Early one morning I found myself in Davis CA meeting a colleague to head to a meeting. I picked him up at the station and arrived a few minutes ahead of time. Davis has a cool station building. I didn’t know anything about it so hadn’t come prepared. The trusty iPhone was all I had with me so here is an iPhone shot of the station in the early light.
Having trekked along the trails on one side of Mt Diablo, we decided to finish the day off by heading to the summit. This time we took a more motorized form of transportation and drove up there. We passed many cyclists heading the same way how all made me feel a bit guilty. I had just finished a hike, though, so didn’t feel quite so bad about my lazy route to the top.
The summit has a tower and lookout station which we took a look around. The views were very good, even if the haze was a bit of a problem further away. We aren’t terribly familiar with all of the area yet so we spent some time trying to work out exactly where we were in relation to the places we do know. It is a long drive to the top but worth doing. Soon the Amgen Tour of California will be making the climb too. I suspect they will head up there at a fair old pace!
We may have lived in Dublin for over six months now but, for some reason, we had yet to go and stretch our legs on Mt Diablo. Such a large mountain so close to us, it is hard to miss when you are in this area but we hadn’t got around to going there. It was time for a change and time to get a good hike in since we haven’t been out for a while.
Our hike started out in Clayton on the opposite side of the mountain from us. It wasn’t a terribly long hike since we haven’t exactly been keeping in shape. However, while it was only just under 6 miles, the terrain was a bit more interesting than we had expected. We certainly got some climbing in as well as some descents that had footing that took a little practice to master. The aim was to get to a trail that loops around some falls. We weren’t expecting to see anything at the falls since it has been a very dry winter but they were still flowing although not with any great force. The top of the valley provided a great view of the land below as well as the terrain around the falls and Mt Diablo above us.
It is hard to give a sense of scale in images like this. As I look at them, it reminds me of how cool it looks but also of how an image on the screed is no reflection of the grand vista I saw at the time. It was really lovely even if we were a bit hot and tired by the end of it. It will be interesting to see it at different times of year.
When Boeing launched the 777-300ER, they took the stretched fuselage of the 777-300, a model that didn’t sell particularly well and married it to the updated wing that made use of the fuel capacity of the outboard portion of the wing that had been left when the original concept of a folding wing was contemplated. The increased the weights of the jet, added far more powerful engines and, with the increased fuel capacity, came up with a winning formula that has done a very effective job of killing off the 747.
One problem that they had to deal with during development was runway length requirements for takeoff. Even with the bigger engines, the long fuselage limited rotation angles at takeoff and meant a higher takeoff speed was required which meant a longer runway requirement. Boeing came up with an interesting solution (after dumping some slightly more curious ideas). The main gear on the 777 has a triple axle bogie. Previously this had rotated about the pin attaching it to the main gear leg. Boeing’s solution was to lock the bogie level during takeoff.
The result of this is to have the rotation of the jet at takeoff to take place around the rear wheels of the bogie rather than the gear leg pin. The slight aft movement of the rotation point allows the aircraft to rotate slightly more nose up and gain a greater angle of attack. This gives slightly more lift for a given speed. This means an earlier takeoff and a shorter runway requirement.
I have tried many times to witness this at work. First, it happens pretty quickly. Second, I am often in a poor position to see the rotation point. Recently I was at SFO to pick up some people. I was getting a few shots prior to their flight arriving and a Singapore 777-300ER was taking off. The rotation point is quite far away (although, if you are in the terminal, you might have a good view) and the heat haze is a problem. However, I decided to get a sequence of shots anyway. Now, how to use them.
Heat haze is crappy on stills but less of an issue with moving images so I decided to animate the sequence. I imported all of the shots into Photoshop as layers in a single document via Lightroom. The hardest part was aligning them. I started at the bottom layer and then progressively made each layer above visible. I then changed the latest top layer blend mode to difference. This makes aligning them a lot easier since everything is black unless it is different. I was focused on the gear so used that as the reference as the fuselage rotated. Once each layer was in place, I changed the blend mode back to normal and moved to the next layer up.
Once they were all aligned, I used the animation timeline to make frames from each layer (and reversed the order since every time I do this they seem to be the wrong way around). Then I could crop in to get the overall view I was after and save the file. A Save for Web allows the generation of the animated GIF and we are done. The image at the top is the final result. It does allow you to see a bit of what is going on if you look closely although it is still a bit hard given the distance, the angle to the ground and the heat haze. I guess I will have to find a location closer next time.
Continuing my theme of return visits to take Mum to places, Fort Point was on the itinerary. Always a cool place to visit on a nice day and it benefited from the swell resulting in some great waves crashing up against the fort. Also, we saw some guys taking advantage of the swell to do some surfing alongside the fort. Very cool although they had to know what they were doing since, if you rode all the way in, a rocky wall awaited you! (This also meant that choosing your parking space was a big deal unless you wanted the car to be covered in salt water!)
Mum’s visit meant quite a few trips to places we have scoped out before. We headed to Point Bonita on one day to visit the lighthouse there. This time we knew about the timing so were there in plenty of time. I won’t repeat what I wrote about the place this time so will share the shots from this visit. The one thing that was significantly different this time was that there was a strong swell coming in from the ocean so watching the waves crash up on the shoreline was a lot of fun. I can watch the sea crash ashore for hours at a time so this was great for me!
Driving through Napa Valley with Mum, we were, of course, surrounded by vineyards. Mostly we just headed on up the road but once or twice we stopped to have a look. The prettier road through the valley is sadly a 55mph route so dawdling will not make you popular. However, you can always pull off and take a look without obstructing anyone. The patterns in the fields are very cool and that was what I was looking to get here. Of course, the middle of the day is not a great time to shoot but that’s when we were there so that will have to do.
Sometimes you find yourself doing something that you hadn’t planned but that turns out to be far more interesting than you had envisaged. That is certainly the case with Bale Grist Mill. We were taking a day trip up to Napa Valley with my Mum while she was staying. As we drove down towards St Helena, Nancy remembered seeing something about this place so, as we came upon it, we decided to stop in and have a look around.
It is a restored water mill that is used for grinding wheat and corn. It is a state park controlled location with a great selection of volunteers helping to keep the place working. The mill wheel is a huge affair fed by an aqueduct that used to come from the mill ponds up the hill. Now they are under someone else’s control so the aqueduct has been shorted and they feed it with water in a continuous cycle. Not quite the same thing but nothing to complain about.
Inside the mill, they give a great tour explaining the history of the mill itself and the guy it is named for. They demonstrate how the farmers’ crop would be delivered and the processes it would go through to clean it, grind it and then hand it back to the farmer. All of this culminates in a live demonstration of the grinding process. The mill wheel drives a series of belts and gear throughout the mill that control all of the processes whether it is the cleaning of the grain, the grinding, the elevators to move it around or the sifting that separates the different grades of milled product. You get to see them grind some corn (as it was when we were there) and adjust the stones to get just the right texture of product.
Interestingly, while they sell the flour or polenta in the mill, they mark it as not fit for human consumption. Since there is bare wood in the process rather than stainless steel everywhere and they let public members watch it being ground, they do not conform to the food hygiene laws. Therefore, they cannot sell it as food. That does not, of course, stop you from using it as food. We bought some flour which has made some excellent bread. The volunteers all eat it too so you can make your own choice if you visit.
I had not been up to Sonoma Skypark for quite a while. Lots of things had been going on that had either kept me at home or taken me further afield but, with a nice Saturday forecast, I figured it was time to get back up there and say hello to some folks. The weather held to the forecast and it was a great day to be up there. During my first visit to Schellville, I had met Dave Masters and photographed his ST-A. Dave also pays a visit to Skypark each week. I had seen him there before but had not shot him from the good light side of the field.
This time I was determined to do so. When he appeared downwind, I scampered across the field to get into position. I was just in time as he came down the approach and I grabbed a sequence of shots. Here they are.
Many of my recent posts have involved aircraft operating from SFO. One of the restrictions SFO has is that, being bounded by water means there are limited opportunities to vary your shooting angles. One thing I was ken to try was an overview of the field. Driving along I-380, you are up on the ridge looking down to the airport and you are almost directly in line with the east/west runways. I thought that there must be somewhere accessible where you could get a similar view.
I checked with a guy I know who lives locally to see if he had any ideas. He had already beaten me to it and had shot just what I was thinking about a couple of years before. He suggested an area that might be suitable so I headed out. I found a location with just the sort of view I was looking for. The air was relatively clear so the shots of the field were quite good with one exception. At this range, the heat haze is really difficult. You are a long way out and everything between you and the airport is developed and has a lot of warmth rising from it on a nice day. However, even knowing this, I still thought the difference the shot provided was worth the effort.
I was extra lucky in that I met a bunch of guys working on a car in the driveway of one of the houses on the street I chose. They were a good bunch and a lot of fun to hang out with so the infrequent nature of departures on that runway was compensated for by having people to pass the time with. The shots here are a few that I got. The aircraft continue on a pretty straight departure route so they end up passing almost directly over you.
I would like to try shooting here another time. Later in the day with softer light and – hopefully – less heat haze would be good. The location might also be good for the multiple exposure type shooting I have done at Coyote Point. After dark would also work well to generate some light trails. Lots to think about for future shoots.
