Woohoo!

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I shall be a touch self-congratulatory here and celebrate something good that happened to me. Rotor Magazine held their annual photo contest and I entered a picture in the category Helicopters at Work. I am happy to say I won the category. The picture was in the edition of the magazine for Heli-Expo and was on show at the event itself. Many thanks to the guys at Midwest Helicopters. It was one of the shoots with them that the shot came from. I hope they are as glad as I am!

Treasure Island

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There is a place in San Francisco that I have meant to visit many times but have never been to – until now of course. That place is Treasure Island. At the midpoint of the Bay Bridge, it provides a great view of the city. I nearly went there a while back. On a Saturday I was coming to the city to visit a friend and made an early start to be at Treasure Island for sunrise. Unfortunately someone was in a hurry that morning, wrote their car off ahead of me on the interstate and left a bumper in my lane which I hit at some speed. This delayed my arrival by a few hours while Hertz switched out the car for me.

That is a slight aside. I finally got there. This wasn’t a photo trip. Nancy and I were heading in to the city and I suddenly decided to make a quick detour. We weren’t there long. I did take a look at a great Art Deco building that has the look of an old terminal building but which was a Navy building I believe. The city now uses it and it was closed when we were there but it will be worth a second look.

I did take some pictures. I was shooting into the sun so the look I was going for was more silhouette and highlight but we did have a good view of the sailing boats out at Alcatraz. This was part of a great sweeping view. Again, panorama jumped to mind. As with Twin Peaks, I can only show a small portion of it on screen but it was a nice lookout. Another location to be added to my list of places to visit at a more appropriate time of day.

Nice Bird

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No story with this one. I just got a shot of this bird while out and about and I liked it.

Twin Peaks

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My niece spent some time with a friend of hers in San Francisco while she was staying with us. They went to Twin Peaks and Sara told me how cool the view was and that I should definitely go. I am an obedient guy so Nancy and I took a trip up there. Sara wasn’t wrong. Being at one of the highest points in the city does provide a great view and having a clear day made things even better. We weren’t alone enjoying this either. Indeed, it was quite fun seeing some of the footwear on women climbing up to the top of the hills!

You have a view around to the Golden Gate in one direction all the way to Candlestick Park and beyond in the other. The downtown is ahead of you and the line that Market Street cuts through the city is readily apparent. The whole outlook is made for panoramas and I have had to cut them down to make them fit on screen. Early morning and sunset seem like times when a return visit will be in order so don’t be surprised when this location shows up again in future posts.

Gratuitous Self Publicist

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If you are searching through the TV listings for something to watch, take a look at Strip the City on the Science Channel. There are a number of episodes from different cities but take a look at the episode about Chicago. One part of the show features the bridges across the river and they include the Michigan Avenue bridge getting jammed open when the weather was too hot.

If you are a regular reader of this blog or a subscriber to my YouTube channel, the footage might seem familiar. Have a look here and you will see what I mean. This is one of a couple of projects where my video footage has been used. I guess video is a useful addition to the portfolio!

Hunting Egrets

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They were hunting – not me! I was hunting too but it was a plane I was after. However, since there was time before the plane arrived, I was able to watch a pair of egrets busily feeding. They are hungry birds! They didn’t always catch something but their success rate was high and then it was straight back to the next fish.

Watching them stalk through the shallows and then strike at their target was a lot of fun. The speed of the entry is impressive and then to see the fish in their mouth before it is swallowed is a sign of a job well done. With the water so calm, they also made for some very symmetrical shots.

Chasing the MD-11

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I mentioned in a previous post that one of the few remaining passenger operators of MD-11s is KLM and they are currently bringing the jet into SFO on alternating days. I had previously missed it because the day I was there was the day that the A330 was running the service. I wanted to make an effort to see the jet since you never know how long it will be before the opportunity is gone. The draw-down of the fleet is underway but they can change routes with little warning. Therefore, I decided to make the trip.

This time it was a quick visit. We were heading over to the peninsula for other reasons so I persuaded Nancy to allow me to make the diversion. Since tracking flights is now so easy, there was little element of chance in this. We knew when the jet was coming so I didn’t need to make her wait long.

Sure enough, the MD-11 came into view overhead as it made the pass before coming onto the approach. There was some limited visibility out on the bay but the light was fine for the landing shot and I was happy with the result. I got a few other shots while I was waiting and then it was back to our previously arranged schedule. Glad to have shot this aircraft before the opportunity finally disappears. At least FedEx will keep using them for a while to come.

Crescent Moon

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You see the moon more when you commute. Each morning and evening you make the trip to and from work and spend some time outside. Therefore, while your window on the outside world is relatively restricted, you are forced outside at given times and therefore see what is around you. Since the moon rises and falls at slightly different times each day, you will cross paths with it reasonably frequently. When I worked from home, the chance of looking outside at the right time was less so I didn’t pay the moon as much attention.

I get to see it setting while the morning sun is coming up on the hills (I will have to try and shoot that at some point) as well as seeing the different phases. One evening I was on my way home when I saw the thinnest sliver of moon. I could actually see the rest of it although it was very dark. Unfortunately, cameras are not able to handle such a range of light so a shot of the illuminated side means the rest is black. I didn’t bother with trying HDR, not least because the moon moves pretty quickly and long exposures end up very blurred. I made do with the simple shot. It made me happy.

Night Shoot at SFO

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One idea that Paul had was for us to have a go at shooting some light trails at SFO after it got dark. This sounded like a good plan. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any tripods or cable releases with us. No matter. Target was around the corner so we popped in there and bought a couple of $15 specials. Hmm, these were quality items indeed. Given how much a good tripod costs, can you imagine what a $15 tripod is like?

However, we made the best of it. Getting perfect alignment was tricky so some post processing cropping to level stuff up would be required. The camera wobbled a lot on the tripod when touched so I chose to trigger it with the shutter button on a 2 second delay. This allowed some wobbling to stop and, on a long exposure, any lingering wobble would be lost.

We got some stuff but it wasn’t brilliant. However, a short while later, I had to go to SFO to pick up some family members arriving on an evening flight so I decided to go a little earlier and try again, this time with some more appropriate kit in the form of a decent tripod and a cable release. This time, I was able to control things a bit better and get a few shots of interest. There wasn’t a huge amount of traffic so I didn’t get too many trails but I did get a slowly taxiing British Airways 747 which left an interesting smear across the frame.

The alignment with the moving planes is not fantastic from where I was but it was okay. Coyote Point looks like it might be better but I think it closes at sunset so I’m not sure whether that will be possible or not. We shall see.

Bay Birds

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My recent trips to SFO have also allowed for the occasional bird to be photographed. The bay is very popular with bird life so, in the times between interesting aircraft movements, you can get a few extra shots. A lot of the birds are wading types wandering along the shore looking for life in the mud. You also get some egrets and obviously plenty of gulls. Some ducks life around the area and they can be seen diving for stuff on the bottom of the bay. A few pelicans will sometimes show up and dive for fish a little off shore.

This time I even got lucky with an osprey flying overhead. I haven’t seen one here before so was quite surprised. I grabbed a few shots as it passed overhead and then it was gone. Meanwhile, it was fun to watch some of the larger flocks flying together. The way in which they move seemingly as one is really cool and, with the low sun angle, their changes of direction made them appear to flash as their undersides suddenly caught the light.