Nothing terribly complex about this post. I was out shooting when an egret flew by right in front of me. I saw it early enough to get ready and grabbed a few shots as it came by. Here they are!
Egret
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Janets
The shuttle of flights run out of McCarran Airport, Las Vegas by private contractors for various departments of the US Government are known as the Janets. Previously operated using Boeing 737-200s, the flights have now been upgraded to 737-600s, probably as a result of the low price of these jets given their lack of popularity with airlines. They operate a pretty busy schedule at certain times of day. The flights file a plan to a location and then cancel it en route as they divert to whatever secret installation that is their true destination. Paul, Chris and I decided to try and find a good location to catch one as it departs since they make a tight turn out and should have good light in the evening. Several arrived while we were there and we were too late for one of the departures but we did catch one of them heading out. The light ended up being very favorable.
Marine Week
En route from a day with a client to the airport I had a spare hour to pay a visit to Boeing Field in Seattle. I figured that my time window would mean there was nothing much to see and I didn’t have anything longer than the 24-105 with me anyway. However, when I got there I could see an interesting collection of USMC machines on the opposite side of the field and the Blue Angels were parked up near the Museum of Flight.
I took a ride around to where the Marine helicopters and V-22 were parked and got chatting to one of the crews. He explained it was the start of Marine Week and offered a chance to walk around the ramp with one of the crew. I was not going to refuse that. Mario kindly showed me around and let me shoot anything external. They had three UH-1Y Venoms and three AH-1Z Cobras along with a single V-22. One fof the Cobras was marked up in special squadron colors. I took a walk around all of them and grabbed a few shots while chatting with Mario about what it was like to support these machines. He had worked on the UH-1N before converting to the Venom so he had some interesting perspectives on the relative reliability of the two.
These machines were going to be progressively moved across to the other side of the field as part of the public displays for Marine Week and the first of the Cobras actually was towed while I was there so my timing was excellent. However I did have to go and then my timing let me down as, while I was driving away, I saw an AV-8B Harrier II coming down the approach. Oh well. I still did better than I had expected.
Moonrise and Sunset
An evening flight out of SeaTac was my way home on a recent trip. We were due to take off after sunset so I hadn’t anticipated having the camera out. As we taxied out, the sunset looked pretty nice and I did get a couple of shots with the phone. However, there was a small moon also heading towards the horizon and I figured I should get out the real camera to make a better shot of it. The moon was just about to go down while the red of the sky still remained courtesy of the now-set sun. It was a bit of a dark shot and through the window of the 737 but it turned out pretty well.
Black Hawks at Mather
The California National Guard has a selection of Black Hawks that are based at Mather. Paul and I drove around to see them parked up. They seem to have varying configurations of the type on the ramp so I assume they have multiple roles that are assigned to the unit and the different configs to suit the roles. The fencing by the ramp was a little tricky for photography purposed and it was easier to get the Huey on display using the phone to get the pictures since it has such a small aperture, it isn’t affected by fencing. It looks like an interesting unit and possibly one that might be worth covering in the future.
Lone Bat
My evening outside in Nevada with Paul and Chris included some down time while we waited to see what would happen next. While we were hanging around, we spotted a bat fluttering around. Needless to say, we had not come prepared for night wildlife photography. However, I had the ISO ramped up and a long lens in my hands so, while the shutter speeds might have been a bit low, I figured I would have a go. The little fella was not terribly close so these are cropped quite heavily and even then he is a bit small but a couple of the shots give you the distinctive outline of a bat, even if he was fluttering so fast that freezing him was not going to be on the cards.
Vijay’s 727
Paul and I had a day of exploring and part of this took us up to Sacramento. We checked out things at Mather to see what was going on. Often the interesting things are not what is flying but what is parked up and this proved to be the case with a Boeing 727. It was parked alone at one end of the field. The area it was parked in was kind of interesting as we stopped the car on what had clearly once been a hangar which was now demolished. We were trying to work out how big the hangar was and what the USAF might have kept in it when Mather was an active base. However, the 727 was our primary focus. It was in Kingfisher colors and carried the registration N727VJ. The boss of Kingfisher is Vijay Mallya so this was obviously once his personal jet. It has winglets fitted but the paint looked a bit faded so it might have been out of use for some time. I suspect he has something a bit newer these days.
Coyote Runway Standoff
Sonoma Valley airport (Schellville) is surrounded by fields and there is wildlife in those fields. I saw a coyote come wandering out of the field and head for the runway. An aircraft had just landed and was taxiing in at the same time. The two of them met on the runway although with more separation than the photograph suggests. I was particularly impressed by the way the coyote seemed totally unfazed by the whole thing. It stared at the plane for a while and showed no interest in getting out of the way. However, it obviously had other things it wanted to do and eventually turned and trotted off. I’ve no idea what the occupants of the plane made of the whole thing!
Red Flag Night Launch
This is an example of what worked and what might have been. After night fell at Red Flag, we headed up to the far end of the base where you are looking down towards the runways and the city of Las Vegas is in the background. Here the jets are departing over your head for the night mission. Most of them are sufficiently high and fast to cancel afterburner before they reach you. However, the B-1s stay in burner for a lot longer. Getting a shot of them in the dark – or more accurately, a shot of their engine exhausts – was the aim o the game.
They really look very cool as they blast off the runway and head towards you. It is pretty dark so you have the lenses wide open and the ISO cranked up very high. Even then, the shutter speed is low so it is a bit hit or miss. I did get a few that came out pretty nicely. Meanwhile, I had been trying to get a series of shots with a second camera to make into a time-lapse. Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought a cable release with me. I was trying to bodge together something to keep the shutter depressed. It would work for a while and then I would have to try again. The result of this is that I was progressively moving the camera. No tripod for this effort. It was resting on the roof of the car! The resulting time lapse is shorter than I would like and obviously not very good but I include it below just so you can see what I was trying for. Another time perhaps. Meanwhile, the following week, Chris went back and had a better planned go. I think his results were far better.
http://youtu.be/UVP8Py1gnZw
New Southwest Jets
Southwest Airlines recently unveiled their new livery for their fleet. The scheme was first put on one of their newest 737-800 jets which also includes the new scimitar winglet configuration from APB. I was curious when I might get to see one for real. I knew of two jets that were out in the wild with the original names Heart One and Heart Two. While I was interested to get a shot of one of them, I figured it wouldn’t be too long before there were tons of them around and it wouldn’t be a big deal so I didn’t go out of my way to see one.
Then, they came to me – well, almost. I was taking a trip last week that took me through Denver in both directions. I arrived at DIA on the outbound portion of my leg and there on the gate across from my next flight was Heart One. Shooting through airport glass isn’t great but it would do. I just had to wait until the servicing vehicles were done and then I could get a shot.
A day later I was coming back through DIA late in the evening. I get to my gate and there is my jet for the next sector. It is Heart Two. It was dark, the jet was mainly obscured by the jet-bridge and I didn’t think it worth much effort so an iPhone shot is all there is to show for it but I ended up with both of them in two days without any planning on my part.
