A Second Attempt – With Better Planning

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In a recent post, I told the story of my less than successful efforts to photograph the Flying Scotsman at the Watercress Line. In that entry, I mentioned how much public attention the loco gets. Given the number of large steam locomotives that there are in the country, it is interesting just how much more this one attracts visitors. If it helps the railways get some additional revenue, it is surely a good thing. Seeing as I had messed up getting photos on that occasion, I decided to try again the following weekend. The weather forecast was far nicer. Moreover, I spent a load of time thinking about what I would do. Even then, as I headed out in the morning, I had a couple of options with the things I was bringing.

I took two cameras with me and the Insta360 as well. I also had a clamp mount which I hadn’t decided whether I would use for the Insta360 of the second camera. I figured I would decide when I got there. Since the weather was nice and the Scotsman is popular, I worried that it might be pretty busy. There are limited parking spaces on the lane near the crossing I was going to, so I headed out in plenty of time. Of course, when I arrived, there was no one else around. Plenty of time to now kill!

I walked up to the crossing and found it empty. This gave me loads of time to decide on what to do. I had brought some PocketWizards with me. If I was going to use the second camera, these would be used to trigger that body.

As I unwrapped the PocketWizards, I realised that the Velcro cover I used for them would also make a nice wrap for the Insta360 handle. I attached it to the fence and wrapped the handle to the fence posts, and it provided a nice secure fit which meant I know had the clamp mount available. The Insta360 is controllable from my phone, so I was able to leave it fully extended and just activate it from the app when ready. I did a test with it when it stopped recording after 20 seconds. I have no idea why it did that so tried a couple of further recordings which all worked fine so I decided that was good to go.

While the PocketWizards can be used to trigger the second body when the first is firing, I didn’t actually want that. The two bodies were set up for different shooting scenarios – the long lens would cover the approach of the train but, during that time, it would be so far away that there would be no benefit to shooting with the wide-angle lens. Similarly, once it was close enough for the wide angle, the long lens would already be too much so I would have stopped shooting with it. Consequently, I handheld the PocketWizard and triggered it by hand when required.

I clamped the mount to the bottom of the fence with the camera at ground level looking up at the approaching train. I normally use back button focus but I don’t think that would activate via the PocketWizard, so I switched it to front button for focus and exposure. The joy of a flexible screen is that you can frame up the shot without having to be a contortionist which is good news for those of us with a few years under our belts. With everything set up, I set off a few test shots to see if everything was working. It all seemed good so now it was time to wait.

I was expecting one or two movements before the Scotsman which would give me a chance to test things out. There is a shuttle that is used to take people from Ropley to Alresford for the main event so I figured that would come through. It would be going the wrong way but would allow some practice. However, there was more than I expected. The first thing to appear was a steam loco running light in reverse from Ropley. Turned out that it was the Scotsman heading from Ropley to Alresford to join the train. That was a nice option but, of course, it had no coaches and, since it was running downhill, it wasn’t making much power. The shuttle also ran back, and forth which gave me some practice while another train rain down to Alresford for a service that would come after the Scotsman had departed for its first run.

All of this provided me with time to play around with the set up and make sure all was working the way I wanted. Then it was time for the reason for being there. The train departed Alresford pretty much on time. Since it is quite a climb up to Ropley, the loco was making lots of power and there was a banking engine on the rear too. The smoke could be seen through the gap in the trees, so we knew it was coming. Eventually it came around the corner in the cutting, and we could get some shots.

I started the Insta360 first and then proceeded to get some longer shots as it approached. As it got closer, I dropped down and photographed through the fence to look up at the loco as it came closer. Then I switched to the PocketWizard and took a bunch of it as it passed. I have no control on where the camera chooses to focus in that situation, but I was rather happy with the results. I even got some interesting shots of the driver and one of the passengers leaning out of the window. Then I took a few shots of the train as it retreated. That was very backlit, but it still made for an interesting view. And then it was done! All of that prep for a brief moment.

The people rapidly scattered and I started disassembling the things I had put in place. I had brought a small stool with me but that had never been used. Too much messing with gear or chatting to the others that had come alone. It was a very friendly atmosphere and made you feel good about being out on a sunny Saturday morning. I retraced my steps to the car. As I walked along the lane, I heard another whistle and pulled up the camera I had on a strap around my shoulder. The train that had run down to Alresford earlier was now making its run. It was skylined on the ridge above me and I just happened to be by a gap in the hedge so was able to grab a few remaining shots. Then it was time to head home.

Aer Lingus Regional ATR on the Ramp

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I have made a few trips through Southampton Airport recently. On one of these, I arrived back there in the evening. There are no jet bridges at Southampton. You come down the steps, walk across part of the ramp and in a door to the baggage reclaim. This takes you past whatever other planes are parked up. An Aer Lingus ATR was on the ramp with the lights making it look rather cool. I grabbed some quick shots with the phone before any of the staff could complain about me dawdling!

Piglets in Longstock

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Walking through the village of Longstock, we looked across a yard and saw a family of piglets with a sow feeding on the other side. It seemed that the fence they were near was actually for a park, so we walked around the edge to the park entrance and backtracked to see if the piggies were still close in. Sure enough, there they were. Much feeding was underway, but the piglets were also jumping around and messing with each other as kids are prone to do. At one point, one of them upset another and it let out such a squeal that we were both startled by the noise. It was something else.

They were definitely cute looking little creatures. After briefly being interested by our arrival, they rapidly lost interest and were back to eating and bugging each other. Just the occasional look up to see what is going on. We left them to it and continued our walk.

Filming With a Squirrel

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When we lived in Chicago, it was a regular thing to see filming underway for either movies or TV shows. One morning, as I walked to work, I was bemused by someone running alongside a bus banging on the side when clearly another would be along in a minute. Then I realised it wasn’t a CTA bus and there were cameras filming the whole thing. The bigger productions would often involve aerial camera work.

I actually did a number of pieces on this for GAR over time. There was a local operator that would do some filming work with a Twin Squirrel. However, some of the larger film productions had their preferred operators. Michael Bay would use Helinet out of California. This business was run by Alan Purwin, and we ended up spending some time together. During a previous Transformers filming session, I had got some photos of the cameraship and had shared them with him. The plan had been to meet up but an accident occurred on the set and the filming was curtailed.

When another Transformers move came to town, we did get in touch. I will have a few more posts to come that cover this time. For the first post, I am including some images of the helicopter in action filming various sequences around the city. The camera was mounted in a large, stabilised turret on the front of the fuselage while a ballast weight was mounted under the rear to keep the CG within limits. That turret would change later as will be seen in another post.

Messing Up Photos of the Scotsman

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The Watercress Line had arranged for the Flying Scotsman to make a visit to the railway. This locomotive seems to really capture the attention of the public, so it was a major event for them. They even lengthened the platform at Alresford to allow longer trains to be formed meaning more passengers could be carried. They were running on two consecutive weekends, and my sister was interested in seeing it. I was always going to be game for a photo trip. She could only do one weekend of the two and I only had one day free that weekend so that was going to be the one.

Sadly, the weather wasn’t being very cooperative. It was very overcast and there was a decent chance of rain. Even so, there were plenty of people out at the crossing we were going to when we got there. Plenty of space for everyone but definitely popular. As the time for the loco approached, I changed a setting on the camera for a higher frame rate and got in position. I decided to take a couple of quick shots before it came in to view just to check all was well. It wasn’t!

As soon as I hit the shutter button, the screen was covered in a “Busy” message. This caught me out. It wouldn’t go away quickly. I turned the camera off, but it still took a while. When it came back on, I tried again and the same thing. This time I pulled the battery and reset. Third time the result was the same. By now the loco was coming into view. Since I didn’t know what the issue was and time was ticking, I tried switching over to video and that worked so I instead videoed the train as it came by.

The video was fine but not great and, if I had planned for that, I would have done things slightly differently. However, it did recover the situation to some extent. The video I took is below.

Once the train had gone, I went home and then pulled out the camera to see what had occurred. I had made a very dumb error. It would have been easily fixed too. When changing the frame rate, I had accidentally switched to the HC mode on the R3. This is the mode that allows 194fps in short bursts of up to 50 frames. Once you shoot like this, it locks up the buffer until everything has been written to the card. Then it is ready to shoot again. What a dope. Oh well, it wasn’t a total disaster and my sister got to see the train which was the main point of being there in the first place. However, now I was thinking about a second effort. More to come…

More Airliner Crossing Shots

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While up near Heathrow, while I was mainly bothered about the arriving airliners, there were a lot of high-altitude aircraft criss-crossing the skies. Every once in a while, their paths would look like they would converge. Obviously, they were at different altitudes so nothing that special, but I did find myself tracking them to see if I could get something like a crossing shot.

It wasn’t to be. A few got pretty close but never was I to get the really cool shot of a crossing. Never mind. Here are a few of the ones that got closer during the day.

Snowdrops Were Why We Were at Welford

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I previously posted about the grounds at Welford Park and, as I noted in that post, our reason for being there was the snowdrops. Today I am continuing my excessive posting about snowdrops, and I promise that this will be the last snowdrop post for this year – probably. I was worried that the flowers might have already peaked before we got there but I needn’t have worried. The woodlands were still carpeted with the white blooms. Here are some images that I got as we strolled around.

This Paint Job Would Have Been Quick

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This Brussels Airlines A320 came into Heathrow one weekend. I am not sure even now what the livery is supposed to represent. All I know is that I love it and am delighted that they went to the effort to paint the jet like this. I am assuming there are a ton of vinyls involved in this rather than having it all hand painted but, either way, it looks amazing. If it was painted, that is even better. What a great change from the average livery.

Feeding the Birdies

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At the end of a walk we took in the New Forest, we were almost back at the car when we saw a gate with a load of little birds on it. At first, I didn’t understand why but then it became apparent that someone had left a load of seed on the gate for them. Then a lady walked up and told me that she was the one responsible for the food. It was very effective!

There was a wide variety of birds including blue tits, coal tits, great tits, finches and nuthatches gorging on the goodies. This meant getting shots was relatively easy. Small birds don’t hang around long in any one spot – they are pretty twitchy (see what I did there?). Consequently, getting photos can be tricky. However, when you know where they are going to be it makes getting shots a lot easier. I even got some of arrivals and landings. However, these were not well focused or with fast enough shutter speeds to be worth sharing but that is something I can fix another time.

Little birds are really interesting when you get close to them. They have colouration that is worth checking out and adopt poses that make them look like they are curious about what is around them. I spent a fair bit of time getting pictures, but it was still a cold winter morning, and Nancy was beginning to lose enthusiasm, so I headed off. Now I know what food they like, I might have to look out for good lighting conditions and go back with more of a photographic focus (no pun intended).

Reunited With DA2

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In September 1990, I started work at what was then British Aerospace at Warton in Lancashire. I was part of the aerodynamics department so couldn’t have been happier fresh out of an aeronautical engineering degree. The walk from our office to the staff canteen could be done along the road but, why do that when you can cut through the hangars. 2 Hangar was the easiest route and also happened to be the location where the front fuselages for the Eurofighter were being assembled.

The programme went through a reworking as the German government considered its continued role post the end of the Cold War, but it did end up continuing even if one of the prototypes was deleted and the others got renamed. The first two planes were P01 and P02 which were German and British respectively. They became DA1 and DA2. DA2 made its first flight while I was away on a project, but I got to see it fly shortly after I returned.

I then got to see it fly a lot over the coming years. Initially it was in a grey paint scheme but, when it had the pressure mapping sensors fitted, it was painted black overall. I recall there was a justification for this, but I always felt it was because the initial Rafale had been painted black and looked really cool.

Military aircraft prototypes don’t usually have a long life. Usually, the development programme means that they are quite different from the final article and so not a useful platform for continued development. As instrumented versions of the production aircraft come online, the prototypes are superfluous. That was the case for DA2, and it found its way into the RAF Museum’s collection at Hendon. It is suspended from the roof of one of the hangars. This makes for a dynamic pose rather than just standing on its gear. However, it is a bit more limiting from getting angles on it.

Thankfully, the museum has a couple of balconies at that end of the hangar that you can access so you can try a variety of different positions to get a shot. There is always a problem with a black painted aircraft when photographing it indoors. The light is a bit limited and the backgrounds are quite bright compared to the subject. Definitely some challenges with taking the images and then processing them to show what you want without making it look wrong. Then again, that’s part of the fun, I guess. It was fun being reunited with a plane that I haven’t seen for a very long time, and I am glad that it has found a home that means many people can get to enjoy it too.