Tag Archives: 12000TD

Some Video of the Hovercraft

I posted some shots of the Hovertravel operations previously and, at the end of that post, I mentioned that I had switched to video. Sometimes, when the lighting isn’t great, the photos can look a bit dull. However, video seems to work better in such conditions because the motion is more dominant than the colours. It also gives a better impression of what is happening. A still shot doesn’t easily convey that something is drifting sideways or turning tightly. Video gives you that.

The wind meant that the motion was pretty dynamic for the approach and departure from the terminal. Also, there were a few other vessels in the vicinity and that needed to be routed around adding a bit more interest. I realised that, while the conditions weren’t great, it was quite clear looking across to Ryde. With the 200-800mm on one body and a steady support on a post, I was able to video the departure from Ryde and the whole transit. The Wightlink catamaran did time it really badly crossing in front of me just as the hovercraft was rotating on the slipway but never mind. Since it was 4k footage, I was able to do a bit of stabilisation and zooming in when processing the footage afterwards. It would be nice to have had more natural sound, but the wind was so strong, the footage only has the sound of buffeting of the microphones. Here is the video I pulled together from all that I shot that day.

A Windy Day with the Hovercraft

On a quiet Saturday morning, I had a desire to get down to the coast. There were a few photo ideas I had been thinking about and, with no competing things going on, I decided to head down. The downside to this was that the weather was not going to be great. Potential for some showers and definitely some strong winds in the forecast. This might thwart some plans, but the lack of sun might also mean some angles were less problematic from a backlighting point of view.

A trip to Portsmouth means it is unlikely I will miss out on some Hovercraft photography. High winds can mean that the hovercraft service gets suspended but, on this occasion, luck was on my side. Moreover, instead of the regular schedule, they seemed to be running a shuttle with the one hovercraft running back and forth almost constantly. This gave me more chance to get some material without waiting for too long.

Southsea seafront has been undergoing a major refurbishment, and it had reopened on this weekend. The beach had been inaccessible for a long time so now it was possible to get back close to the operations at the Hovertravel terminal. I started off getting a bunch of still shots. The tide was not too high when I got there but there was a bank of shingle on the approach to the slipway. This meant the hovercraft was climbing over this bank before getting on to the concrete. It made for an interesting motion although the skirt accommodated the different sections with relative ease.

Having got a few photos, I decided that I would switch to video for the next rotation. That video will get its own post in due course.