Tag Archives: video

Spying on the Trout

On a few occasions, when we have been in Stockbridge, I have spent a bit of time watching the trout swimming in the river where it runs under the road and alongside the pavement. This has got me thinking about how to get some good video of them. I figured the Insta360 X3 might be something to try. The invisible stick is pretty long which would allow it to go into the water and the camera itself is waterproof. I was too sure how the image quality would work out but, when we went to the Trout’n’About festival in the town, I took the camera along.

Initially the arrival of the camera spooked the fish which was not a surprise but leaving it there for a while meant they got used to it. It didn’t hurt that some people were throwing food into the river which the fish were way more interested in. I wanted to use the app to control things, but the connection was lost when the camera was under the water. Instead, I just started recording before putting it in the water. The images are not great, but they do give a good view of the fish moving around. Check out some video below.

Video of TBAG’s Event

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I blew parts of this one. This video doesn’t have the best bit of what I saw but, if I hadn’t told you that, you’d probably not know. When the Buccaneer was being run up, they undertook a bunch of tests on various systems. The wings were folded and unfolded. The speedbrake was extended and retracted. The bomb bay was rotated. The bit I didn’t get for some reason was the blown flaps. To get the chunky Bucc on to the small decks of the UK carriers, they utilised flap blowing. Air was ducted from the compressors of the engines to the flaps and this improved the low speed lift. It had been raining when the demo was undertaken and the blowing of the flaps was really visible with the moisture getting blown around. Sadly, that is not in this video. Everything else is though.

Some Features Show Better in Video

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I was at Ryde one Saturday morning watching the Hovertravel service on a windy day. Because hovercraft are not in contact with the surface, there is no grip to counter any crosswinds. The technique for operating is therefore like flying a plane. You have to yaw into the wind to offset the drift the wind produces. When taking stills, you don’t really show this but, when watching it happen, the drifting is very obvious.

Consequently, video is the way to go. I got some clips of the hovercraft coming in, first over the water and then as it transitioned to the sand flats. For the hovercraft, the change of surface makes no difference. It does mean, when the wind is right, you can get head on shots when they aren’t coming straight at you!

Cygnets at the Pub on Friday Evening

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Friday evening and we headed to The Willow Tree, a pub in Winchester. The river runs either side of the pub and the garden narrows to a point as the river comes back together. While there are plenty of birds around, it isn’t often that you see anything swimming in the river. The occasional duck perhaps. We were quite surprised, therefore, to see a family of swans come swimming up towards us. The adults had four cygnets with them. They would go off exploring but then, one of the adults would make a few low noises and you’d see the cygnets head straight back to their parents. I figured video was more fun for this so that is what you have below.

Jackdaws After the Scraps

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There is a nice café and bar at the Marina over on the Duver in St Helens. When visiting, we have been known to stop over there for a snack or some refreshments. The local jackdaw population also really likes it. I don’t know whether they would consider buying their own stuff, but they do like to see what is left by any of the other patrons. They are definitely wary of the humans but, if you don’t move too much, they get progressively closer.

I find them fun to watch. Crows and ravens appeal to me anyway but the grey feathers around the head of the jackdaws make them look a little different. I got some wider views of them including some video. I did also go for some closer shots of the birds when they would be near enough for me to do so. The details in the feathers when you look close at them is really interesting to me.

Fat Albert Takeoff and Video of Return

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When I was up the tower at Boeing Field for Seafair last year, I got to play around a bit with what I shot of the Blue Angels C-130, Fat Albert. The takeoff was a straightforward as it was departing in our direction so photographing it as it left the ramp and then rotated and climbed past was the obvious choice for me. However, when it came to the return to landing, I was wondering what to do.

The threshold is a long way from the tower, so any shots of the landing were going to be quite distant and, given the heat haze, unlikely to be that good. I figured I might try video and, with the 200-800 having such good stabilisation, thought this might be practical. It turned out surprisingly well with the original video being pretty stable. I did apply a little extra stabilisation in Resolve afterwards. The worst elements are down to operator error where I had a few moments where I ended up moving the camera very jerkily and there is nothing that the post-production can do to fully disguise that! Shame I didn’t plan ahead enough and avoid having that happen when near the flare!

Time Lapse into National

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This is some older footage I took a while back when I was making a work trip to DC. I have done a bunch of these over the years. The phone allows you to get a good time lapse video (or I should say hyperlapse since it is a bit different) of the approach to landing. The countryside zips by in this type of video and you get the rapid changes in aircraft configuration along with the taxi in and shut down at the end of the flight. For those of you familiar with the northern Virginia area, you might well recognise some places. I did the same on the return leg into SEA as the day was ending.

More Variations on the Theme of a Tug

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I have posted previously about the tugs that get used at airports to push back the jets when they are departing. The big tugs with a tow bar are common in the US. You also get the ones that pick up the nose gear and push from there. While sitting at Heathrow waiting for a flight, I watched their latest approach. These are remotely controlled devices.

They also grab the whole nose-wheel and have a capture device that wraps around the tyres to hold tight. By the looks of them, they are electrically powered so will be recharged when docked somewhere presumably. The operator walks alongside them as they move across the ramp and when moving the planes. It doesn’t seem that fast compared to a normal tug and clearly it still has an operator. However, it looks like a cheaper unit to buy and operate along with lower emissions compared to a large tug. I assume that is why they make sense. Here is some video of them dispatching a jet.

Distant Farewell to the Pumas

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The RAF retired its Puma helicopter fleet at the end of March after 54 years in service. They undertook a tour of various parts of the country with three Pumas. Sadly, I wasn’t able to be in place for any of the flypasts. However, one of the last legs included a flight across London using the Thames helicopter route. I was working in the London office that day and so I did head up to the roof to see if I could see them. We are too far from the river to be in a good spot, but it was better than nothing. I also only had my phone. Stills were pointless so I decided to try and get some video instead. Here is what I got.

Twisting the Clouds

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I posted some shots of the Ethiopian Cargo 777F in another post. What I didn’t include in that was the lovely effect as it came down the approach. There was some low-lying cloud to the south of the airport and, as it came through this, the trailing vortices twisted the cloud up beautifully. Stills down’s always show this as well as you would like so I did shoot some video to try and capture the effect.