While out shooting the aircraft in the evening at Eagle Field, I also got to enjoy quite a nice sunset. The sky was turning a variety of lovely colors and, once the sun had dropped below the horizon, things really did light up nicely. Whether focusing in on a distinct part of the sky or going for the wider scene, it was a nice place to be for a while.
Moisture in the air is not always what you want when you are out shooting aircraft. However, it does have its benefits if there isn’t so much of it that everything is either obscured or gray. The weather conditions over San Francisco Bay can be very localized and, as the planes come down final approach, they can go through quite a variety. I was out hunting for Air Force One a while back and I got some good examples of this.
The weather at SFO was actually quite nice (although not when Air Force one departed as I have previously written about). The sun was out and the sky was pretty clear. In fact, there was quite a troubling amount of heat haze. However, once you got towards the south end of the bay, there was pretty solid cloud cover. The planes coming in were in full IMC for a good portion of their approach. Somewhere in the region between Coyote Point and the San Mateo Bridge they would break out of the cloud cover. Then, for the next mile or so, they were in the clear but still in very humid conditions.
The result of this humidity was a lot of vapor forming up over the wings. The low speed and high lift configuration made the wings a good place to get cloud formations as the moist air passed over them. Additionally, the trailing vortices were showing up well as a result of the condensing moisture in them too. For quite a while, each aircraft showed similar patterns as it descended. The widebodies seemed to be better for showing this but that might just be a function of them being easier to see further away when the effect was most pronounced. The closer they got to the field, the less the effect until it was pretty much gone when they were on final approach.
I was flying cross country and my layover was in Chicago at Midway. I had deliberately chosen a window seat on the right side of the plane in case we carried out the approach from the lake in order to have a view of the city. Sure enough, we did approach from that direction. As we headed out to the lake, I could see some showers over the water. At the time, I thought they would not show up well on a photo but the motion of video would make them more conspicuous. Consequently, I started filming some video on my phone.
I was focused on the screen and initially didn’t notice that the showers I was watching were a lot smaller than their neighbors! There was a big storm just north of the city. It came into view on the phone and then I gave it a bit more focus. Sadly, the phone does not always pick up the lightning bolts. However, I think you will get the idea of how big a storm it was. I know someone who was at O’Hare during the storm and they describe the effect as pretty dramatic. From my location, everything was totally smooth!
My friend John from Chicago was out in San Francisco for the weekend and we arranged to get together for a walk up in the hills of Marin County. We headed to Mt Tamalpais to walk the trails there. The weather was not ideal with rain and low cloud when we set off but, as we got closer, the rain eased up, even if the cloud didn’t. Even so, it meant we were going to be okay to walk. What I hadn’t counted on was that I was going to warm up a lot as we walked and the uphill element of the second half of the walk was going to mean I was a touch overdressed! I was dry though.
I left the main camera in the car rather than lug it all around. However, I did have my phone and it was good for some shots. Also, I have been playing around with Photo Sphere from Google recently. I got a sphere while down in the woods. You can see it here. https://plus.google.com/u/0/104745382077938728957/photos/photo/6089868108315918482?pid=6089868108315918482&oid=104745382077938728957
When we got back to the car, we drove along the ridge above the valley where Muir Woods is located. The clouds were beginning to break up a little and the combination of the light and the clouds still on the hills looked great. I struggle to take what I see in those situations and turn it into a photograph but hopefully this gives you some idea of what was there. The dynamic range is one thing to deal with in processing but the feel is something harder to translate.
Part of a run back into Oakland recently came across the bay but it was unfortunately covered in cloud. However, the cloud was sitting in very distinct locations with a clear edge as you headed down the bay and a similar edge near the shoreline on the Oakland side. Since we were not high above it, this looked pretty interesting. Even as I photographed it, I figured the shots would need something a bit different when I got around to processing them. Having a more contrasty look seemed the best bet and a black and white conversion also seemed likely. That is what I went with and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. See what you think.
My frequent flights mean I get to spend some time looking down. Often when flying across the country, the skies are remarkably clear. There may be a lot of haze obscuring a clear view to the distance but the amount of cloud is usually not much. Then, when there is some, it tends to be thick cloud cover below. No real shape and texture. Consequently, when I see some cool looking clouds, I get a bit more excited.
These are a few of the clouds that I have recently had a chance to shoot as we passed by. If you are not a cloud person, they are very dull. If you are, you can spend ages looking at the different shapes and shadows. I hope you are a cloud person. If not, maybe my next post will be more up your street.
As the spring moves closer to summer, the view on my flights home changes. The timing is not any different but I get further east before the sun gives up and disappears. Arriving in the light is not far off now but I am still getting to experience the sunset while airborne. Sometimes it doesn’t appear to be very interesting. I guess this is a function of where the clouds are relative to us. However, one recent trip included a very nice looking sky. Looking back across the wing, I could just make out the sun going down.
The light on the top of the clouds looks particularly nice from above. Sadly it is one of those events where I am disappointed that the image can’t replicate exactly how it felt to be looking out. However, maybe it will give you a small example of how it looked or, if you have seen the same thing yourself, remind you of how nice it looks.
You are always supposed to have a camera with you so you can be ready when the shot presents itself. Sadly, there have been far too many times when I have failed in that regard and this blog has plenty of entries describing exactly that. However, in this case, I was actually prepared. The view out of the office window was suddenly filled with some very ominous clouds. This would have been good on its own but the sun was still on the shops that are next to the office. The contrast was pretty dramatic and made the clouds look even more impressive. We even had some birds flying through the scene that caught the light too!
With warm weather comes the chance of storms. Many times I have noticed the storm as it hit us and wished I had been down on the lakeshore to see the whole thing run in and get some good lightning shots with the city skyline. This recent occasion I was more aware of the impending deluge and managed to get half of what I was after.
I positioned myself for the storm in good time. Ahead of it, the clouds rolled in and produced some very impressive formations. The Midwest is great for “end of the world” skies some times! Unfortunately, the storm never really got going with the lightning. We got a few bolts but not very many. The rumbling from above was unmistakeable but it didn’t produce the photo shots. I did get one big bolt but it never got dark enough to allow some long exposures so I was always hoping to catch something.
I did leave a second camera running with the video when the clouds rolled in. I have accelerated the speed of the video to show the clouds in a shorter clip that will hopefully be more acceptable.
Every once in a while you have what you think will be a good idea and it turns out you were wrong. This is the story of one such event. A weekend morning was looming and I felt like getting out and shooting. The flights from Asia are morning arrivals at O’Hare and so are not often something I shoot. A few of them appear and that is it. Back to the RJs and 737s so I often don’t bother. Also, the normal arrival pattern is not great for morning light.
This time they were coming in from the west so heading in to the light. However, the weather forecast was a bit crummy. The traditional thought is not to go since dull skies and mainly white planes are not a great combination. However, two things made me think otherwise. One was the possibility of the sun breaking through and illuminating the aircraft against a dark sky background. That can look good. The other was the possibility of a lot of vapor in the air making for some neat vortex effects and vapor clouds over the wings.
Consequently, I decided to give it a go. I headed out having scoped out a potential location to shoot from that would give me a view of the arriving aircraft. I have not shot over that side much before so a good location is not something I had. There is a lot of industrial space over there so buildings can obscure the view and the ever present power lines are another consideration. As it turned out, the spot I chose turned out to be quite reasonable.
That is where the rest of the plan starts to go wrong. The sun did make a brief appearance. The opening shot is probably the only one that really achieved what I was hoping for. After that, the cloud cover thickened up and then the skies were pretty unhelpful. My second hope for the moisture to give some good effects proved to be a little too optimistic. There certainly were plenty of trailing vortices and occasional puffs of cloud above the wings but the gray background did not help make them stand out.
I decided that I was probably done for the day and started to drive south on my way home. I then happened upon a few cars parked up at a spot directly under the approach to 14R. I thought this might be worth a look and it certainly made for some good angles. I grabbed a few shots before heading home but this was a spot I decided was worth a further visit. More to come on that…