Tag Archives: accident

Experimental Grand Caravan That Was Lost

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I was down at Renton and drove around the back of the ramp.  There was a Cessna Grand Caravan parked up and I was tempted to get a shot.  They have made that area a lot harder to see recently and I didn’t bother.  However, I was up on the other side of the field at the overlook when it taxied out for departure.  I heard the call sign was experimental which caught my interest and I grabbed some shots as it took off.

A few days later I heard of a plane crash up near Snohomish.  I had seen this plane flying patterns up there when I was looking earlier in the day and, when I saw pictures on the news sites of the crash, I could see the registration was the same plane.  I understand they were trialing something new – perhaps a baggage pod – but I have no idea what happened.  It looked as if the wing had separated in flight since it was a long way away.  The test pilot was one of the Kenmore Air staff.  He died along with one other person on board.  A very sad story.

A Sequence of Pain and Damage

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Motorsports are dramatic enough when things are going normally but there is also the scope for more drama if things end up going awry.  I saw a few of the riders end up on their sides as they came in to a sharp left hander with too much speed but these were normally relatively benign affairs with some bruises and scratched up panels on the bikes.  However, early in the day, I had one more dramatic event.

I was up near Turn 5 when I heard something going wrong.  I had the camera up already and the bike and rider came into the viewfinder without me really controlling things.  I did then manage to track them as they headed off into the grass separately and at some speed.  The bike cartwheeled around while the rider slid and rolled.  He did not spring back to his feet and it took a while for the marshals to get to him and to help him up.

He walked gingerly to the marshal station to await someone coming to pick him up later.  While he seemed basically intact, he certainly didn’t seem well after the incident.  I didn’t hear about his condition so I hope he was okay after a bit of time to recover.

The Lucky Shot I Got By Accident

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When totality occurred during the eclipse, I was literally and figuratively in the dark.  I had practiced shots of the sun prior to the day to get the exposure right and, while the eclipse covered up the sun, the remaining section was unaffected so the exposures were right.  Besides, I bracketed each shot because, we, why not?  At totality, I removed the solar filter and switched to program mode because I didn’t want to have to work anything other than the shutter.  I still bracketed the shots.

I got shots that I really liked but, I didn’t get anything that showed any detail around the edge of the eclipse.  Everything was bright.  Even with wide bracketing, the shots were quite blown out.  I was a little disappointed by this but it was a minor thing.  Seeing the eclipse had proved to be far more satisfying than any shot I got.  However, it turns out an error of mine had a lucky side effect.

I had been shooting a time lapse sequence on the other camera.  When I removed the solar filter (eventually) during totality, I didn’t change the exposure.  Consequently, the shots were a lot more underexposed than the shots on the other camera.  While the subject was a lot smaller in the frame because of the framing for the time lapse progression, I still had some detail of the eclipse and I realized some solar flares were visible on the side of the eclipse.  I hadn’t planned this – it just happened by luck and I am happy to take all the luck I can get.  As they say, “Better to be lucky than good!”

Farewell Alan

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This is a short but sad post.  I read the sad news of the death of Alan Purwin.  Alan was a pilot and entrepreneur who was involved in many fields but was well known for his working in filming movies from helicopters.  He was a genuinely friendly and welcoming person and had been involved in many interesting things.

Alan died in a plane crash in Columbia during the making of a film with Tom Cruise.  You may have seen the news mentioning a crash but that Tom was not involved.  Sadly Alan was, along with another two people, one of whom also died.  It is a very sad time for all involved.