Category Archives: Photography

March 11, 2023 · 23:45

Scud Running

If you’re a pilot, you’ll be familiar with the term “scud running.” In more formal terms, it means trying to squeeze between low clouds (scud) and the ground or minimum altitude restrictions. (That “hard deck” they’re always talking about in “Top Gun?” It’s that.) One’s often flying under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) where you’re not necessarily talking to Air Traffic Control (ATC). One might not be rated for Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). One might not want to be bothered with all of the paperwork and control and planning involved in IFR flight and want to stay in the “easier” VFR flight rules.

In more snarky terms, it means “maintaining visual contact with the ground while avoiding physical contact with it.” To be legal in most controlled airspace you need to be 500 feet away from the clouds and 1,200 feet above the ground (depending on what airspace you’re in) with three miles of visibility. But if you can get into Class G (uncontrolled) airspace it’s 500 feet from the clouds and one mile of visibility. So if you get down low and can squeeze between those hills and mountains and the ground and that lowering cloud deck…

This is dangerous. Often VERY dangerous. Legal? Probably. Sometimes. Maybe. -ish.

Lots of things can go very wrong very fast. There are more and more things like cell towers, power lines, wind turbine towers, and buildings out there to make something very hard and very bad to fly into. At such a low altitude, if anything goes wrong (like engine problems) you have very little room for error or maneuvering. Scud is often found near the edges of thunderstorms and that can mean downdrafts that just reach out and slap you out of the sky. The clouds can close in and leave you in IFR conditions, blind, close to the ground, and in a world of hurt.

Got the picture?

The same thing happens in life. You take a “small” chance and get away with it. You know better, but it’s convenient and you just need to bend the rules a little bit, not really break them. Then the next time it’s easier to do it again. And the next time you bend the rules just a little bit more. You keep getting away with it. Again, and again, and…

…and then things go pear-shaped and sideways and you’re seriously up the creek.

I think this is basically the overall story arc of “Breaking Bad.”

Admire the scud in the sunset. Avoid the scud running in a plane or in everyday life.

Just something to think about.

 

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Filed under Flying, Photography, Sunsets, Weather

March 10, 2023 · 23:24

Back At The Builder’s Ball

The Builder’s Ball is the annual fundraising gala for Homes For Family, where I used to work. (Here, here, and here, plus probably some more.)

The key phrase there is “used to work.” What’s up?

Well, I went to several Builder’s Balls before I worked there because The Long Suffering Wife was on their Board of Directors for several years. Then I worked there for four years or so. We’re still friends with some of the Board members, and I still keep in touch with several of my co-workers from my time there. We got an invite to go, so…

I will say, it was great to see people there, many of whom I hadn’t seen in person in three and a half years. (COVID helped that delay.) It was interesting seeing the event when I wasn’t working it.

Now it’s time to make sure I get together for lunch with some of my old friends from there. They were working tonight, we need time to schmooze and hang out and catch up. And not wait another three and a half years.

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Filed under Habitat For Humanity, Photography

March 9, 2023 · 23:45

Goodbye Moon

Yet another monstrous set of storms coming into California. Three years of massive drought (or is it four?) left us with serious water use restrictions, and now we’ve unexpectedly swung to the other extreme.

Image: Wunderground

It’s on our doorstep, with the rain starting in the next hour or so. We’re catching the tail end of it in SoCal. Up north, by San Luis Obispo and the Bay Area, there are already some mandatory evacuations for flooding being put into effect.

Image: Wunderground

I just hope it’s nice and dry and clear for NEXT weekend – on the 18th and 19th there’s a massive airshow at Point Mugu and I haven’t been to one in years.

Meanwhile, the 22º arc around the moon was the last we’ll see of any celestial objects for a couple of days.

Stay safe, folks!

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Filed under Photography, Weather

March 8, 2023 · 23:36

Not Hitting On All Cylinders

The last few weeks have been… “intense” would be a good word. “Good” intense, as it were, goals to be met, dragons to be slain, sleep to be lost, but still.

This morning, scraping my sorry ass out of bed and preparing to meet the day, I froze at one point in my routine.

Something was off. I was fuzzy, couldn’t put my finger on it quite yet, but something was definitely off.

Hey, Siri! Tell me about dissociative disorders!

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Farce, Photography

March 7, 2023 · 23:42

A Breathing Moment

Breathing is good.

Not like, breathing as opposed to suffocating and dying. “Breathing” as in, take a couple of minutes, watch the sunset, let your shoulders relax, unclench your jaw, and try to somehow get that stupid old Pet Shop Boys song that you hate out of your head on 24/7 repeat.

You know. “Breathing.”

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Photography, Sunsets

March 6, 2023 · 23:45

Venus & Jupiter Conjunction (Plus Five Days)

A few clouds moving in from the next storm make a great, colorful sunset.

But if you get enough light for the wonderful colors and spectacular gradient from pink to black, then you can only see Venus, not Jupiter. It’s fading. (I know how it feels…)

But if you let it get dark enough to see Jupiter, the clouds have started to roll in and all of the color is shot. There’s a life lesson in there somewhere.

Take what you can get, enjoy the moment, and watch the pretty planets.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space, Sunsets

March 5, 2023 · 23:28

Still Cool

Coming up on thirteen years now. Our first convertible, this display and features were top of the line.

Now the list of features looks sort of shabby and second-rate compared to economy cars that cost half of what we paid for this lustmobile.

But still… Mash on the gas and the giddy up giddies right on up there! It’s comfy, it drives really nice.

The tunes still pump out nice and loud when need be. (I believe it was a little bit of Pat Benatar that was threatening my eardrums when this picture was taken on a whim while waiting in the drive-thru line at Carl’s Jr.)

And it’s paid for.

What could be bad?

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Photography

March 4, 2023 · 23:33

Venus & Jupiter & Satellites

I thought these pictures were interesting, if far from perfect. They’re from the February 26th batch of pictures, three days before the Jupter & Venus conjunction.

They run from three seconds to eight seconds and they were shot with a 300mm zoom lens and the wind was blowing like a demon, so you can see that they’re a bit jittery and smeared as the camera bounced around.

That’s not why I want to share them with you.

Blow each of them up to full sized (click on the image) and you’ll see a number of very faint but visible criss-crossed lines. Better yet, save them or load all five photos in and the flip through them to animate them a bit.

You’ll see at least five items crossing the field, the faint lines getting longer as the exposures get longer.

These are satelittes, and given their close proximity to each I suspect they might be part of a Starlink swarm.

The only orbiting objects I normally capture is the ISS, which is brighter than Venus or Jupiter here. Yet at random, here I’ve spotted at least five background objects over the course of a thirty-seven second series of pictures.

When you see news articles about the Hubble Space Telescope or ground-based telescopes having trouble with all of the satellites up there ruining their observations, believe them!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space

March 3, 2023 · 20:34

Venus & Jupiter Conjunction Plus Two

The official conjunction, the closest approach that these two planets came to, was March 1st. It’s now March 3rd, two days later.

It was a nice day, the first day in several weeks that it got up near 70º.

As promised, the planets continue to separate.

As promised, they’ll do this for a couple of weeks.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Go look at some stars and planets!

 

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

March 2, 2023 · 23:55

Venus & Jupiter Conjunction Plus One

Yesterday they were side by side and close – today, Jupiter has moved a little below Venus.

It’s been a busy, busy day and I’m late, so I’m not bothering to clean up all of the dead pixels using PhotoShop tonight.

Nor am I going to blather on about how you can see something sort of like this for the next week or two.

Just go out and see it for yourself when you get a chance!

With the iPhone you get a much wider, brighter picture.

There were a few clouds, but not bad. Enough to add “character.”

But the iPhone doesn’t zoom in for beans compared to the DSLR with the big lens.

Finally, and this isn’t a great picture because there was some wind and vibration, but if you look at Jupiter, tonight you can see three of the Galilean moons!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography