of traffic for SeaTac overhead.  With Delta’s substantial presence at Seattle, the right time of day can mean a few widebodies.  The A330 is a big part of their operations and we currently get the old and the new with the -300s and the -900 neos.  The conditions looked pretty clear above me but there must have been a lot of moisture around because the jets seemed to be pulling a bit of vapor with them and going in and out of clouds that they seemed to hard to see without them there.

I played around with the processing a bit to see what I could do to show up the moisture more effectively.  It gets a little more interest out of a shot that would otherwise not be worthy of any note.

Geese Washing Themselves in the Sammamish

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I’ve been catching up on some video editing while stuck indoors.  During the Christmas break, mum and I took a walk along the Sammamish River.  There were lots of geese floating downstream and they were busy washing themselves.  This involved a lot of flapping and inverting themselves in the river.  Of course, when I got close, they stopped doing it while their buddies further downstream seemed to be busy washing.  I did finally get some footage of it so here is a short video of geese!  Bet that’s just what you wanted to see today!

 

Waiting Around Gets You a Herc!

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I was at BFI one day looking to get some other interesting visitors and I had got what I came for.  I was just contemplating whether to go home or do something else before returning when I saw something on the approach at the other end of the field.  It looked big, smoky and a prop so I thought I should wait a little longer.  A look through the long lens told me it was a C-130!  It was a Linden Air Cargo airframe, sadly unpainted in their colors which are very nice. I was most glad that I hadn’t been in a hurry to get on my way!

Last Exotics of the Year

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It is around this time of year that the Exotics@RTC should be starting up again.  Of course, with everything on lock-down, that is not happening at this point.  Consequently, I thought I might go back to the last meeting of 2019 which I paid a visit to.  It wasn’t a big gathering but, with it being the last one to take place (I think weather scrubbed some later meets), it was the final run out to Redmond for some of the cars and their owners.  Here is a selection of shots of the fine machines that showed up.