Operation America Strong

We're in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis here in Northern Virginia. My employer has me on a week-on, week-off schedule, so I'm half as busy as usual. One of the few events that has happened over the past couple of months, aside from lock down, is the joint flyover of the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels. Here are some shots from their DC area flyover.

Below, the Thunderbirds passed in a turn, smoke on. Seems there was a problem with the smoke generator on the far left.

Thunderbirds Delta Formation

There was a National Park Service police helicopter that hovered to observe the flight. Now THAT looks like an awesome seat for the show.

Hovering National Park Police Helicopter

 The Blue Angels looked tight and crisp as usual.

Blue Angels Delta Formation

I didn't notice this until I got home, but I got a few shots with the Thunderbirds and a bald eagle. I posted this one on Facebook, and one of the comments was that the eagle needs to tighten up in the formation.

Six Falcons, One Eagle

Here's a pass where both teams were in the delta formation. The perspective is strange because it looks like they're grouped oddly. Also, there were two Blue Angel #4 aircraft.

Joint Flight

 And here's the last shot of them departing the area.

Delta Formation Perspective

I've seen both of these teams perform several times, and once even separately at the same air show, with their performances separated by a few hours. It was really cool to see both teams in the air at the same time. The air shows this year have largely been cancelled, so I won't have an opportunity to see them perform any time soon. This was a nice unique sight in what is otherwise a pretty awful time period.

Kauai

I recently made a vacation trip to Kauai. I had visited this island once, more than 10 years ago and I was pleased to be able to make a return visit. As usual, I brought my camera. For this trip, I made a conscious effort to explore as much of the island as I could. This was no fun for the first part of my stay because it rained. A lot.

I made the drive along the rim of the Waimea Canyon to the Nā Pali Coast lookout. I made this trip long ago under better weather conditions. Here are a few shots. I wasn't able to get there at golden hour, so the shots are bland, but it's a cool place, so here they are.

This canyon, and the views of the Pacific beyond the upper end of the canyon, are world famous and my dash through it in an afternoon don't do it justice.

On another day, I visited Polihale State Park. Wow that was hard. First I had to drive well beyond Waimea to a part of the island that is nearly uninhabited. There's a naval base and a bunch of farms. At the end of the asphalt, I turned onto a dirt road that has the highest density of holes per mile that I've ever seen. It was five miles of bouncing through holes because it's impossible to avoid them all because they are too numerous. There's no stretch of that road that lacks holes. I think the last time a grader visited that road was when the road was built. Even in an SUV it was an ordeal that took an hour to get in and another hour to get out. And it was worth it. This was easily the best beach on the island and because it's so remote and hard to get to, there were very few people. Here's the view toward the Nā Pali Coast. The Air Force radomes are just visible on the cliffs.

Cliffs at Polihale State Park

 This beach also provides a good view of Lehua and Ni'ihau.

Lehua

Ni'ihau

Of course Hawaii always provides bird sighting opportunities. There were nenes everywhere. I mean nearly every golf course and fresh water lake or river has them. They seem nearly as numerous as the chickens.

Kauai Elepaio

One of the many Nenes at the hotel

Black Crowned Night Heron

Gallinule

One of the ubiquitous Cattle Egrets

White Rumped Shama

Red Footed Booby

White Tailed Tropicbird

Laysan Albatross

OK, not a bird, but there was a helicopter crash during my stay and this aircraft flew by, presumably on a search mission, while I was photographing birds at Kilauea Light.

SH-60 Seahawk

Great Frigatebird

Years ago, I hiked the Nā Pali Coast/Kalalau trail with my daughter as far as Honakapi'ai Stream. My son and I hiked it this time, going to the Honakapi'ai waterfall. We had better weather this trip.

Nā Pali Coast in February 2005

Nā Pali Coast in December 2019

As far as I'm concerned, any trip to Hawaii is a good trip. Even if there's rain. Even if the chickens are especially loud. Even if the trail is filthy muddy.

Conowingo Dam

Yesterday I made my first trip of the year to Conowingo. I timed my arrival to be about 6:15AM, thinking that was overkill and I would arrive WAY early. I got one of the final few parking spots. I dressed with four layers and a cap and gloves to keep warm. I should have brought a balaclava. OK, even after this many trips I was underprepared.

Last year was a bust because of high water levels. I've been watching the water discharge reports and the water level is way down. So I went to my favorite spot at the water's edge. I like this spot because it's less crowded, provides unobstructed views of the water and fishing action, and it's a great low perspective on eagles as they catch fish. I was there only an hour or so before the alarms sounded and the water started rising, inundating my spot. I had to retreat up onto the rocks. This left my tripod unusable because, even though I could set it up, there was no room to move behind it to follow action. I spent the rest of the day shooting handheld. Which meant my hands got cold, even with gloves on. About 10:30, the wind picked way up, raising a chop on the water and making me even more cold. Choppy water means less fishing. I went home.

Overall, I'm not happy with my results. Here are a few photos from the day.

Lens Coat is Popular

Along the Fence

Low Pass

Staring at Me

Contrast against the Rocks on the Island

Lessons from the day:

• Take more warm clothing. I can always take it off if I'm hot but I'll shiver (like yesterday) if it's colder than expected.
• Check exposure settings more frequently. I had a timer set to remind me very 20-30 minutes, but I failed to think about ISO when I checked, so I wound up blowing the best shots out.

Rocket Launch

This past weekend my wife and I went to Chincoteague to watch a rocket launch.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, aka MARS, has a couple of launches per year, usually to the International Space Station. These are unmanned resupply missions. We've gone twice before to watch a launch. The first time was perfect: it was a night launch and we had beautiful weather. We arrived in town and were directed to the school parking lot. There, we caught a bus to the circle in town near the causeway that leads to Assateague Island. We, along with hundreds of other people, watched the launch that took place miles away. We had a great view over the coastal swamp and open water. The second trip was a bust. We stayed overnight, set up in frigid cold to watch, and the launch was scrubbed seconds before the target time.

This time the launch went on schedule. We got there a couple of hours early, parked on the causeway, and waited. It was chilly and sunny and clear. It was really cool to see the launch. The delay in hearing it was just as I remembered from the first launch that I witnessed. The pad is several miles away from the viewing area; it took time for the sound to reach us. The rocket was nearly out of sight before we heard the launch.

I'm disappointed with the pictures. It was hazy at ground level so sharp pictures were impossible. Even after it climbed I had a hard time getting sharp photos; it was just too far away. But I'll post them anyway.

Here's a shot just after liftoff, with the steam from the water that cools the pad creating a cloud on the left.

Just After Liftoff

 High in the sky, here you can see the two plumes from the two rocket motors. I darkened this one in post-processing to show the flames.

Plume

 The exhaust left a cloud that hung in the air for a little while.

Smoky Trail

Nearly out of sight, it looked like an airplane with a contrail.

Approaching Main Engine Cutoff

So I learned a few things. First, the advice I found on shooting this event said to underexpose a couple of stops because the rocket motors put out a lot of light. That turned out to be the correct advice. I also read that manual mode, f8, ISO 200, 1/1000 are good exposure settings. That also turned out right. I set up on a tripod with a gimbal head. Worked great. What will I do differently, if I ever do this again?

• Focus on infinity, tape the focus ring, forget about trying to focus. It's all happening at infinity. Forget the focus button, which I kept pushing out of habit.
• Have a second camera with a 70-200 lens ready to shoot the smoky trail. My 500mm lens was too much for that and I could only get part of it at a time.

Lincoln Memorial at Dawn

The Lincoln Memorial is in Washington DC. It sits at the western end of the capitol mall. I've passed it hundreds of times on the way to/from business in DC. It's a cool spot to visit because it's an impressive building with an impressive statue and it's right next to the Korean War Memorial and Vietnam War Memorial. It's like a 3-for-1 in a single trip.

Lincoln Memorial

I haven't tried to photograph it much. There's always a crowd and I don't like a lot of people in my photos. I've lived nearby for a long time; I've had lots of time to photograph the monuments; I'm just not interested. There are millions of photos taken of them all the time. There's nothing new.

Well, actually there is something new. I admire the work of David Coleman (https://cherryblossomwatch.com/photography-tips/) and Pete Souza (https://www.petesouza.com/). Both of them have photos online that show the Lincoln statue in beautiful dawn sunlight. The sun lights the statue this way only around the equinoxes, that is, for a few days before/after the first day of Spring and Fall. And you need perfect weather conditions: no clouds in the east at dawn. The memorial is oriented with the opening to the chamber facing east, and the pillars usually cast shadows on the statue. But this time of year there's an unobstructed shaft of light shining right on Lincoln at dawn.

We're in a long string of no rain and few clouds. Perfect weather. It's the equinox. Perfect timing. I went to the Lincoln Memorial at dawn. I set up by the reflecting pool and shot toward the statue. Too many people in the way.

Then I went into the chamber and started shooting. It's so large that it's hard to get a flattering shot of the whole statue from that close, so I went for tight head shots.

My favorite is this silhouette showing the face in profile, illuminated by the golden light, with the dark unlit chamber wall as a background.

Quiet at the Refuge

My last two trips to the refuge have been pretty uneventful. I've seen a few deer and eagles but nothing I could get a good clear shot at. The ospreys are still there; I expect they'll be gone pretty soon. I wouldn't even bother with a blog post, except I got a lifer.

Common Yellowthroat

Not a lifer, this osprey stared at me as I walked below him/her. I always like those big yellow eyes.

Osprey

It was a pretty unrewarding trip, probably because of the time of year and the fact that there were lots of people in the refuge even at the early  morning time that I went. At least I got some exercise.

W&OD Trail

Normally I write this blog only about photography. But today I did something I've wanted to do for a long time and I want to write about it.

After several years of letting my bike gather dust, I decided to start riding again. I took a look at my old bike and decided that it was time to start over.

I did some research, asked some friends who ride, and settled on a model and bought it. Then I started the long slog to get into riding shape. Those first few rides were pretty short. After a month or so, I started exploring routes and settled on a regular 22 mile route from my home to a park at the mouth of the Occoquan River. Eleven miles out, same route back. And there's a big climb (big for me anyway) out of the park so I was getting some lung burning workouts. More importantly, I was getting into shape. I'm never going to be fast or ride for dozens of miles at a time, but I'm reaching my goal of exercising more.

It's Labor Day weekend; I decided it's time to do the long ride that I've wanted to do for a while. I put my bike in the car and drove to Purcellville. My wife drove away, leaving me there at the trail head for the W&OD trail. Because I started at dawn, I mostly had the trail to myself and even startled a family of deer. The miles flew by, probably at least partially because the trail descends from 600 feet toward sea level. I flew through Leesburg. I started running into traffic in Herndon: pedestrians, joggers, more bikers. Reston was crowded. So was Vienna. Finally I reached the other end of the trail in Shirlington after 45 miles of riding. From there I took the 4 Mile Trail to the Mount Vernon Trail next to the Potomac River. I rested for a while at Gravelly Point to watch airplanes, then rode to the Pentagon, where I had arranged for pickup.

My total mileage was 52.9, with breaks in Leesburg, Reston, Falls Church, and Gravelly Point. This is a personal record, exceeding my previous record by about 3 miles. Man it was fun, and I'm expecting to pay for it tomorrow with sore thighs and a painful ass. But it was absolutely worth it.