Rush Hour at Founders’ Plaza for Qantas

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During my weekend in Texas, I headed to Founders’ Plaza to shoot some arrivals.  I timed my time there to start around the time when the Qantas A380 was due to arrive.  I got there with a few minutes to spare and struggled to find a parking spot.  The place was packed.  I found a space in the overflow area and got the camera out just in time to get a shot of the arriving jet.

As soon as it landed, everyone started to go.  A short while later, there was a backup of traffic as the cars filed out of the parking lot and away.  Within ten minutes, it wasn’t deserted but it was significantly quieter.  The thing is, shooting in the middle of the day was not great from a light perspective and things got progressively better as the afternoon wore on.  However, most people were interested in the A380 and after that they were done.

Car Transporter

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The movement of cars around the world requires a specialist type of ship and, while they may be functionally effective, they are not good looking ships.  They have the appearance of a box on the water.  The large rear loading ramp allows the cars to be loaded and then they get driven around the multitude of decks for storage.  This example was coming up the Solent and heading in to Southampton.  A similar example had a shift of load in this area and was put aground on the Brambles Bank to avoid sinking.  No issues in this case, of course.

What to Do With A Big Tow Bar

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One of the regular Volga-Dnepr AN124 flights to Everett was departing.  The jet was towed out of the Boeing ramp and on to the taxiway for start up and departure.  The Antonov is a big jet and its four wheel nose gear needs a special tow bar.  When you are one of the largest freighters in the world, why not just take it with you.  Once he plane was in place, the crew rolled the tow bar around to the rear cargo ramp.  There, they hooked it to two lifting hoists and the tow bard was hoisted into the aircraft and the rear doors closed.

If someone knows whether they leave it on the hoists in flight or whether it is stowed and secured in some other location when inside, please let me know in the comments.  I do like the self sufficiency of the whole approach.  Given how often they come to Everett, having a tow bar on site would seem plausible but I guess they will need it at any of their other, less frequented, stops so they have to carry it all of the time.  You never know where you are going next.

Aldeburgh Lifeboat

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Our UK trip had a bit of an RNLI feel to it.  We spent some time at the Bembridge lifeboat station as showed up here and here.  When we got to Aldeburgh, it turned out that they also had a lifeboat station.  It was quite a modern facility and very different to the Bembridge station.  Bembridge has a boathouse with a slipway straight in to the water.  Aldeburgh has a trailer mounted boat with a tractor unit to take it down across the shingle to the water’s edge.

The building has space for the boat on one side and the tractor on the other.  There is also an inshore boat.  The facility seems to be pretty modern with some nice space for the crew to keep their equipment and change when they need to go into service.  It was a lot quieter than the Bembridge station with only the occasional visitor but worth a look if you happen to be on this part of the Suffolk coast.

The Conflict of Sharpness and Prop Vortices

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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.