Tag Archives: california

A Different Angle on the Parallel Approaches

The parallel approaches to SFO are well known and have been the subject of previous posts here. This time I was looking for something different on this theme. I was at a favorite location of mine, Coyote Point. This is further out on the approach and a lovely park area. If nothing is happening, this is still a very relaxing place to be. It sticks out in to the bay with the result that you are much closer to the approach flightpaths. This makes for good opportunities to get shots of the aircraft and, in the warmer months, it reduces any problems with heat haze. However, it does change your alignment with the planes and the possibilities for parallel approach shots since the places appear to be stepped down from your angle.

This is not necessarily a problem so you can go vertical if you want. Also, it does make you well aligned for shots when the approaches are not happening in sync. You can find the second aircraft turning in further out is actually quite well lined up with the first since it is offset vertically as well as horizontally. The shots are not the classic parallel approach shots but they are still something a little unusual.

Tail Slapping

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While we did not get a lot of breaching from the humpbacks, there was a lot of tail slapping going on. We would see something off in the distance and head that way to see if we could get close before the whale got bored and decided to do something else. Thankfully, they often didn’t. Getting good shots of the slapping proved to be harder than I thought. The splash they cause is impressive but you don’t know why when you look at the shot. For all the viewer knows, it could just be a whale sticking its tail up in the air.

Fortunately, I did get lucky with some shots when close in with the whale really throwing its fluke around. The drama of watching all of this is hard to portray in the photos and sometimes it was one of those experiences when it was better to stop trying to get the photo, to put the camera down and to watch these huge creatures throwing themselves around in the ocean in front of you.

Mean and Moody Sky

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It’s always a nice combination when you can get some light on the foreground subject of the photo and have a really dark and menacing cloud structure in the background. The brightness of the foreground exposure is much higher than the background so it makes the clouds look even more dramatic when exposing for the subject. Having a play with post processing will also help to make things look more dramatic. This Wildcat was parked on the flightline at Chino for Planes of Fame just as the lighting worked to my advantage. I may not have been happy about the weather conditions but this was one of the upsides to a cloudy sky.

Survey Surfboard

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Spotting surfers along the Pacific coastline is not too tricky. Anywhere with beach access is likely to have someone who has gone in to the water with their board. However, an unmanned surfboard is not a common occurrence. As we were motoring across Monterey Bay, we came across this board. It is an unmanned research platform with a number of instruments to monitor the bay. Apparently it is powered and can cruise itself around the bay and radio back its readings to the researchers on land. A curious looking thing!

Tracking the Orcas

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Orcas are cool. No avoiding it, they are a great looking whale. We spent a lot of time with this group on our tour with Monterey Bay Whale Watch. Because they kept offering up good opportunities to interact with them, we followed them a long way up the coast. We ended up off Davenport which meant, when we turned back, we had a long way to go to get back to Monterey. However, it was worth it. As we got further away from the normal whale watching boats and the group got more used to us, they got more relaxed.

We occasionally got ahead of them at which point they would swim towards us, sometimes crossing right behind the boat. At times like this, the team on the boat would drop a towed housing off the back with a GoPro mounted in it. They got some cracking footage as the whales got curious about the line and took a look at the camera. Meanwhile, we got to see them at very close quarters. It was so cool.

Getting good shots of the whales was trickier than I expected. They stay down for irregular times and predicting where they will pop up is hard. If you don’t get them coming out of the water, the head quickly dipped back under which makes for a far less impressive shot. You want to see the head and get the black and white patterns on display.

When you have a few hours with the whales, though, sooner or later you will get some good shots. This blog does not need to see the number of shots that are the same and only show the back of a whale as it heads back below the surface. The ones with the head visible and the ones that will be shared. Trust me, though. There are a lot of shots of the backs of whales with no visible head.

The boat team weren’t the only ones that took some video. I also shot a bunch of video as we went. Some of it was unusable as a result of the movement of the boat. Other clips were no use because I was looking in the wrong direction and the whales weren’t doing what I anticipated – don’t they know what I need? However, I still got a few clips that were what I was hoping for.

Kiteboarding in the Bay

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If the wind is up, there are usually a lot of people out kiteboarding in San Francisco Bay. While I was a Coyote Point I could see a few people out in the water. Some were a little further up the shore, one was very close to the marina near me and a few more were down towards the San Mateo Bridge. They may not have been that far down but it looked that way from where I was.

Add an Ilyushin to the Recent Visitors

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There have been a bunch of AN124s popping in to Moffett Field recently, one of which I saw while at the Solar Impulse arrival event. When I went back for the departure (which I covered for Global Aviation Resource in this article), I was surprised to see another freighter from the old Eastern Bloc. At his one was a more recent version though. It was an Ilyushin IL-76 but one that is fitted with the PS90 engine. It had been brought in to transport the ground crew and their gear for Solar Impulse. They were heading to Phoenix next and, since it was a short flight, everything needed to move quickly.

I didn’t get a great chance to photograph the plane. It was a long way up the ramp and there were too many lights between us to make for a great shot. However, I got what I could. My friend Hayman works nearby and he was able to get the departure later in the morning. I’m not jealous…

Breaching Humpback

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When you are looking for a dramatic view of a humpback whale, the coolest shot is of a breaching whale. Monterey Bay was full of whales while we were there. They really were everywhere you looked. Of course, being in a big area means that they may be visible but not necessarily good for photos. Actually, while a lot of them were pretty active, the numbers breaching versus slapping their tail flukes was relatively small.

However, we did come across a juvenile whale that was feeling a bit more into it and was breaching quite a few times. Maybe you wouldn’t immediately know it is a juvenile from the photos but it was with its mother and the size difference was obvious at the time. That said, who cares? It was really cool to watch.

Helos This Way Please

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I love helicopters and getting to see two in close quarters at Salinas recently was the sort of thing to make me smile. An Astar had come up to drop someone off and was heading back out again. Meanwhile, a local Robinson R-44 had been moved out on to the ramp next to it for its pilot to have a local flight. They ended up starting up and departing at almost the same time. What I hadn’t realized was that the departure path for both of them was going to take them right past me.

I had figured that they would start up and then hover taxi to the runway before departing in the runway heading. Instead, the approved profile made use of the taxiway next to where I was. The result was that they both pulled to the hover and then turned in my direction before accelerating right by. That was a lot better than I was expecting. The need to gain speed before climbing to minimize time in the “avoid curve” means that you get a nice low view of a helicopter when it takes off. This is far better than the fixed wing alternative in my view.

Battery Chamberlain

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Our visit to Baker Beach included something I hadn’t realized was there. The coast around the entrance to the Golden Gate is dotted with old gun batteries and it turns out that Baker Beach is another location. This gun emplacement is called Battery Chamberlain. While the concrete installations are still pretty much intact, the majority of the battery is long gone. However, one of the gun positions has been preserved and the gun is installed.

I took a quick look around while one of the guys who looks after things was working on the gun mechanism. He was changing the elevation of the gun and working on the mechanism that aligns the gun. I was able to peer down the barrel and take a look at the rifling. Apparently they run tours periodically but I just took a quick mooch around before heading on my way.