Snow Leopards Make a Highlight

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I have posted about our visit to Marwell after hours. What I didn’t include in that post was the snow leopards. They have a couple of snow leopards at the zoo and, when we came up, one was resting up on some rocks while another was more active. It headed to a hole in the rocks as we got there which had me wondering if it was going inside to avoid the visitors. However, it was passing through to another part of the enclosure where it then came right up to the glass walls and walked back and forth throughout the space.

It was so close and really looked amazing. Supposedly, the way to get their attention is to have toddlers with you. Not sure if they think they are snack worthy or not, but they do like following the kids. We didn’t have many in our group, but this one was still very active. I spent some time trying to work out where it would go so I could position for it and get a shot. Mixed results were had but sometimes the phone was all that was needed! What beautiful creatures they are.

Getting the Moon in Some Shots

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If you are shooting at the time of the month when the moon is close to full, it should mean it will show up in the background at some point when you have afternoon/evening light behind you. Will it make it into your shot? Probably not. The angles the planes take vary and the moon is constantly moving in the background so, while you can anticipate it might work out at some point and hope accordingly, that doesn’t mean it will work. Of course, you can also forget about it for a while and miss a perfectly good moon shot too – who would do that though?

At various times when shooting departures are Seattle Tacoma International Airport, I did get the moon to show up in the shots. Would it be with the most interesting aircraft in the foreground? Probably not. More likely to be an Alaska Airlines jet since they are the most common departure (and also the one more likely to have made me not be getting a shot) but that is still fine. Here are some results from across various shoots.

I Guess the Train Used to Come Here

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Walking along the street on Spice Island in Portsmouth, I noticed that the road had rails in it. Clearly, in the days when the area was getting freight traffic, rail vehicles would have come in to pick up and drop off cargo. While that is no longer the case, the rails were apparently easier to leave behind than remove. Even some points were still on display. It looks like there was a small passing loop on the street. Now it is just cars that come this way.

Return of the Reds

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One of my days at RIAT was spent down towards the threshold of the runway. This meant I was able to get shots of the approaching planes and, hopefully, their touchdown. I say hopefully because a couple of things were working against me. First, there were some distance to go boards that could be in just the wrong spot depending on where the plane touched down. Second, because I was close in and there was a lot of distracting stuff in the background, I was going with a lower shutter speed to give the sense of motion and blur out some of the distractions.

I didn’t have a high success rate with some of these shots which was expected. When going through them, I can be pretty aggressive at culling anything that is not super sharp (at least on a part of the airframe that will be the first point of interest for a viewer) but I do have to bear in mind that I am looking at a high resolution version of the image zoomed in to 100%. When it is a 1600 pixel image on a screen, it will forgive a lot of the detail problems.

Anyway, I got some shots of the jets on approach and then as they touched down. Some of them came out pretty well. I did also use the location for take off shots where, since the planes were just beginning their take off rolls, they weren’t going that fast and getting the blur required was a bit trickier. Some of those will, at some point, show up on here too.

Hunting More Bluebells at Hinton Ampner

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We took a walk through the area around Hinton Ampner a few months ago. This was in the spring and was a time when the bluebells were at their peak. There is a footpath around the grounds that takes you through a couple of areas where the bluebells are at their best and there is little chance that you will be alone on this walk if it is a nice weekend. Even so, it did not feel like we were somewhere busy as we took the paths.

The focus for the flowers was when we entered Joan’s Acre Wood. The conditions here are clearly ideal for bluebells and we soon found ourselves transitioning from normal woodland flooring to a sea of blue. It is hard to get an image that really conveys just how much the flowers take over your senses. The blue is intense and contrasts starkly with the green of everything else. In person this is much starker. Hopefully some of these shots will give some sort of impression of what it was like. We were surrounded by bluebells and quite blown away by it.

An Epic Skirting the Sun

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Epic E1000s have shown up on the blog before and in less than ideal conditions. Sometimes you just have to work with what is available. It doesn’t stop me trying, of course, and when another one was due in to Boeing Field and the conditions looked promising, I headed out. When I was in place and they were getting closer, the sun was playing games with me. I would have some nice light for a while and then the clouds would drift back in again. They wouldn’t stay long and then sun would be back but the question was, what would it be like at the critical moment. At Boeing Field, I have often had good light further up the approach (and too far away), cloud over the ideal location and then sun again as they get to very short final but again too far for a decent shot. Would this be one of those days?

No! On this occasion, the conditions played ball and, as the E1000 came zipping down the approach, the sun was out in all the right places. I grabbed some shots and the blues in the paint really did seem to pop. I was quite satisfied. I did get one more Epic encounter at BFI before we moved away which was from the other end providing a different type of shot in good light but, after that, while there were lots of movements to BFI before we left, I didn’t have the chance to see them.

Not One But Two WWII Launches

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While walking along the shore at Portsmouth, I heard a deep rumble and looked out to see a boat coming in that was an interesting shape. My first assumption was that it was from the Second World War because of the high freeboard and the shape of the bow and, when I saw the shape of a large gun on the front this was confirmed. It was quite a chunky looking thing and, judging by the sound of the engine, I imagine it could probably achieve some speed.

This would have been an unusual thing if it was the only one but a while later, a second boat came by. A similar shape but a different paint job. When I was a kid, I had a toy Air Sea Rescue launch which I believe the RAF operated during the war to rescue downed crews. This was painted just like that, so I guess that is what it is. Again, a meaty sounding engine was within so it can, presumably, make good progress. Subsequently, I saw the docks over by HMS Warrior and there were three of these vessels tied up so I guess you can take rides on them when visiting the museum.

The Spanish Typhoon Gets Some Speed

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The weather for RIAT was variable over the course of the show. We did get some quite humid days. This did make for some spluffy performances from various fast jets. The Spanish Air Force brought a Typhoon for the show. The Luftwaffe had some on static and the Royal Air Force and Italian Air Force were displaying theirs so there was a chance to compare. Of the three displays, the Spanish jet was my favourite by a long way.

It is sometimes hard to justify what it is about a display that makes it better or worse than another. In the case of the Spanish Typhoon, I think the thing it achieved better than the others was to focus on what appeals to the casual viewer. As an aero guy with an interest in stability and control, I am more than willing to marvel at some of the cooler display manoeuvres that are really testing the technology of the planes. However, while some of those might be technically fascinating, they often do not make for a good “show”.

An example of this is high alpha rolling manoeuvres. The way a jet will roll around its velocity vector is great from an aero point of view but is rather dull to watch. Many displays include the same basic elements, and they all get a bit repetitive – particularly if you are spending several days at the show and see multiple performances. The Spanish display seemed to mix things up a bit. There was a lot of speed, a lot of tight turns, no messing around with the slower stuff and the sort of routine that has everyone watching. It didn’t hurt that it pulled a lot of moisture from the air too. Top marks to this pilot from me.

The Sky Was Looking Good But I Need the Sun!

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Late in the day during the air show at Old Warden, I was really hoping for some lovely evening light to illuminate the planes as they display late in the day. The clouds towards the horizon were not assisting my mission. However, they did make for some pretty skies. Now, was this thwarting my hopes for aircraft photos? Yes, it was. Did that mean I wouldn’t take photos of the sky? Of course not!

Arajet But Without the Paint

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Having Boeing on your doorstep means the chance to photograph airlines that you have a good chance of never seeing in their normal operations. Arajet, of the Dominican Republic, is one such airline. As they were taking delivery of some 737 Max jets, I was able to photograph them. On one occasion, I was out at Boeing Field when one of their jets was on test and I was looking forward to getting a shot. Unfortunately, I didn’t know it hadn’t yet been painted. Instead, I got a green plane with only the rudder and winglets giving away who the ultimate operator would be

I like the green of the unpainted jets and primer finishes on other planes also look good to me. I wasn’t so upset as a result, but it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. Still, it looked pretty good on approach. I did get another airframe in the finished livery so I will stick that at the bottom to show what this one would ultimately look like. Not a dramatic livery but something different.