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Decaying PV-2 and DC-3

While Schellville has a great collection of vintage aircraft in operation, it also has a couple of large airframes that do not look like they are going anywhere in a hurry. Parked near the runway are a DC-3 and the PV-2 Harpoon. The DC-3 is a rare sub-type….

The PV-2 has apparently spent some time as a spraying aircraft and it has some Arizona logos on it from a previous existence. It doesn’t have any doors on the bomb bay so I am assuming that these were removed as part of whatever conversion was done for the spraying role although that is just a guess. Both of them are sitting out on the earth and, with the low sun angles you get at this time of year, they look particularly interesting.

We grabbed some shots of them both while keeping an eye out for any other interesting movements that the field would bring.

Seals

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Our coastline jaunt took us further south to Monterey. We have been there before a couple of times on vacations so almost didn’t go but I was tempted to see whether there were any Sea Otters mucking around close to shore. As it turned out, either there weren’t or they were doing a good job of being somewhere other than where I was.

However, there were a couple of seals hanging around in one inlet. Sea lions are very common along this coastline and seals are not rare either. However, I always feel like the sea lions are more conspicuous and seeing the seals somehow feels more unexpected. Given how many there are, this is probably a dopey thing to think but that wouldn’t be a first for me. Anyway, one of the seals was resting on a rock while another was swimming around. It’s possible there were two different seals in the water but I couldn’t be sure so I shall only claim one covering a fair bit of ground. While they are ungainly creatures when out of the water, they can certainly cover some distance in a hurry once in the water. I got the feeling the one in the water wanted the rock but it didn’t look like he was going to be lucky any time soon!

Albion’s Trestle Bridge

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Albion was our resting place for the trip to Mendocino and it has an interesting feature itself. It is the last remaining wood trestle bridge on the Pacific Coast Highway. It is quite a height between the river and the road so this is quite an impressive structure. Of course, I wanted to get some shots of it. From where we were staying, we had a view of the bridge. However, we were on the coastal side of the bridge so it was in shadow in the morning and in the evening, at least by the time we got back, the sun was below the headland so it was in shadow again.

One morning I did head down to the river to see if that provided a good shot. Unfortunately, the area is a campsite so getting access was difficult. I did go back up on the hills looking down and got a better view but the campsite is a little distracting in this view. My best effort was an oblique look along the bridge from the road leading down to the river. A little frustrating photographically but very cool to see anyway.

Parade of Bands

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What we hadn’t bargained on when heading to Pleasanton was that the town’s main street was closed for a parade of high school bands. Some sort of competition was obviously underway with different stops along the street with judges checking out various aspects of the bands. If you were at one spot, you would see some of the band doing their thing while the rest of the band members were hanging back behind them. It all made sense when you realized that this was happening at various places along the street.

We hadn’t come for this but couldn’t resist watching some of them perform for a while before we got back to doing what we had come for. Nice to have a town so close that has things like this happening on a regular basis.

Whales

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A short distance along the coast from our beach overlook we came to a lighthouse. This seemed like a popular part of the shoreline on a Sunday, even though the weather wasn’t great. I imagine on a sunny day, it is full of people along here. We strolled along the shore and out towards the point on which the lighthouse was built. The sea was looking very calm and out a distance we could see a number of kayakers in a loose group. Initially we had no idea what they were up to and assumed it was just a nice place to be. Then we saw something we had not expected.

A plume of spray followed closely by another signaled the presence of some whales. They were not far offshore and were coming in our general direction. I don’t know how to recognize whales unless they are of a few distinct types but I know that they get grey whales along here so I am going to guess that this is what they were.

They made pretty good progress along the coast and the kayakers were following at a discrete distance. I suspect for some that had been waiting ahead of the route, they got a pretty good view as the whales came through. We tracked them for a while. The problem with taking pictures of whales is that you don’t immediately know where they are. The clear their blowholes and you get a nice plume but that is often the first sign and it is dissipating by the time you get the camera on it. However, the shots are secondary in this compared to being there to see it.

Ryan ST-A

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Our Schellville expedition brought me into contact with a type I have never seen before. The Ryan ST-A is not a plane I was familiar with and, when one taxied out for departure, I was quite curious as to what it was. A quick departure was followed by some passes over the field before the pilot headed off to the local area where we could see him carrying out some aeros in the distance.

A while later, while we were sitting eating some food, a guy came across with his lunch and joined us. His name was Dave Masters and it had been him flying the Ryan earlier on. We had a great chat about the history of the aircraft and how he had come to own it. He also told us about a similar aircraft in one of the hangars which we made time to see in due course.

A great looking aircraft design and two of them kept in wonderful condition. This place is already looking like a great spot!

Moon

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It only seems appropriate that I should follow a sun posting with one about the moon. Having lived for the last ten years in a place that faced east, I was used to seeing the moon appear and then progress across the sky. Now I live somewhere that faces west so, when I see the moon, it is already on its way down. Having the hills to the west of us means there is even less time to catch it.

I have shot the full moon (or very close to full) a few times before. One evening I was beginning to think about turning in when I saw the moon was dropping down and it was substantially in shadow. I thought it looked very interesting and, since the time of the movement is about an hour later each day, if I didn’t shoot it then, the following day would be a bit later, the moon would be a bit fuller and who knows whether the sky would be clear anyway. I headed downstairs to grab some gear and set up some shots from outside the garage.

The sky is not the clearest and least affected by distortion where we are but it isn’t too bad. I got a few shots and then ramped up the ISO a bit to make sure of getting something with a higher shutter speed. For those of you that haven’t tried shooting the moon, it moves surprisingly quickly and the use of a long lens emphasizes this even more. Therefore, you need quite a high shutter speed to make sure it isn’t blurred. Fortunately, although it is dark where you are, the moon is in full sunlight so there is a decent amount of illumination to help you out.

I got a few shots, and then headed back indoors to bed. Sometimes you just have to grab the moment. As a related item, I also got some daytime shots as the moon got closer to full recently.

Sunset

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Sitting on the deck of our room in Albion provided a beautiful view across the Pacific as the sun was setting. As is usual with sunsets, you never knew exactly what you were going to get. One night it all looked quite promising but the cloud cover low on the horizon meant it all went dull rather than getting dramatic. On another evening, though, we had some high level clouds that started picking up the low evening light very nicely resulting in some great skies.

One evening the sun set in front of us with nothing much to obscure our view. While I was happy to be sitting on the deck watching it go down, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to grab some shots of it. A long lens meant some bigger views of it as the atmosphere distorted the view of its last gasps of west coast light. After that, someone else was getting the benefits.

The strange shapes the atmospheric distortion produces were really interesting to watch. The roundness was replaced by all sorts of shapes including one that looked more like a Mayan pyramid. It changed so often that I had to keep shooting. Only as it was almost done did I realize that I really should have been videoing this as well to show just how quickly it retreated below the horizon and how much it changed apparent shape while doing do. (As an aside, I do know that the refraction of the atmosphere means that I am seeing an image of the sun on the horizon when it has actually already fallen below the true sightlines.)

Having missed this video opportunity, I shall have to be ready to try that out in future. Meanwhile, I shall continue to enjoy the memory of the speed and rapid changes that the sun went through in the last moments of the day.

Surfers

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The bay in Santa Cruz was not only filled with wildlife. It also had a fair number of surfers. Since I was looking at a calm surface of water, I was not entirely sure what they were hoping for. Then, all of a sudden and with no apparent warning, a wave blasted up the rock face below us sending spray above our level. I was a touch surprised! It seems that there are periodic waves that come in from offshore and funnel into the bay providing some surfable waves. The guys were hanging around waiting for these.

Since I was more focused on the wildlife, I wasn’t always paying attention to the surfers. However, periodically I did see one of them getting ready to try and catch a wave and I switched my attention to them. The angle often meant that they were getting obscured by the wave they were riding. Some of them weren’t being too successful at catching a wave at all. There were a few, though, who seemed to be a lot better at this and managed to get some decent rides in. One even helped me out with a spectacular dismount!

Mendocino

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A weekend away after a bunch of home moving activities seemed like a great idea. We had an invitation away for the Thanksgiving weekend which we would have liked to have taken but the travel involved meant it was not going to be a practical proposition. Instead, we decided to drive a couple of hours north to Mendocino and have a short break there as compensation for the missed trip to friends.

This turned out to be a great idea. We chose a weekend when the weather was gorgeous and the number of people was limited. What a combination! While we were staying in Albion, a little way south of Mendocino itself, we decided to head there on the day we arrived and take a look around. It is a cracking little town. It is a combination destination with people who are getting away from the hustle of life being there as well as city folks doing the same thing if only for a day or two.

There are lots of little shops to deal with the tourists and the place is very picturesque. It is planted right on the coast and you can walk out onto the headland to see the waves crashing in while looking back at the town on the cliffs behind you. Seeing as it was later in the day and the sun was low given the time of year, it all looked even better!

One feature of the town I particularly liked was the use of water towers. You could see the evolution of the towers around the town. Some of them were as designed with a timber framework holding up the water barrel. Others had decided to enclose the tower structure to provide some additional room space under the barrel. Then there were those that had gone the whole hog and got rid of the barrel and converted the tower into part of the home. The distinctive shape was still there which is what gives it all away.

Other little details of the place appealed. The weathervane on the fire house was rather cool. If you like chocolate, you would have several places to visit to sample their wares – something that made Nancy a lot happier than me! All in all, a great place to wander around and relax in.