Countdown to London Skydrive 2021

Many events claim to be the best.  Who really knows?  And who really tabulates the information?  I've never been asked about ranking events.  Well, that's not really true.  I never answer anything.

All that being said, the London air show, on paper, looks to be really good.  London Skydrive 2021.  I bought a ticket last year, but that didn't work out so well.  I bought my ticket for the 2021 show in April, long before the border was open.  Have to have a little faith.

Well, the border is open.  Not just drive though open though.  There are still a few hurdles to clear.  First is to determine the requirements for border crossing.  From what I've read, you have to (maybe should?) register your trip or crossing.  There is an app for this.  So I've created an account.  My trip can't be registered until 72 hours prior.  And I can't register the trip until I have proof of a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours of my border crossing.  And there different Covid tests.   And not all of them are recognized for border crossings.

The pre-trip has been an interesting learning journey.

As to the show, there is a photo pit.  And there are still tickets.  But.....  From what I can see, there isn't much benefit from the location.  You're not by your car, there is no shade provided.  You're on the tarmac.  On a possibly sunny day.  Been there, done that enough times, it can/will get HOT.  I need to see this before I invest.

As to the show, part II:  Line up looks fantastic.  Headliners are the Canadian Snowbirds and the Blue Angels.  Supporting cast include CF-18 Hornet Demo Team, F-16 Viper Demo Team, E-2C Hawkeye, C-2 Greyhound, KC-135 Stratotanker, P-8 Posiden, Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin and HC-144 Sentry.  And a E-3 Sentry (AWACS).

Lots of first timers for me.  The CF-18 Demo team should be great.  They can decal up an aircraft.  And the Snowbirds are supposed to put on an excellent show.

This may sound odd, but the aircraft I want to see most is the AWACS.  The AWACS takes me back to Okinawa.  The AWACS had a detachment there.  This is a memory lane trip for me.

This is from the early 80's.  Yes. they had color film back then.  I would sit on a hill overlooking the runways to take shots with my Minolta XG-1.  And the film would be developed by a local Japanese firm.  I spent a lot of Yen on bad photos.  Hopefully another item off the memory lane bucket list.

So the airshow, for me, will begin Wednesday.  I'll get the Covid test.  I should test negative.  And that might be the easy part.  Then the pressure starts.  The hard part will be to capture the props and helicopters as always.

And then be able to cross back.

Southern Osprey - 2012

In the summer of 2012, I found myself in South Carolina.  Long time ago to be sure, and who really knows for sure.  Long enough that the statue of limitations for anything I may or may not have done have clearly expired.  What I do know for sure is I had gray hair then as I do now, and I had a D90 with 18-200 lens.  And just enough photo knowledge to be dangerous.

As part of that trip, we, C's family and I, hired a 'captain' to take us to through the deltas, or swamps or whatever that area is.  We found the guy in a triple A guide.  We called him.  He said he was out of business, for years.  We had a good laugh, but he said he could use some cash and needed to catch dinner for the next few days so we were on.  He said he didn't have the carter boat anymore, but had a smaller craft that would comfortably fit the four of us, plus him and the first mate.  When I heard that, thought of Gilligan and the three hour tour.  And three hours was just about the length of the cruise.  It was all coming together.

We met the captain at the appointed time and boat ramp.  The boat was large enough for 5.5 people.  The .5, first mate, was a full grown German Shepard.  This was going to be fun.  If we didn't wind up as alligator bait.

The captain was a great guy.  We hit the jackpot.  Great talker and story teller.  Our little adventure had more twists and turns.  As a child of the electronic GPS age, I was impressed on how we got back to the starting point before sundown.  But between the starting point and the ending point, we had a lot of fun.  We saw birds, gators and more birds.  I wasn't as savvy in the avian recognition talents as I am now.  Please hold the laughs.  And you could say, I wasn't as savvy in the photographic arts either.  Or as I will say now, building the blocks of experience.

I had the D90 and the 18-200 lens.  The lens is slightly better than a kit lens.  But good enough I still have it.  It's not going to EBAY.

I was re-visiting the photos this evening and I saw this one.  It is fair to say it was forgotten.  And it is fair to say at the time, I had no idea what I had photographed.  And I'm happy to see it was in RAW.  I can do this.

Even at 200 mm, the subject of the image was pretty small.  Perfect enlarging project for the evening.

Osprey with a Meal on a Dead Tree

NIKON D90/NIKKOR 18-200mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR II

200 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400

EV -0.67, APERTURE Priority, Size DX

Three years ago, I saw my first Osprey in Michigan.  I've been hooked on them since.  Along with the Eagles, my favorite targets when I go out.  In level flight, big and slow targets.  Once they go down vertical, the challenge begins.

This is as close as I can crop and keep everything pretty much in focus.  The fact the tree is interesting helps.  Looks good on the monitors.  No prizes, but good memories.

Pelican on Nav Aid 5 (2009)

While looking at old posts, one that stirred a few memories was from 2010, Birds on a Piling.  The photo is from a trip we took to the Carolina in August of 2009.  During the trip, we spent a day around Fort Fisher.  Which included a car ferry ride between the starting point and destination.  Which is short for all I know is a boat was involved.
If I recall, the ferry ride was about 45 minutes, with 30 minutes out of the car.  Lots of interesting 'subjects' along the way.
Some of these photos are fun to revisit.  The camera was a D80 and a kit lens.  Great for vacation photography.  It's interesting to look at the 'quality' of the shot compared to the sensors of today.
The D80 is a 10 MP versus the D500 21 MP.  10 MP and a kit lens.  Someone say resolution?
I always hear that no matter the equipment, a good photographer is a good photographer.  I'm going with that is true.  But in the 2008, 2009 years I was anything but good.  
In the 2020s however, the software can help.

Pelican on Nav Aid #5

NIKON D80/18.0-135.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

95 mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

Apparently this was shot in AUTO mode.  Was I ever that young?  Ha.
#itsaboutthejourney

Real Blast from the Past - CSX Car

The original post:  CSX Car.
Date of the post?  February 15, 2011.  Date of the photograph?  August 14, 2008.
I was just a child.  
Camera?  D80.  Lens?  Some kit lens.  Major software?  Elements and Photomatix.  Philosophy?  Luck.  I had a Nikon and I was on a roll.
As this is a blog of my photographic journey, my self imposed rules forbid me to delete any post.  The paying job will keep me up late tonight - way into the hours of Sunday morning.  So to pass some time, drifted back through the early day of the blog.  The cameras, the processing and stuff I was proud to post.

FYI - This image was added by a link to somewhere deep in Google.  Not sure if I'm impressed or scared.
Fortunately, I was shooting RAW at this time.  The fact I was shooting RAW should not be inferred to that I knew what I was doing at the time.  This may not be far from the truth that I didn't like what the JPG output looked like.  So it was RAW.  There was a time when I bounced back and forth between RAW and JPG.  Lucky for me, at this time I was shooting RAW.  This allows me to revisit the file.
This photo does have meaning for me.  I thought it was just another travel photo.  In the early days, my (over) use of HDR was not a favorite of the photo club.  I get it.  One, I was doing it way overboard.  Two, it was new and different.  But one of the club elders told me this was the best photo I submitted, based on subject.  He wasn't a fan of the post processing as much although this shot didn't offend him as most of my efforts had.  That meant a lot to me.  
The photo was clearly put through Photomatix.  My photo processing history system was in its infancy in those days, like all I have is the RAW file and the finished JPG.  Space must have been at a premium.  Now, I have JPGs of just about all the steps that are not in the PSD file.  
This photo was taken while we were on the Covered Bridge Tour, which is a layout of the covered bridges in Somerset County.  Looking at all the photos, I could tell my abilities at the time were suspect at best.  Seriously, every photo has a blown sky.  Every one.  HDR saved this sky.  Seriously, every photo.
So, can today's software save yesteryear's errors?  
I didn't want to use HDR on this one, because it's not in my normal workflow these days.  These days, it is mostly PS with some assists to Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen.  If I wanted to take this project any father than the blog, I'd replace the sky.  But for this exercise, I was able to get some definition out of the file.  And I'll crop most of the sky out.

CSX Engine - 2008

NIKON D80/18.0-135.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

75 mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 125

The rail bed is much easier on the eyes.
This was fun.  The journey - Defined.