Cold day Duxford

Easter Sunday I had planned to meet up with one of my oldest workmates, a great friend Robbie Scott (who I was involved in the UFO hoax with! http://ngbsfxmodels.blogspot.com/ ) we spent the day at the Imperial war museum at Duxford.
The big advantage of going to Duxford when its a cold day is that there are less people about and that makes viewing and photography so much easier, I have had an idea for images of the memorial to all the US airmen and aircraft lost during WW2, and this visit the clouds and lack of crowds was perfect for the shot I had imagined... I also did some HDR shots and an interesting available light, long exposure shot up the tailpipe of the F4J Phantom.

On display

OK its not a new image, but the reason for puting it up here is really to plug my Flickr gallery where you can find an ever increasing selection of my work, and some of my older images that have been reconverted from RAW files and re-edited, you can find them all just here http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/

More Low-level pictures

A few more images from recent trips up the hills

Tornados and Typhoons

A couple of days in Wales, big mistake on Monday was going to Cad East and watching loads of stuff coming out of Bwlch low and entering Cad far to high, the F15Es being the real pain, although I've done them to death anyway! Did get a nice Kingair and Dominie and with very different backgrounds to that thats available from the Bwlch shelves, so not a complete failure by any means.
Tuesday however was a far better day at Bwlch middle shelf, a long slow morning with the first aircraft through at nigh on midday, F15Es, both way up too high though. Two passes from the Saudi Tonka and a couple of Typhoons bought some wide smiles to the assembled faces on the hill, and some spirited passes from the RAF Valley Hawks enabled me to do some even slower shutter speed panning shots, and once I'd thawed out I decided I'd really had a good time!

Eagle heaven

After the excitement at Mildenhall I went to Lakenheath to kill a couple of hours until an AWACs was due in, but the 'heath was busy and I stayed there missing the E3 when it arrived at the 'hall.
Yet again it was the top man in 0133 that gave all the best photo passes, whoever that pilot is, thanks very much for some great images, much appreciated!

Pigs do fly

Every time I see a C5 lumber slowly skywards I struggle to believe what my eyes are seeing, the size, the mechanisms that fold away all those wheels, and four engines that just don't look big enough. It's so big the Wright brothers first flight at Kittyhawk could have taken place in the cargo hold with room to spare... I wonder how much all that grey paint alone weighs!

Bone idle weekend

Got there in time for the arrival on Saturday, Rama75 a B1B Lancer had diverted to Mildenhall! the rumour mill suggested a departure on Sunday, a long cold vigil interspersed with a West Virginia ANG C5 and a tanker proved fruitless the B one stood idle.
Monday at 9 a.m. however was perfect light from the right direction, wind straight up the tarmac, and with fire in the pipes the Bone headed home on a wake of shimmering heat, leaving Mildenhall to a fanfare of car alarms set of by the engine resonance, totally awesome!