Tag Archives: civil

National’s A330 Moving Some Troops

Another one from the archive. National Airlines has made a few appearances in this blog over the years. I do find their livery very cool and a welcome change from the norm on airlines. They had one of their A330s in Boeing Field on, I believe, a troop transport flight. I don’t know that for certain and don’t know why it wasn’t at McChord but I’m not complaining.

The light was better on the aircraft when they were loading it up on the Modern ramp. Unfortunately, departures were towards the north which meant the only option for a takeoff shot was going to be over by the terminal building and that would mean quite strong backlighting. Nevertheless, I figured it would be worth a try. You can get quite a good angle from that location on a rotating aircraft provided that it uses a reasonable amount of the runway.

However, there are two downsides to the images that you get. First, the aforementioned backlighting is not going to make for an easy job processing the image. The latest masking tools in Lightroom do give you more flexibility with what you do but there is only so much you can do before things look really funky. The second issue is that the Boeing ramp is going to be in the background which makes for a very cluttered view. In hindsight, I should have tried going with a very low shutter speed to try and blur as much of that distracting material as possible. Guess I won’t be trying that out for a while!

Heathrow Departure and I Resurrect an Old Camera

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I had something coming up where I might be a bit limited in my camera that could be accommodated so I dug out an old camera as a possible alternative. This is my EOS M6. It is a little mirrorless unit that has really been overtaken by the developments that Canon has undertaken but it was still a useful piece of kit. It is an APS-C sensor camera with some specific lenses which don’t have a role in the current product lines. However, it will do the job with some limitations.

Ahead of the intended usage, I decided to take it with me on a work trip to check it was still working as expected. My journey took me out of Heathrow so I decided to see what shots I could get of the planes around us as we headed out. Things all worked pretty much as I remembered. It isn’t a fast camera and the 55-200mm lens I have on it in these circumstances is okay but not special. However, it does okay and, when shooting through a dodgy aircraft window, the problems are more likely to be that than the kit you use. Sitting on a taxiway does give you some views of jets you wouldn’t normally have access to so that is fun. Plus, some A350s will always make me smile.

Hampshire Police’s Helicopter

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Late one afternoon, while getting ready to leave the Bournemouth Aviation Museum, I saw a helicopter flying some pattern work across at the airport. Given that it was painted black, I assumed it was a police helicopter. I took some distant shots of it and then continued with wrapping up my museum visit. When I was done, they were still flying around the pattern, and I figured I would head to the other side to see if a better shot would be possible.

As it turned out, they were flying almost over the road on the other side of the runway. I ended up shooting almost straight up which was not the ideal angle. Still, it was a chance to shoot slightly different shots than I might have normally gone for. As it turned out, they landed after this approach, so I had only just got there in time. After running on the ground for a while, they departed off to the east.

What a Difference the Angle Makes

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I shared some shots from a brief visit I made to Feltham to get some airliner departures from Heathrow when they were on an easterly flow. Some of the planes turn to the south shortly after takeoff giving you a view that is not quite a topside but is close to it. When photographing them, you are naturally shooting them at an angle as they are climbing quite steeply. However, if you want to play around with the shot afterwards, you can change the impression of the shot quite a lot. Rotate the fuselage until it appears horizontal in the shot and now it looks a lot more like you are flying alongside the aircraft. This is cheaper than sorting out and air to air sortie! Here are a couple of before and after shots to show what I mean.

Bembridge Post Lunch Departures

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While visiting the Island, we had gone to our hotel to check in. Earlier in the day, we had seen a few planes climbing out of the airport at Bembridge off in the distance. As Nancy was getting settled in, I made the short trip across to the airport to see if anything was still around. There were a few planes taxiing out. My guess is that people fly into Bembridge, walk across to The Propeller Inn for a spot of lunch and then head home again. Given the time, I suspect I was at the back end of the post lunch crews. Nothing seemed to be arriving. The wind meant the runway in use wasn’t so favourable for photos but some of them had gradual climb outs, so it wasn’t so bad. A few light aircraft shots before returning to the hotel!

Alpine Helicopters – Alberta Edition

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In a previous post, I had shared some images of Alpine Helicopters from when we were in Kelowna. Our trip to Canmore in Alberta brought me close to another base for the company (assuming it is the same company rather than just a common name for operators). This base was providing pleasure flights for visitors heading up in to the mountains. The base was about a mile down the road from where we were staying so, one afternoon, after we had finished our plans for the day, I popped down to see if anything was moving.

The location is not ideal for photography. The base is on the side of a hill and the parking lot is quite a way below the area from which they operate. There is a viewing area for those that are waiting to go flying but I was outside the fence so had to see what shots I could get. There was a movement of a helicopter from a parking space to the pick up zone and then there was the departure of a flight. Things were not great for getting shots but they did curve around on takeoff giving me some views of the climb out. I needed to head back so I didn’t wait for the return.

Recovering a Fence Shot

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In an earlier post, I had shared some images of and A340-600 operated by European Cargo that I saw at Bournemouth. What I didn’t include in that post was any images close to the rotation point, despite me having been well positioned for that. When I say well positioned, I omit one key element which is that there was a fence between me and the plane, and I wasn’t able to photograph above the fence. Shooting through it was the only option.

I tried a couple of things to mitigate the issue with the fence. First, I was as close to it as possible to take the fence wires as far out of focus as possible. I was also shooting wide open – again to try and throw the wires out of focus. The last thing I tried was to go with a low shutter speed to smear the wires as I panned. With this combination, I was hopeful that I wouldn’t really have the wires in the shots. I was wrong.

When I took a look at the shots, the fence was very obvious. I did start to wonder whether it would have been better to have the wires well defined as maybe that would be easier to remove. However, too late for that as the shots were done. Now to see if there was anything I could do to recover them to something usable (and by usable, I mean that might be shareable but nothing that was going to be a great publishable image).

I tried some of the healing tools in Lightroom to see if that would work. I was getting nowhere fast – possibly a sign of how little I understand the capabilities of the tools or maybe they are just not the right thing. Then I decided to try something else. Because of the way I had shot the image, none of the airframe was obscured. There was just the grey overlay from the fence. That made me think that it was more like a darker area of the shot. I decided to use the brush tool in the masking panel and draw some lines that were heavily feathered across the lines that the fence wire created. Having made a grid of these, I then bumped up the exposure for the mask.

The result was surprisingly effective. However, I then ended up with some overly bright areas at the edge of the mask. A rework of the mask to change the size and the feather amount and this time the result was pretty good. There were a few areas that were still a touch dark and I used a large, soft brush to address those parts. If you know what the original image looked like, you will probably spot the remnants of the work. If you had never known before, it’s possible that you might not notice how much work had been done on this.

This is Further Away Than I Expected to See an Air Canada Max

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During my brief visit to Heathrow, I got a bunch of long-haul departures and loads of single aisle types serving destinations closer in. However, I was caught off guard slightly by one 737 Max 8. It belonged to Air Canada. I’ve seen a few of those including when they were on test, but I hadn’t anticipated seeing one in the UK. However, the longer range of the Max means that Air Canada is using it serve Halifax from London. I guess that is not really much longer a flight than plenty in Europe, so it makes sense and is probably more efficient. I just didn’t expect to see one of their narrowbodies there. Given that the A321neos are now becoming so prevalent, this is likely to be a regular thing for other airlines too. JetBlue is already doing this so others will be too.

A Hot Air Balloon Near My Evening Stroll

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One evening while wandering through the fields near our house, I saw a hot air balloon in the distance. When we lived in Woodinville, the balloons were a regular feature of the summer months. Morning and evening flights were common. I didn’t know that flights around Winchester were a thing and, given the proximity to Southampton Airport, I thought it might not be practical but apparently, I was wrong. I was hoping that they would continue to drift in my direction, and I would get a closer look. Then I noticed that they were dropping out of sight quite quickly, so I headed through a tree line to see them drop behind some trees off in the distance. The vent on the top of the balloon briefly opened as they touched down but then closed up almost as quickly. I guess they weren’t in a rush to rapidly deflate. I wonder whether I shall catch any more flights in the future.

Bournemouth Aviation Museum

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I posted some shots of the Chichester Miles Leopard in another post and some of the Vulcan cockpit – both exhibits at the Bournemouth Aviation Museum. I haven’t shared some more general shots of the museum, though. I stopped over there late one afternoon. They weren’t due to be open for too much longer, but I did have some time to wander around. Being the end of the day meant it was quiet, so I was able to have a bit of freedom taking shots of the planes on display.

There is an interesting mix of types on show will military and civilian types to see. Some are full aircraft while others are fuselage sections that have been saved when the whole plane was being disposed of. The cockpits of many were accessible. Planes like the Jaguar have a soft spot for me so I liked taking a look at them. Others were less of interest but still worth a peak. I did like seeing a Cri-Cri – the world’s smallest twin (at least when it came out in the 80s).

Some of the types have a connection to the flight testing that this part of the country is associated with. Bournemouth is not far from Boscombe Down which has been the centre of UK military flight test for many decades. The BAC 1-11 is an ex-Boscombe asset. Others are just interesting types. If you are in the area and like planes, do swing by. Don’t make a significant detour specifically for it but do check it out if nearby.