I Thought You Were a Dog and You Didn’t Know I Was There!

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I was walking along the River Crane looking to see if I could get a shot of the kingfisher I had seen briefly zipping by. I wasn’t having much luck, and I suspect my presence was enough to send the kingfisher elsewhere. As I looked up the river, I saw something running towards me. Plenty of people walk through the area and I assumed that someone was walking their dog and that it had run ahead. It was bounding towards me and, only as it got closer, it realised I was there. It was as surprised as I was because, at that point, I realised it wasn’t a dog. It was a muntjac. It bolted around me and across the bridge over the river. I barely got a sharp shot of it given that it was moving fast and I hadn’t been ready to take a shot. I wonder which of us was more surprised.

Shaw Vipers When They Were Yes or No

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Go back a long time and I find myself at Red Flag at Nellis AFB and in the fortunate position of being able to take a tanker ride to refuel some of the participants. I won’t go into the details of the flight itself since that is a tale of its own. Instead, I will focus on some F-16s. Most Red Flag exercises seem to include participation by Shaw AFB F-16s. They operate in the Wild Weasel role, and I guess there aren’t many SEAD units, so they get to come most of the time.

Red Flag media events were always a guessing game as to what would be allowable to photograph. Sometimes the Shaw jets were in and sometimes they were out. Sometimes you would only find out afterwards that they were out. On our tanker trip we had F-22s and Shaw F-16s. It wasn’t clear whether they would be allowed or not.

In the end, we shot the planes as they came up for fuel and the USAF team then took all of our cards to decide what we could have and what we couldn’t. This could involve things on the ground that couldn’t be photographed that we had accidentally caught as well as the planes themselves. In this case, the Shaw Vipers were okay, so our cards came back with them included (or at least most of them with some deletions along the way. Here are some of the shots from that day.

Stena Vinga Wasn’t Always Your Name, Right?

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While we were standing along the shore in Gosport awaiting the arrival of the HMS Prince of Wales, the normal traffic from Portsmouth was going about its business. A DFDS ferry was heading out to cross the channel to Jersey. Judging by its shape, it can accommodate a higher mix of freight. It doesn’t look like the regular cross channel ferries that resemble cruise ships these days! As it came closer, there appeared to be a different name built into the side of the hull. The name Stena Vinga had been painted over the top of the original name, but you could still see it. Hammerodde was its name before it was acquired by Stena and they have chartered it to DFDS apparently.

Concorde Fifty Years On

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I recently saw something that announced it was fifty years since the first commercial services operated by Concorde. Air France and British Airways operated simultaneous flights to commence operations (although to different destinations – I am pretty sure I recall from my childhood them both landing at Washington Dulles at the same time and parking nose to nose). I didn’t take a lot of photos of Concorde over the years, but I did get some. Here are a few old film scans of BA Concorde flying. Sadly, despite having seen it fly by my flat many times when a student, I never spent the time taking any shots.

If You Go, I Can Come Back to My Feeding Spot

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Nancy and I were driving back down from Kirkstone Pass towards our hotel. I pulled off into a lay-by to take some photos of the valley and the opposite hills. I got out of the car and took a number of shots and then got back in the car. Nancy asked me if I had got good shots of the deer. I had not even seen them. I got back out of the car and spooked them. This was the first time I had seen them, but they were very close to us. They ran down the hill and then stopped. I took these shots of them in the undergrowth as they stared at me. I guess they were just hoping I would soon get lost so they could get on with their meal. I obliged…

A Long Way to Salute!

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The Royal Jordanian Air Force brought a C-130 Hercules to RIAT in 2025. The aircraft had some special markings on it but the thing that caught my attention when reviewing the images was the crew member on the top of the fuselage. It is not uncommon to have someone open the top hatch to watch proceedings as the crew taxies in. In this case, he was saluting as they turned off the runway and continued to do so for almost all of the time they were taxiing in. He did wave to the crowd a couple of time but, otherwise, he saluted all the way past us. A good effort on his part.

St Peter’s Pump

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Sometimes your perspective can get you tricked into something you hadn’t intended. There is a trail north of the grounds at Stourhead that leads up to St Peter’s Pump. I had seen this on the map of Stourhead that they hand out and was interested in heading up there. When we walked out to the path, we could see the structure in the distance. It didn’t look too far away so we decided to head up. Nancy wasn’t sure about going the whole way but, as we got walking, she decided why not.

Neither of us had really judged it well. The route was a lot longer than it looked. As much as we kept walking, we never seemed to be getting any closer. Of course, eventually we did get there. The memorial was quite interesting and the hill beyond it looked rather steep, so we were quite happy that we had achieved our goal. The return walk was downhill and did seem to pass a lot quicker than the trip up. Maybe familiarity made it better or perhaps not staring at something that never feels like it gets closer was a benefit. As to why it is called St Peter’s Pump, I have no idea!

Only Slightly Better Prepared for the A340 This Time

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You might look at this image and ask, “why make a post about it?” That is a fair question I suppose. The first thing is it is an A340 so that might be enough for me. However, it is more about my luck with getting these European A340s as they operate in Bournemouth. This time I was walking with a longer lens. Last time I had one overfly me, I only had a short lens and so it was a bit distant. This was an improvement. However, this time it was a bit rainy and overcast so not great conditions. The specs of raindrops are clearly visible in the image. That might ruin it for me but, for some reason, this time I feel like it adds something that reflects my frustration with trying to get good shots of these jets. Whatever way I try and justify it, it doesn’t really matter. I just like it.

Serious Looking Yacht

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Whenever I see a large looking yacht in a harbour, I am apparently compelled to make a blog post about it. This one was in Lymington when we were catching the ferry to Yarmouth during the summer of 2025. When I saw it, I wondered just how nice it would be on board and what crew you would have to operate it. I suspect it would look rather good when under sail.

Qinetiq’s Attendees

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Some of my previous RIAT visits have included a selection of aircraft from the Qinetiq fleet. In 2025 I only saw a pair of aircraft from them. One was a King Air while the other was an AW139. The King Air didn’t look too special other than the raspberry ripple paint job. The AW139, on the other hand, is a helicopter that I think looks really good at any time. The livery suits it well and the crew made a pretty sporty arrival. It was nice to see both of them. Maybe some more airframes would be good next time.