Patrolling the Harbour to Stop Anyone Getting Too Close

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While waiting for the HMS Prince of Wales to arrive in Portsmouth, we got to see the local law enforcement at work. There were some police officers on the shore, and they were talking to the various people that had come out to see the carrier strike group return. There were also boats on the water that were clearly loitering waiting to see the ship arrive. A RIB was busily zipping around from boat to boat to make sure that they stayed in their allowed areas and didn’t intrude on the path of the carrier and its surrounding vessels. I’m sure they were being very nice about it, but they did look rather officious as they accelerated from one boat to another – and the heavily armed guy probably got attention.

Exploring the Sandringham (Sunderland)

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The Solent Sky Museum is full of exhibits but there is one that will never be missed by any visitor and that is the Sandringham. This example started out as a Sunderland before being converted post war to a passenger configuration. It spent its time in Australia and New Zealand before it was bought by a famous actress, Maureen O’Hara, for her husband who flew it in the Caribbean. After his death. It was brought back to the UK for preservation.

It is a beast of a plane, and you can only imagine what it was like when it was operational. There was a time when a similar plane made its way to a new owner after spending some time on the water and then the slipway at Calshot when I was a kid. I remember seeing it from the ferry as we passed. It looked small from a distance but get close to one of these things and it is quite something. Even so, the interior has lots of space but does feel pretty enclosed. There are a series of cabins with seating inside. Some are lower in the hull while there is an upper area in the rear fuselage.

The furnishings are pretty plush so it might have been a comfortable ride but that avoids thinking about how much noise and vibration there might have been from the big radial engines mounted up on the wings. I wonder whether they were far enough away to not be hard to deal with. The cockpit is accessible, and it gives you a good view of those engines. They have also mounted a maintenance stand. Because the plane will usually be on water when maintenance is undertaken, the stand hangs from the wing around the engine to allow a technician to have access to work without getting wet!

The cockpit is not quite so luxurious. You don’t want the crew to be getting too comfortable, I guess. The conversion programme focused on the passenger space rather than that of the non-paying people. I wonder whether it was changed much from its wartime configuration. I had seen a Shorts Solent in Oakland at their museum, but it was outside and interior access wasn’t available at the time. This was a far more engaging experience. Quite a plane.

Bushy Park

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As has become apparent in a bunch of my more recent posts, the rut season for the deer has been catching my attention. I was pondering a visit to Richmond Park to see what images I could get but, while looking into it, saw some information about the deer in Bushy Park. With a sunny Sunday coming up, we decided to pay it a visit. Aside from the deer, it was a large park area so this would be worth a walk irrespective of the deer encounters. No spoilers but we saw a ton of deer!

The park is located very close to Hampton Court Palace and, I imagine, it would have been hunting grounds for the palace long ago. The park is sufficiently large that we didn’t explore the eastern half of it on this visit. The western half provided more than enough for us to check out, and we had a lovely time walking the grounds.

The open parklands dominate the space but there also some woodlands that have been created over the years. These have a variety of plants and water features so you can get a very different experience depending on where you are and what you are looking for. The woodlands are fenced off, and the gates don’t immediately make it obvious you are free to enter but you are, and you should! We got there early and still found the parking busy. By the time we finished our walk, cars were circling the car park looking for a space. Obviously, a popular place to be and we will be back.

Sunny Autumnal Sunday at Daedalus

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I suspect that, in a number of posts over the years, I have talked about being lucky with the way that things work out. In this case, I had gone out with the intention of photographing a sailing regatta. I got to the shore, and the conditions were gorgeous. However, they were too nice. Clear autumnal skies, cool temps but warm sun and no wind. That last bit will explain why it wasn’t ideal for sailing. I waited around for a while to see whether the wind would pick up but it soon became clear that, even if it did, things were not going to be dramatic out on the water.

This left me contemplating the next step. I had a couple of thoughts – one of which was to stop off at Lee on Solent. The airport there has a café and a viewing area next to the tower. Since I was going to be heading by and this also being the base for the local search and rescue helicopters, I thought I might get some AW139 flying in nice light.

When I got there, there was no sign of any helicopter activity. However, a sunny Sunday gets plenty of light aircraft movements. Also, sitting by the tower was a two seat Spitfire. Seemed like loitering might be in order. The Spit had the canopy open with a helmet sitting on the frame so maybe it would be heading out.

It didn’t take long for the pilot to come out and fire up. Of he taxied and I was feeling pretty optimistic. However, that was the last we saw of him. I guess the plane is hangared elsewhere on the field and that was the destination. Meanwhile plenty of other movements so I got plenty to watch. It was great seeing families with small kids watching the planes and the kids getting so excited by anything whether it was a Spitfire or a Piper Warrior. I’m glad I hung around and it more than made up for the lack of sailing.

How Many Tugs Does an Aircraft Carrier Need?

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Just like planes, ships can be tracked online these days. Once HMS Prince of Wales got within range of the transponder detectors, she showed up on the apps, and we knew that she was coming in. However, if you wanted a clue that she was getting close, it was the selection of tugs that headed out of Portsmouth Harbour ahead of the planned arrival time. Off they all went, ready to bring the big beastie back into harbour under control.

Once they were near the dock, they would all gather on one side of the carrier to nudge her sideways to tie up alongside in the naval dockyard. There is space for both carriers alongside and I had hoped they would use the spot nearer to us but that wasn’t the case. The large fenders mounted on the bows of the tugs looked like they would prove very helpful when trying to change the direction of 80,000 tons of ship.

Processing With Masks – A Video

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Every once in a while, I post about some change I have made to my processing techniques for my images. I have posted in the past about how I have been using the masking tools in Lightroom to work on images – particularly those with poor lighting conditions where the background and the subject need significantly different edits.

I have recently tweaked my approach to improve it. This involves an extra step to try and get a better selection of the subject and the background. This also addresses some of the issues I find with Lightroom’s selection algorithms. Sometimes it picks things that just don’t make sense. Anyway, I did a full process of an image and recorded the whole thing with my explanation as to why I was doing what I was doing. It is not a short video so only for those with a serious interest. However, if you want to check it out, here it is.

Koalas Are Too Coy

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Over the years, I have been to plenty of zoos. As a result, I would have thought I had seen koalas at some point but, as I write this, I am struggling to think when I might have done so. Marwell has some koalas so, maybe they were the first I had encountered in person. I am not sure whether they recognised the potential significance of this moment. While there were a few of them in the enclosure, they didn’t seem that bothered about our presence.

I understand that they have a reputation for being sleepy (and bad tempered) so having to wait for open eyes was going to be a problem, but they also seemed to want to have their heads turned away from everyone. I waited a bit to get something, but it wasn’t going to be worth holding everything up. This was the best I could manage.

American’s Retro 777 Catches the Sun

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A friend of mine in Fort Worth had shared some images of the latest American Airlines plane to be painted in a special livery. This was a 777-300ER that was aiming to replicate their old paint scheme although it was grey rather than polished aluminium. It is a livery that seems to have divided opinion. I was kind of curious as to whether it would show up in the UK at some point and put a trace on the tail number in case it came to Heathrow.

I hadn’t anticipated that it would get a hit almost immediately. It was scheduled on the DFW to Heathrow run on Sunday. Add to that, the weather was looking great. The only downside is that they were due to be arriving on the north runway, and I had not ever shot there. However, I decided to give it a go. I went a bit early to find out if my plan for where to shoot would work. Parking was a bit of an adventure, but the location was a good one, so I waited and chatted to some guys from Gloucestershire that had turned up for the same reason.

I don’t think it is a great paint job. The red nose does have a bit of a Comic Relief feel about it and grey is fine in good light but will be dull on other days. Then again, I do complain about boring liveries, and this is something else. It also got me out and shooting on a day when otherwise I might not have done so glad it all worked out. I am also told this was its first commercial run post repaint so that is something I suppose!

Lining the Shore to Await the Returning Strike Group

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I persuaded Nancy and Liese to join me on a Sunday lunchtime jaunt to Portsmouth to see the return of the HMS Prince of Wales from the carrier strike group cruise to the far east. They had left in April and were coming back on the last day of November. Talking to some around us, they had originally been planning to return the following day, but the forecast was not so good, and things came forward a day. I was also suspicious that they were more interested in getting the coverage that a weekend return would provide.

Originally, I had figured we would try and find a spot on the shore on the Portsmouth side. This seemed like somewhere that would be rather busy and Liese suggested that, maybe Gosport would make more sense. Not only did this have parking options and the potential to not be as busy, but it also meant the light would be on our side and it would provide Portsmouth as a backdrop to any photos. A wise suggestion.

We got there early and went out on a fishing pier that provided a great spot. Originally, I had intended to go for a wander and return closer to the time but, in the end, we found ourselves chatting to people around us that had family members on the returning carrier. It was so much fun chatting with them, so we ended up just hanging around.

As I looked across to the Portsmouth side, the crowds were building up. The Round Tower is a popular spot, and it had filled up first. Camera crews were up there too. As the arrival got closer, there were people all along the shore, near our favourite pub and down on the shingle by the water. It was a chilly day where we were, and I imagine it was even colder down on the water’s edge. Everyone was waiting for one thing. The arrival of a big boat!

Types I’ve Never Seen Before

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I am going back to a previous fly in at Concrete for today’s post. I am not a specialist when it comes to the wide variety of light aircraft that are out there. I have friends that know them all really well, but my knowledge is more limited. It is fair to say that, over the 20 years I was in the US, I became a lot more familiar with some of the types. Probably true to say that about warbirds too. However, an event like Concrete would often bring in planes I knew nothing about.

In this selection of shots, there is a Dart and a pair of Highlanders. Probably some others that were a bit of an unknown for me. It still amazes me to go to an event and see an aircraft that I had no idea existed.