Tag Archives: washington

Night Touchdown

I posted about some night photography I tried on jets approaching SeaTac. After finishing that up I was heading to the terminal to pick up my colleague and I decided to go for a shot of touchdown in the dark. This was not going to be an easy one to get since it is really pretty dark at the north end of the airport so little ambient light. I was relying on the lights of the jet and pushing the ISO to a really high level. It is true that the noise gets really tough in those conditions but when looking at the image at a normal size, it really is not a big deal. Besides, it is a shot we would never have done in pre-digital days.

Shooting From On The Field At SEA

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Some of the best shots are taken when you have access to the airfield. Sadly, that is not a simple thing to arrange. However, if the flight you arrive on has to hold prior to crossing the runway, you have a better chance of getting some shots of aircraft departing off the runway you are waiting to cross. This does involve shooting through the windows of the aircraft which are not great at the best of times and on the recent Alaska flights I have taken, have been pretty crappy. Still, it was fun to try and get some shots, even with the limitations of my older M6.

Lots Of Light Rail Trains Ready To Go

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I visited the Sound Transit operations and maintenance facility in the south part of Seattle for meeting recently. This is the original facility but they have added one in Bellevue and another will be built in Federal Way in the coming years. Plenty of the trains were parked in the storage tracks including the original cars and the new ones getting delivered by Siemens for the extensions due to open soon. Too good to pass up the chance to grab some shots with my phone.

Coyote Comes To The Lake

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I went to Juanita Bay in Kirkland on a sunny Saturday afternoon to have an experiment with the R3. I wanted to try shooting something different and the bay is always a good spot for some wildlife activity. I was standing on one of the boardwalks, chatting to a couple of photographers that had a similar idea. We had just been discussing a bobcat one of them had seen in the area near us when I looked across and saw some movement in exactly that area.

It wasn’t a bobcat which was a shame. However, it was a coyote. It walked over in our direction, heading for a carcass of a fish that had apparently been there for a few days. It stopped briefly and then turned around and headed back into the bushes. I managed to get a few shots of it before it was out of a clear line of sight.

Chilly Hilly 2022

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The Cascade Bicycle Club organizes a few large rides throughout the year and March is the time for the Chilly Hilly. This is a ride around Bainbridge Island which means taking the ferry from Seattle across to the island. I was going to do the ride with a friend of mine but he got injured prior to the ride so I ended up doing it alone. Not many photos from the ride but I did record some video on a GoPro and that result of that is below. It wasn’t too chilly but it was definitely hilly! No video from the big climbs. Too much effort went in to not grinding to a halt!

MD-500 Doing Something Odd

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It might be an old design but the MD-500 still holds some fascination for me. It is an agile machine and has a five bladed rotor which gives it a distinctive sound. Paint it in a sinister paint scheme and I am sold. This one was flying around at Boeing Field when I was down there recently and I got to shoot it a lot as it was flying a lot of pattern work. (I missed a cracking shot of it as well but that is a different story.)

The first time I was shooting it, I could see some flashing light coming from inside the cockpit. Looking at the shots afterwards, the guy in the right seat was using some device which would flash periodically. I am not a specialist on helicopters but I do know the rotor tracking is a thing that has to be done so I wondered if this device was a strobe to freeze the blades to allow them to be tracked. Anyone know whether it is.

The second time I was shooting it, the pattern was reversed so I got to see the other side of the airframe. Some cabling was clearly taped to the outside of the fuselage and then going in through one of the doors. No idea whether this was for the same purpose or something else. All good suggestions (and maybe some silly ones) are welcome.

Ice(Block)Breaker

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I have already shared quite a few shots from the Lego Awesome exhibit in Seattle. One of the creations they had on display was an icebreaker. This was a big beast and, in keeping with a lot of the pieces, it was cut in half to show the interior. The boat itself would have been an amazing build but the interior elements were fantastic.

To show all of the elements would result in loads of images and that isn’t going to be so good to work your way through so I have cut it down to a few shots to give you an idea of what they had done. The internal parts of the ship were reproduced and there were all sorts of Easter eggs scattered throughout like aliens that had been recovered from the ice. The ship was even pitching up at an impressive angle on a sea of blocks that was a great piece of work on its own. I think icebreakers are neat looking ships so to have one made on this scale, in Lego, and with so much little detail was a lot of fun for me.

Team USA Delta A330

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Delta was the official airline of the US Olympic team during the Winter Olympics in China. They painted one of their A330s with Team USA colors. I knew it had been in and out of Seattle a few times but I had either not had a chance to go and see it or it was in crummy conditions. Finally it was due in early one weekend morning so I headed down to SeaTac to catch it. The forecast was not great but I had a feeling that the early sun might hang around and, for once, I wasn’t wrong. The light was generous and the plane came in on the right runway to get a good shot.

Long EZ Action

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There is a Rutan Long EZ that lives at Arlington and flies pretty regularly. The Long EZ is a fun plane just because it is so different from the average. The tandem cockpit is not unique – there are plenty of RVs that give you that – but combine it with the rear wing and the fore plane plus the wing tip fins and you have a far more interesting configuration. Consequently, I want to find some times to get good shots of it.

The one at Arlington has flown a few times while I was there, and I have got these shots. However, I haven’t really got something of it that I really like yet. Let’s hope for a combination of good weather and timing and maybe I shall get something I am more pleased with. In the meantime, I shall continue to get what I can.

Edmonds Ferries In The Sun

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A change of plans caused by reduced ferry services at Mukilteo meant we found ourselves at Edmonds having a stroll along the shore. It was a lovely sunny Saturday if a little cool and breezy. The ferries to Kingston from Edmonds were running a full service and you know I can’t resist getting the odd ferry photo.