Tag Archives: photo

Intelsat’s CRJ Thwarts Me with Weather

Testbed aircraft are the sort of thing I like to see and, when Intelsat brought their CRJ to Seattle, I was hoping to catch it. Sadly, its arrival and some initial flying were not at good times, so I didn’t get to shoot it. Then it was due out when I was heading to SEA for a trip of my own. However, the conditions were awful, and I could barely make it out in the gloom as it got airborne. Cameras – even with really modern tech – struggle to focus on something that is barely visible in the mist. I did have one last chance when it was taking off, but I was at the terminal at the time and could barely get some shots of it as it taxied and took off. After that, it left. I was frustrated throughout its time here. Will it return?

Malaysian Max Departure

Leave a Reply

A simple post today of a plane taking off. Nothing too special about this one. Just a regular Max 8 heading to Malaysia. Since it was a delivery flight, I knew the jet would be a bit heavier and would have a longer takeoff run. I was hopeful of rotation in a good place for me to get some shots. It didn’t disappoint. I do like the livery on these latest jets for Malaysian Airlines.

Status of the Stuka

Leave a Reply

When making my first visit to FHCAM after it re-opened, one of the things I was interested to know was whether the Stuka had made any further progress from when I last saw it or whether it was paused for restoration. Things looked like they had moved on a bit since I was last there, but it didn’t look obvious that a huge amount had happened so that could have been after I was there and before they closed down. It would be very cool to have a Stuka back in the air so we shall see if this one progresses. If anyone knows, please comment below. In the meantime, here are some shots of how it looks most recently.

Clipper Race Sailing Boats

Leave a Reply

The Clipper Round the World race has been underway for many years. It is a race of a single class of sailing boats/yachts (depending on where you live) with two qualified crew and the remainder are individuals that can pay to take part on one or more of the legs around the world. It starts and ends in Portsmouth and stops off at various cities around the world. It has been to Seattle since we have lived here but I never managed to get down there to see the boats.

I had a work event down at the harbor one evening when the boats had arrived. After the event, I took a few minutes to walk along the waterfront to see them tied up. I managed to get a few shots with my phone in the low light – how impressive phones can be in dark conditions – but couldn’t get any closer. Then I made an error. They were advertising that you could visit the boats to look around, so I headed down at the weekend with Nancy. There was no one to be found. Turns out, they weren’t doing tours that weekend. It had been a wasted trip (combined with it being a wet and windy day anyway). However, there is more to come on this topic.

Luke F-35s

Leave a Reply

I have never photographed at Luke AFB before. Mark and I spent a few hours there as part of our trip. The base is home to the F-35A training unit and a variety of foreign F-35A training too. Plenty of USAF F-35s were in the pattern that day. I got loads of shots of the based jets but, with the current style of low observability finishes, the jets did look very alike. Yes, there were crew names and unit badges to be seen but, sadly, one Luke F-35 looks a lot like another Luke F-35.

Family of Blackbirds Out for a Meal

Leave a Reply

A family of blackbirds was a regular sight in the front garden of the place we rented in Stockbridge. They were happily finding whatever they could eat in the grass. There appeared to be two parents with some youngsters in tow. The chicks were now pretty fully grown and seemed to have their feathers, but they were less interested in finding food than they were in having their parents do the work. I will let those of you with children make your own comments. The chicks actually looked a little larger than their parents, so they are probably eating well.

A Development Dash 8

Leave a Reply

I may have a soft spot for testbeds, but development airframes are also something that will interest me. While driving around Tucson International Airport, we were looking at the various airframes at one of the schools based on the field. There was a Dash 8 sitting in the yard. It had Series 200 markings on it and seemed to be a development airframe. With Mark being a Canadian, he was definitely pleased to catch this but I was too. It looks in surprisingly good shape.

What is Wrong with My Phone’s Longest Lens?

Leave a Reply

The quality of modern phone cameras is really impressive. I will often have the main camera with a longer lens and use the phone for the wider shots. Other times, it will be the only camera I have. Quite often I will shoot multiple images with the longest of the three lenses and then stitch them together when I get home. This can be quite effective. However, in playing with some images recently, I was getting very odd results from the shots. I shoot RAW on the phone, but I understand it isn’t a true RAW file but one that Apple’s software pre-processes to some extent. This seems to be resulting in some strange image qualities.

The shots will have the resolution that they are supposed to, and the file size is certainly large enough to suggest that is what is happening. However, the shots look ridiculously smudgy. Here are a couple of examples that show the problem. The Allegiant jet I shot at Mesa Gateway is a particularly bad example. It isn’t even the one shot. All three of them are rough. I have had some shots with really great quality from this lens on the phone so I have no idea why this should be bad. The odd thing is that, if I look into the file properties and compare with other shots with this lens, it shows a different focal length. If anyone has any experience or background on this, please let me know.

The A-26 Makes a Long Trip in the Rain

Leave a Reply

During the holidays and just before New Year, my friend Paul was in town for a day, so we did some exploring. The weather started out being less than ideal. We had swung by Renton to see if there was anything of interest and the A-26, Sexy Sue, was out on the ramp looking ready to head off. We debated which direction they would depart and which would be most suitable for shots. In the end, we stayed where we were figuring it would be too high at the lake end of the field. (That proved not to be the case with a very low departure!)

Our chosen location did give us a good view of start up and taxi out of the plane. They were flight planned to Oakland CA which struck me as quite a long trip to take in an A-26. Sure, in combat people would have done that and when they were corporate transports it would have been normal but there are more comfortable ways to travel these days. Anyway, before long, they were lined up and powered off. There was plenty of vortex action from the props in such a damp atmosphere but it probably looked better from other angles. With them gone, we jumped back in the car and decided to continue our adventures elsewhere.

A Shield Bug – Looks Like a Stinkbug

Leave a Reply

I was out in the garden of our place in Stockbridge and was surprised by how many ladybirds and flies I saw on the leaves. Then I saw something a bit different. I reminded me of the stink bugs we see in Washington. According to Ian, who was in the yard shortly afterwards, it is a shield bug. In all my years in the UK, I had never heard of or seen one of these. Now I have.