Tag Archives: jet

Messing Up the F-35B Departure

Since I switched to my R3 bodies, I have been playing a lot more with low shutter speeds to emphasise speed in images. This has been a topic in multiple posts on the blog in recent years. However, it doesn’t always work out well. I know that the keeper rate will fall when shooting fast moving objects at low shutter speeds, but you hope/expect that you’ll get something worthwhile from the ones you take.

However, that doesn’t always happen. During Seafair last year, the US Marine Corps F-35B departed Boeing Field for its display. I decided to go low with the shutter speed from my location up on the tower with the aim of having the airfield background blurring out and leaving me with the plane as the dominant element in the shot with little distraction. However, when I came to go through the sequence of shots that I took, I had some sharp ones as it approached me and as it flew away but nothing that really pleased me as it was closest and alongside me.

Some of them weren’t terrible but it was a huge disappointment as I clicked through the images and came to the realisation that I had blown it. You can’t always get lucky, and I knew what I was doing so I can’t be totally surprised that it didn’t work out, but it was still a bit galling. Does this mean I won’t do it again? No. Getting the record shot is fine, but I am more bothered about having a shot I really like these days. Might as well give it a go!

Canadian Hornets Are a Bit Elusive

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One of the tricky decisions you have to make when photographing planes in the Tucson area is which airfield to focus on. The international airport can have some interesting traffic but it isn’t far to Davis Monthan AFB. It can similarly have some stuff to photograph. However, both can have quiet periods. Where to be? Some Canadian Hornets were deployed to DM during our visit, and we were hoping to get some shots of them – putting aside the irony of a Canadian travelling to Arizona to photograph Canadian jets.

We were down at the International Airport when we saw in the distance that the Hornets were up. A rapid relocation ensued. It isn’t a long trip between the two but when planes are in motion, you don’t have much time to play with. Fortunately, Mark was the designated driver on this trip. As we pulled up to the right area, we got to a red light. The jets were turning on approach so I jumped out of the car and started getting shots. Mark had to find somewhere to safely pull off. I recall he still got some shots but I had it easier as a result of my rapid vehicle exit!

An Indian C-17 Visiting a US C-17 Base

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Quite a long time since I posted some shots from this day so I am not sure why it has taken so long to add the C-17 to the mix but hey ho! The arrival of the Indian Air Force contingent at McChord last year as they headed to Alaska included the support planes. Aside from the IL-78 tanker is shared long ago, they brought a C-17 with the maintenance team and spares. McChord is very used to C-17s since it is the home of a load of them. However, seeing an Indian one show up was far more of a novelty.

Pima the Following Day

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A bit of a step back for today’s post. This one goes back to early ’24 when Mark and I were in Arizona. We had done a night shoot at the Pima museum the evening before courtesy of our friend Joe. We decided to head back during the following day to see everything in daylight. Despite being early in the year, the temperatures were pretty high and there was a limit to how much I could handle outside. I did get a few different subjects but then it was time to retreat to the hangars to get out of the sun.

The museum was more extensive than I recall from my original visit years ago. I don’t know whether the hangars had all been added since I last visited or I had just not realised what I was missing. Whatever the reason, there was plenty to see. The variety of exhibits is just amazing. Whether it is vintage fighters, old civil aircraft or widebody jets, there is something there for any speciality. The strength of the collection makes it possible for them to get all sorts of exhibits, and their space means that can be of any size. Recently, they have taken delivery of a Martin Mars flying boat, for example. No small task when you aren’t too close to any water!

The Blues on the Ground at BFI

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Another run back to Seafair from 2024. While I did get some good opportunities to photograph the team in the air, I also got to get a close up look at them while they were taxiing around at Boeing Field. The formation taxiing of display teams might not get much attention, but it is requiring a fair bit of concentration from the crews. Here is a combination of shots from different times during the course of the show weekend.

Under Condor’s Sandy Jet

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The shot I always think about wanting to get is looking straight down on a plane in flight. Long ago, I discussed doing this with the WHF team at Waukegan, but we never made it work out. The next best version is the shot from beneath straight up. This is not so good because the fuselage shape is disrupted by the wing and a blank sky is never as interesting as the ground beneath. However, I do still like to shoot this sometimes. In this case, it was a Condor A330neo coming into SEA. This one is in the sand colours that they have. Probably not the contrast I would have liked but so be it.

CFM56 Inlet

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I recently took an EasyJet flight from Glasgow to Southampton at the end of a work trip. I boarded from the front of the plane and, as we lined up on the steps, I found myself staring into the inlet of the CFM56 engine on this A320. The blade designs on this older generation of engine are not as complex as the newer LEAP engines but they are still interesting to me. The fan blades still have snubbers on this design and the textures of the metals and the inlet look cool.

Looking Down on Boeing’s Flightline

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The first flight a Boeing 737 makes will usually take it from Renton where it was assembled to Boeing Field – a short distance away – where the flight test facility is located. Here the jets will undergo production flight testing and acceptance testing before delivery to the customers. Given the rate of production, that means there will always be a lot of jets parked on Boeing’s ramp.

Last summer, when I was up the tower at Boeing Field, I had a good view straight along the flight line. Further up the ramp were the active jets while the spot closer to the tower (where there used to be a viewing area before Max problems meant Boeing needed to park jets wherever it could find space) tends to be used for jets that are likely to be stored for longer – planes that were going to a customer that went bust for example.

I Finally Caught the Carbon China Airlines A350

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China Airlines has a livery which is fine but not terribly exciting. When they started taking delivery of their Airbus A350s, they had one delivered in a special scheme that had a blue carbon fibre style of design, similar to that which Airbus has painted on one of the development aircraft. This plane had been elusive to me. I had wanted to photograph it for a long time.

My frustration mounted further when I had been in LA for work. I was walking from the hotel to the airport to return home when I looked to my right and saw the jet on short final just a little way north of me. I had my camera with me (in the bag!) and, if I had paid attention, I could easily have got a shot. Instead, I was caught off guard and missed the opportunity.

All of this led to me being really pleased when I was waiting in Heathrow’s Terminal 5 for a flight for work and I saw the plane was on approach. Shooting through windows is never ideal but I wasn’t going to miss the chance this time. The light was nice, and the plane was easy to catch so I finally managed to get a few shots of this cool looking jet.

Reflection Removing – Choose Settings Wisely

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A previous post had looked at what was, at that time, a development feature in Photoshop that removed reflections from images. Adobe puts development items in Photoshop first to get user experience with them before rolling them out to the software suite. Since Camera Raw and Lightroom’s develop module are basically the same, once it becomes a production item, it also makes it into Lightroom. Such is the case with the reflection removal tool.

I have used it a few times on shots, and it does work pretty well. It isn’t perfect but can be effective. I tried it out on a Typhoon that was refuelling from a Voyager. Shooting through the windows of the Voyager can be a bit tricky and the reflection removal tool can really help. I gave it a go, and the reflection was swiftly taken out. However, when I checked the rest of the image, I saw that a lot of detail in the shot was gone. It was at this point that I realised that the tool has three settings. I was on Preview. I switched to Best and, while the processing took a lot longer, lo and behold the detail was restored.

I have the overall photo above with the before and after versions for a comparison. Beneath I have two crops of the larger image with the Preview and Best settings. I won’t say which is which, but I think it should be pretty obvious. The tool defaults to Preview when you use it so, if you give it a try, don’t be put off if the initial results are disappointing. Make sure to experiment with the settings.