Newfoundland, Canada.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Entrance to St John's Harbour
Newfoundland, Canada.
Signal Hill can be seen in the distance overlooking the narrows at the entrance to the harbour.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Abbotsford International Airshow
Went to the Abbotsford International Airshow on Saturday. As it was when I went to Avalon a few years ago, it was grey and overcast.
Abbotsford is on the outskirts of Vancouver and is about an hour's drive from the city centre.
I was impressed with the static aircaft on display; FA18s, F15s and an A10 amongst others in one area. An FA18s and an A10 had a raised platform next to their cockpits with steps leading up so that the punters could take a look in the cockpits. They are incredibly small places.
An adjacent display had the large aircraft on display; a couple of air refueling aircraft that you could go in; an RAF AWACS aircraft that you could also go in (I didn't as the line was too long); and even a B52! Sadly, you couldn't go in the B52 but the bomb bays were open. I was surprised that these bomb bays were not as cavernous as I had imagined.
Over on the main runway there were various shows throughout the day including parachutists jumping out of a C17 Globemaster and various acrobatic aircraft. The highlight for me (and I suspect the majority in attendance) were the fighters. One of the most spectacular was the FA18 which did a number of fly overs including an inverted flypast with its landing down as well as an incredibly slow fly by. The most impressive display put on by the FA18 (and any of the aircraft for that matter) was when it flew past the crowd at almost the speed of sound; surrounded by cones of condensation due to the shockwaves.
Later on was the Heritage Flight where an F16 and a P51 Mustang flew by together. This must have taken a fair degree of control on the part of the F16 pilot to match his speed to that of the mustang. Always nice to see a WWII fighter in action.
The last show of the day was a fly by of two F15s. Having seen them in action at Avalon, I reached for the earplugs as these aircraft are unbelievably loud. They did the standard fly by two times and then landed. Impressive to see these machines in flight but a bit of an anti climax.
All in considering I had free entry and despite the sun burn and camera malfunctions, a great day.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Monday, August 03, 2009
Celebration of Light - China, 1 August 2009 - II
Quite an anticlimax after the UK's impressive showing. For a number of reasons - lack of wind and possibly the fireworks themselves - a great pall of smoke lingered above the barge obscuring much of the show.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Capilano Suspension Bridge
Decided to bite the bullet and check out the Capilano Suspension Bridge (no relation to the honey company).
Entry was a little steep ($30) but I had come all this way so in for a penny... I assumed it was just a bridge, and given that it looked far shorter than its 136m length I would have been sorely disappointed after paying so much to get in.
The bridge is far wobblier than I thought it would be (well it IS a suspension bridge) and the midday tourist traffic crossing in both directions didn't aid stability. Still, it is sturdily constructed so you feel safe and you get a nice view of the creek some 70m below (would be an impressive sight during the spring thaw I suspect) and surrounding trees. After taking some photos I was soon enough on the other side of the bridge and assumed there was nothing left to do but to turn around for the return journey. I couldn't have been more wrong.
On the other side I thought I had somehow been transported to the Forest Moon of Endor from The Return of the Jedi. Not only did the trees look the same but there was a series of elevated walkways and staircases weaving their way through the treetops above. All up, there is probably a couple of hundred metres of elevated walkways and it is a good deal of fun walking around on those even if the view is rather unsubstantial (mainly just other trees). In addition to the elevated walkway, there is a walkway on the ground that takes about 20 minutes to complete from end to end and has some nice views of the gorge and illustrates how high up the bridge actually is.
There are also a number of ponds with fish and a raptor enclosure with a handful of (sleeping at the time I saw them) birds including a falcon and a kestrel.
There is also a gift shop and some food stands and the obligatory First Nations totem poles.
All in an enjoyable, if a little expensive, way to spend an hour or so on a warm summer's day. Park upkeep doesn't come cheap I guess.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Celebration of Light - Canda, 22 July 2009 - I
THEY'RE BACK!
Probably my last Celebration of light for a while and possibly ever.
Quite happy with the way the D700 handles fireworks; I can get much shorter exposure times than I did with the D200 but I did notice a higher number of nuked photos too.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Driving from Jasper to Banff
Driving and shooting with an SLR would not normally be a good idea. Luckily, the D700 has liveview so I could use the screen on the back to see where I was going.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Park Life
This shot nearly didn't happen; the man on the left woke up and then the man on the right turned to face me. Luckily, I decided to wait and pretend to be shooting the building in the background. Fortunately, my patience paid off and the two men returned to their original positions.
Would have been nice if the seats and bin hadn't been in front of the subjects.
Coal Harbour - Vancouver, BC Canada.
Nikon F75, cheapo ISO 400 film.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)