Tag Archives: photo

Anatomy Of A Special Weapon

Many moons ago, I was walking around the RAF Museum at Cosford when I was taken aback to see a “special weapon” on display. I didn’t realize that they had been declassified so, to see an inert one on display was rather a shock. Now they crop up all over the place. The Boscombe Down Aviation Collection at Old Sarum has one on display. It has been cut open to reveal the various elements of what turns a small amount of metal into a large amount of energy! Amazing to think so much destruction can be done wrought with so little!

Penultimate Boeing 747

Leave a Reply

By the time this post goes live, the last production 747 will have been delivered long ago and will be in service. As the countdown to the last jet was underway, the interest in the remaining jets off the line went up significantly. The penultimate jet to be built was also for Atlas Air and was branded for their contract supporting Kuehne + Nagel. I saw a few shots of it appear online as people got it arriving in some gorgeous lighting. Sadly, I couldn’t be there for that but I did manage to get it arriving from a test flight one afternoon. The light wasn’t fantastic, but it was okay. After this one, there was only one more to go.

Snowdrop Carpets

Leave a Reply

Not far from where we were staying while in the UK and en route to the wedding venue was Welford Park. Nancy was interested in this place because it is the location for the filming of Bake Off. However, it isn’t normally open to the public. Spring is the one exception when the snowdrops flower in huge numbers in the woods on the estate and they open up for visitors. Fortunately, the timing of this coincided with our visit so we scheduled a stop on our way to the wedding.

The weather was not looking like it would play ball. Just as we arrived in the parking area – a field – the heavens opened. We figured it was the UK so things could change quickly so waited it out. Sure enough, ten minutes later the sun was out and we headed in. There were a couple of times when the rain threatened again but we stayed basically dry, and we walked around the wood checking out the snowdrops.

They weren’t kidding. We saw quite a few as we walked into the estate but then we got to the woods and the place was carpeted with them. At first, I thought it was just the distance that made it look so dense but, no, when you got closer, it was really that many flowers. We wandered around the grounds taking them all in. It didn’t take too long, of course, before you started to get a little blasé about just how many there were. Sure, more snowdrops! No biggie!

Delta/LATAM Comes in After Dark

Leave a Reply

Delta picked up a few ex-LATAM Airbus A350-900s as part of that airlines restructuring during the downturn in the airline business caused by the pandemic. They went initially in to storage and then have been progressively moved to Singapore for updating to the Delta configuration. Seattle has been the location for them to come through on their way to Asia. I have missed a few but one was due to come through when I could see it. Sadly, it departed a little late from Victorville and was showing due in after dark.

Since it was an unusual movement, I figured it was still worth the effort. I would use the 500mm since it has a wider aperture and test the low light capabilities of the camera to the full. It still meant some very low shutter speeds but I let the tech compensate for my low skill levels. I was pleasantly surprised by how well some of them came out given the lack of light. Since this shoot, I did also reprocess with PureRAW3 and this improved the quality of the shot further.

Mergansers Show Up Before the Sun Does

Leave a Reply

We have a bunch of birds that are regulars at Juanita Bay which I will still photograph but that don’t stand out. Then, when you walk along the shore and you see a flash of something different, you quickly change direction. I was walking along the shore back towards the park when a white bird came into view and I saw it was a merganser. I reversed course and managed to get some shots before it too reversed course and disappeared behind the foliage. I was able to get some further shots further across the bay later, but they weren’t as close as this initial encounter. Sadly, the sun had not come up very far. It was a sunny morning, but it was midwinter and the trees were providing plenty of shade this early in the day.

Blackbird Air Park

Leave a Reply

Alongside, connected to but not part of Joe Davies Historic Airpark is Blackbird Airpark. On the south side of Palmdale’s airport, this area pays tribute to some of the most iconic products from Plant 42 across the airfield. Lockheed’s Skunk Works turned out some amazing aircraft and this exhibit includes an A-12, an SR-71, a U-2 and an D-21 drone. Having an A-12 next to an SR-71 is pretty special. You have to look closely to see which is which. A selection of black airframes together in the desert sun does not make for easy photography and there are lots of power lines and fences in the background but it would be churlish to complain too much. It is free after all!

Crabs Hunting in the Rocks at Edmonds

Leave a Reply

Nancy and I were walking along the shore in Edmonds and decided to stroll out on the fishing pier. This follows the line of the breakwater for the marina and the large rocks that the breakwater is constructed from make for a good habitat for wildlife. We saw a starfish on one area but, since they don’t move too quickly, it was not much fun to watch. However, there were a couple of crabs lurking down there. One was just hanging in its little space waiting for something to come its way. Another was a lot more active and was making good progress across the rocks. I got a bunch of still shots but also played with a little video as you can see below.

C-17 Comes to Tidy Up

Leave a Reply

The visit of the VP has resulted in two posts so far but there is a third! Once everyone had headed off, there were still a bunch of vehicles to be dealt with. As everyone was tidying up, a C-17 showed up on the approach to Boeing Field. It touched down and headed to Modern Aviation. I assume all of the vehicles will have been loaded up in it for transport to wherever they were needed next. I have to admit that I didn’t hang around to watch the loading or see the departure. It was time for me to head off so I will trust that is what they did.

Roof Replacement – Old Style

Leave a Reply

A previous post included some shots of the village of Longparish in Hampshire and many of those houses were thatched. As we walked through the village, we came upon a house that was in the process of having its roof replaced. The thatcher that was working on the roof was gathering more material together while his apprentice was up on the roof itself.

He chatted to us for a while as he worked. He talked about how long it takes to replace a roof and how everyone wants to do his job when it is a sunny day but not so much when the weather is less appealing. The roof can have a life of about 20 years, so it seems to last as long as roofs do here in the Pacific Northwest! The ridge section has a tougher life, and it needs replacement about every ten years. Apparently, some customers will spread the cost by having one side of the roof done at one point and the other half in ten years time.

The new thatch is quite light colored and, as it weathers, it turns a lot darker to give the finish that is more familiar. There are little stakes that are upset to hold the material in place. He was preparing a few of these as we talked, and he explained just how many thousands of them were needed for a whole roof. It is a substantial job to replace. Given how many houses in the area are thatched, I wonder how many craftsmen can be supported. He had come quite a distance so maybe there aren’t that many thatchers left or else he does such a good job that he is demand far and wide!

Shooting at SEA After Sunset

Leave a Reply

One of the things that photographers that have only used digital cameras can’t appreciate is ability to shoot in low light conditions. When I was shooting film, you were already struggling with image quality with ISO 400 film. Early digital cameras got very noisy as the ISO got ramped up but, these days, the capabilities of shooting in very low light are truly amazing for those of us that are old enough to remember what it was like. ISO1000 black and white film was adventurous!

Now I feel quite comfortable trying all sorts of silly things. I had gone down to SEA one evening to try and get a departure that was possibly going out just before sunset. Sadly, it didn’t play ball and the sun was gone by the time it headed out. However, I was there and the camera can do silly ISO numbers so why not. It still needs to drop the shutter speed down quite low but, with a fast burst rate, the chances of getting a reasonable shot are not bad.

I figured I would play around with shooting departure shots as the last of the light was fading away. It was more about trying something different rather than aiming for the perfect shot. I did have some interesting planes to play with but also plenty of Alaska 737s. The light was pretty dim and ISO51200 is quite something to work with but the image quality is really very impressive considering what conditions you are shooting in.