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Air France Tries Everything At SEA

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Airlines seem to be consolidating their fleets these days with less and less types showing up.  I am sure that this is true for Air France too but, recent experience at SEA feels like the opposite.  We seem to have been the destination for a lot of the Air France long haul fleet.  We have had 777s coming in here for a while.  I imagine that they will be the ones we won’t see much of again but you should never bet on that.  The 777-300ERs are likely to be around for a while, even if the -200ERs go away.

Then we have had the A330s and the A350s.  I like the look of the A350 so was pleased to see them bringing that on this route.  I had wrongly assumed that, with the A350 being deployed here, that was going to be a regular feature.  Instead, we have now got 787s coming in.  I was north of the airport when I got to shoot a 787-9 lining up for approach.  When I have looked more recently, that is the jet showing on the schedule.  Who knows what we will get next?  I am pretty certain it won’t be the A380!

Coming Home Over The Mountains

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My return journey from Chelan brought me over Stevens Pass on a sunny day.  I had a schedule to get back for another meeting so wasn’t able to loiter too much but I still managed to take a few minutes out to stop and grab a couple of shots.  There aren’t many places to stop going over Stevens Pass but, coming down from the summit heading west, there is a pull out and so I made my first use of that.  I also stopped coming in to Index to grab a snack from the coffee hut there which has a nice view of Mount Index.

Territorial Goose With Attitude

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As the days get longer, love is in the air and this includes the world of geese.  Suddenly the geese get very territorial both about potential mates and potential nesting locations.  Fights can break out with very little warning.  One of the geese in Juanita Bay was definitely in no mood for any competition.  It was taking on anyone that happened to be in the way, whether they were a threat or not.  Not just one at a time, either.  A few other geese were in the area and they each got a dose of its attitude.

The flurry of activity when geese start sparring can often be intense but brief.  In this case, the aggravation continued for quite a while.  One goose would lunge at the others and they would settle again before he came at them once more.  Much splashing of water, flapping of wings, honking and waving of tongues ensued.  The goose that was chasing the others would be mouth open and tongue out as it charged at them.  The tongue is a nasty looking thing on a goose.  Lots of barbs on its surface.

After a few charges back and forth across the inlet, the others started to get the message.  They took off and headed across the bay.  The main goose was not satisfied yet, though.  He took off after them and chased them well across the bay before deciding that the message had been received upon which he returned to the inlet to be ready for the next round of intruders.

Shooting After Sunset

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For a while, I had been thinking about trying to do some night photography of airliners.  I had seen some good shots people had got but SeaTac does not have a lot of ambient light to illuminate aircraft flying overhead.  It would be better if there was a large public space under the approach that would provide so brightness to work with.  I was down at SeaTac to pick up a colleague and knew I would be there as the sun went down so I decided to have a go at some shots.

I used the 70-200 f/2.8 to get as much light as possible.  The sun was going down so I was going through quite the transition of lighting conditions.  Some were just twilight while other were when things were getting quite dark.  The autofocus was also struggling since the center point was being used and the underside of the jet lacked much contrast in the dark.  I still got a few usable images.  The lack of light means they aren’t too great but it was fun to try something different.  Now to find a better location!

How Many Turtles Is Too Many Turtles?

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Turtles are a common sight in Juanita Bay.  There are some logs in the shallows that attract the turtles when the sun is out.  They come up from the depths and bask on the logs to warm themselves up.  On a given day, there will usually be a bunch of them.  What I had not seen before was quite so many of them.  The logs were full of turtles and those that couldn’t find a spot had climbed on top of those that could.  One of the kids was counting them and came up with over 60 of them in this one little area.  It was quite the turtle fest.

Wilson’s Snipes Got The Twitchers Excited

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I am not a bird expert so, while I can recognize a variety of different birds, there are plenty that I have absolutely no clue about.  However, Juanita Bay is a popular spot with the ornithologists and I can learn a bit from them.  A couple was chatting with me on one of the boardwalks about Wilson’s Snipes.  They thought they could see them on one of the shoreline areas but couldn’t be sure.  I bumped in to the same people on the other side of the shore and they confirmed that the snipes were there.

At first they were pointing out a couple of them.  As we spent a bit more time watching, it turned out that there were loads of them.  They weren’t easy to see given how well their camouflage worked but, once you had got the hang of it, finding the others got a lot easier.  I don’t think this is a rare bird so this wasn’t an amazing discovery that we were making but they were still pretty excited about it so I was too.

Waterfront Birds

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Walking along the shore at Edmonds, a few birds were flying around near me.  I did get a cormorant which is good and, while I don’t know many birds, I think some of these might be mergansers.  Anyone into their birds that can confirm or deny?

Alaska Max Jets On Test

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I got a couple of Alaska Max jets on test on the same day recently.  One was still unpainted but the colors were on the rudder and winglets so it was easy to see where it was going.  The other jet was already fully painted and probably close to delivery.  With me now traveling a little bit more and that travel being with Alaska, maybe I shall get to travel on one before too long.  We shall see…

Heron On The Hunt

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Herons are not known for being too happy about people nearby but the ones in Juanita Bay are very used to the people on the boardwalks and they don’t seem to be bothered about how close they are.  I had spent a fair bit of time on one boardwalk chatting to some photographers and we had discussed the heron that was over by the next boardwalk.  As we headed our separate ways, I figured I would go across to see if I could get any shots of the bird.

The light was fading fast so I was shooting at higher ISOs than I would have liked but I was pleasantly surprised that the R3 seemed to have a cleaner result than I would have expected with the 1DXII.  Technology does move on of course, but I think thinks have plateaued a bit in that area so this was a nice result.  The heron was quite close in and, since I only had the 500 with me, I had to chose my location carefully.  The eye tracking did a pretty impressive job with the bird as long as it was not looking directly at me (or away of course).

I did got with high frame rates to try and catch strikes with the food.  Unfortunately, the bird was not having a great time.  I got one strike but it was not a fish but a piece of bark.  Another “catch” provided to be a stick.  Maybe this heron is the sharpest bird in the bay.  Overall, I was pleased with the results and I was more happy about the ability to let the autofocus work across the image so I could compose how I wanted rather than based on the location of autofocus points.