Abbotsford International Airshow 2010
Posted by: DaveS in General, Photography on August 21st, 2010
Last weekend saw the holding of the annual Abbotsford Airshow. It’s my one-and-only opportunity for airshow photography these days, and luckily sunshine was predicted for the first time since I’ve been going. Yep, for the last four or five years it’s been heavily overcast every time we attended. We actually had the opposite problem this year; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the temperature got up to 33C, and with no shade it was a bit uncomfortable.
The unrelenting sun made photography difficult too. The crowdline faces south at Abbotsford, so you’re shooting into the sun all day. That has several unfortunate side-effects:
– Glare!
– The light is coming from above and behind the aircraft, so they can look flat in photographs.
– And the most difficult to deal with, the available light can change by over 2 stops as you pan the camera to catch all of a pass. The aircraft are constantly changing the direction in which they make their passes and it’s very challenging to adjust the camera as you follow them and fire away. I ended up using shutter-priority mode rather than my usual manual, though I don’t think it really made it easier as I still had to continually change the exposure compensation. I got some decent shots of the flying acts, but I think some of my favourites this year were of the statics.
You can see my Flickr gallery for the airshow here.
A T-28B on static display, with Mount Baker in the background.
Still, they always put on an impressive show at Abbotsford, and the day passed quickly even in the wilting heat. The highlight for me was the Lancaster bomber, one of only two flying in the world. It went up near the end of the day and it was great to see it in the air, but they’re obviously pretty careful with it and it only made three or four passes, none of which were especially dramatic (no photo pass for instance, where the plane flies an arc while banked toward the crowd, which makes for a more interesting shot than the usual profile angle). The announcers made some references to mechanical problems while it was taxiing out (without tying them to the Lancaster specifically, describing them as “some mechanical issues on the ramp” or something vague), so I wonder if that had anything to do with it. I’ve seen B-17 displays where they throw the plane around a lot more so I don’t think the age of the plane is the only factor. Anyway enough complaining, it was awesome just to see it flying and I’m grateful they made the effort. I’d love to see it visit again!
The Lancaster bomber makes a pass with the bomb-bay doors open.
Other highlights included the WW2-era Corsair, one of my favourite warbirds (not as all-out-awesome as the P-38 though, which I’d love to see again – last time was 2002 or 2003 in Texas); an F8F Bearcat; the F-15E and F/A-18F which are always great; the Thunderbirds and of course the Snowbirds (which I sadly missed as we had to leave). There were a few no-shows which was disappointing; neither of the helicopters scheduled to perform showed up, and neither did the B-25, Hurricane or Sea Fury which had been mentioned on the website (though I just checked again and the fighters aren’t there anymore, so maybe they cancelled ahead of time).
The small twister that formed after the combat display!
One interesting thing that happened was after the combat demo with ground forces and two CF-18s. The combination of the heat, the pyro effects and the turbulence left by the aircraft led to an actual twister forming out on the airfield. It was at least a hundred feet high or more and maybe a meter across at the ground, and was pretty impressive. I was fiddling with the camera and wasn’t quite ready to take a picture when it appeared (of course!) but I managed to get this one as it lifted off. I’ve deliberately gone a bit further enhancing the colour than I would ordinarily to make it more visible. Really a cool and unique event.
Overall Abbotsford was a good time, though I’ve seen some of the same acts over and over now and I’m really wanting to visit a different airshow. Still haven’t seen an F-22 display, and I really miss the shows we used to go to in Texas with some amazing lighting (Wings over Houston and the Central Texas shows in particular, where you shoot with the sun behind you). Maybe next year!
Related posts:
Airshow Photography Part 1, Equipment
Airshow Photography Part 2, Exposure
Abbotsford Airshow 2009
Miscellania
Posted by: DaveS in General, Photography on August 2nd, 2010
Wow, I’m doing a remarkably bad job of this blogging thing. One post in two months makes it look like either nothing is happening, or I’m incredibly lazy. It’s definitely not the former; let’s see what’s happened in June and July:
– Visited Montreal for the first time, for the Canadian F1GP, which was a fantastic trip. Had some amazing food, walked around an beautiful new city, and of course watched the race and all the super-entertaining support events. An old man tried rather transparently to steal my camera through trickery, but it was done so badly that I didn’t really begrudge him the attempt. Best of all, I got some pictures that made me very pleased (you can see them on Flickr here). Not sure why taking a photo that doubtless hundreds of other people are taking makes me happier than almost anything else, but it does, so there you go.
– A vacation in Disneyworld and Universal in Orlando. I love theme parks in summer. We’ve been to DW quite a few times before so while we had a really good time on this trip, it wasn’t quite as magical as previous trips here (maybe I should have taken an iPad). I also deliberately de-emphasized photography over travelling light and just concentrating on having a good time. I think this worked pretty well, and I still ended up with some shots I liked. Haven’t actually worked anything up for public consumption or anything yet, due to the laziness mentioned above.
– Work held their annual summer day out, at Playland in Vancouver. The weather was spectacular and I was pretty weary of theme parks at this point so I just took the camera and avoided the rides (still making time of course for the holy “mini” duo – mini-golf and mini-donuts). I put a handful of shots on Flickr.
– Been BBQ’ing like crazy with the exceptional stretch of good weather; lots of burgers and brats, grilled asparagus and potatoes and so on. Haven’t done anything new in a while though. We made a sundried-tomato-pesto-stuffed pork tenderloin that was really good, but just a derivative of the olive-stuffed one I’ve been making. I need some new ideas!
– I’ve been obsessed with Minecraft for a couple of weeks now. It’s a wonderful sandbox where you can mine and build anything you like (as long as you like square blocks that is). It’s amazing how pure it is in its design, and is updated constantly. Everyone who plays games should at least try it out.
Jalapeno Burgers and Yam Fries
Summer seems to have finally arrived in Vancouver. We’ve had some sporadic good weather up until this heatwave though, and I’ve managed to experiment with my “perfect” burger recipe (in quotes as nothing is perfect of course!). I love spicy food so I wanted to try making a jalapeno beef burger after trying one at a local BBQ place.
1 cup pickled jalapenos, diced
1lb (480g) lean ground beef (not extra lean, you want lean as it’s more juicy)
Between 1/4 and 1/2 a medium onion, diced
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Yield: 4 burgers
Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl by hand. Form into four 1/4lb patties, with a bit of a depression in the middle (make it by pushing your fist into the burger; you do this so the patty doesnt’ swell up while cooking). Cook for 5 minutes per side on a medium-hot grill (around 400-450 degrees) over direct heat. If you want cheese, add the slice to the burger about a minute before cooking is done, and toast the buns at the same time if your grill has a toasting rack.
The jalapenos don’t add too much heat, just a little spicy kick and some flavour. I tried variations of this recipe using an egg, but didn’t find any use for it really; it doesn’t seem to add anything except calories. The mixture above should hold together just fine on the grill. You can freeze any leftover patties, raw – I keep them for up to a month in the freezer then take them out, defrost overnight in the fridge and cook them up, just as good as fresh!
Sometimes we do some yam “fries” in the oven with the burgers. Again with the quotation marks as they’re not fried but baked. The recipe is pretty simple:
2 yams, cut into long chips
1 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin if you have it)
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
Mix the yam fries in a bowl with the olive oil and spices. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place the fries on 2 baking sheets. Cook for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and turn, then cook for another 10-15 minutes. Serve sprinked with sea salt and a garlic-mayo dip or aioli.
They’re usually not too crispy when cooked like this which is a bit of a shame, but they’re still really good.
Mango-Habanero Shrimp
I found the first fresh habaneros of the year in the supermarket this weekend, and as we had a couple of pounds of shrimp in the freezer I thought I’d try something slightly different with the other habanero shrimp recipe we used last year.
Ingredients (4 servings):
- 1lb peeled/deveined shrimp
- 1 habanero, chopped
- 1 orange pepper, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp fresh ginger, chopped
- 2 mangoes, juiced
- 2 tsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Over a high heat, warm the oil and drop the shrimp and sliced pepper in when hot. Stir constantly and cook for a minute, then add the ginger and habanero. Cook for 1m30s, then add the garlic. After another 30s or so the garlic should be fragrant and the shrimp should be done; pour in the mango juice, add the salt and pepper, stir to coat the shrimp, and let the sauce reduce for a minute or so. Remove from pan and serve with cilantro rice.
Very simple and good. It wasn’t quite as fruity as I’d expected though… I might try marinading the shrimp next time. Spice level was moderate with one habanero, I think 1 and a half might be optimal. Adding some sea salt at the end was really good.
Roast Beef
There’s not much I like more than some medium-rare beef with Yorkshire puddings and gravy! The cut I got today was a standing rib roast, half-price this week at Safeway so I got a 1.8kg (3.8lb) roast, which should feed us for at least two full meals and probably more. Even at half-price it costs $25 so you don’t want to mess it up.
First I added a rub, then let the meat stand for a couple of hours to bring it close to room temperature. Here are my rub ingredients:
– 6 cloves of garlic, minced
– 1 tsp dried basil (would have used fresh but I forgot to buy some!)
– 1/2 tsp onion powder
– Enough coarse kosher salt and black pepper to cover
There are a few ways to cook the roast, and each one has its proponents:
1) Sear on a stove-top skillet, or in the oven at 500 degrees, then roast in the oven at 225 degrees for a few hours. Slow, but maintains a similar doneness throughout the meat, unlike the other methods where the center is less done than the ends.
2) Cook at 325 degrees throughout until done.
3) Sear in the oven at 500 degrees for 15 minutes, then cook at 325 until done. Quicker than method #1.
I went with the third method this time, and it turned out pretty good. It would have been better had the internet sources (just about all of them) and my Good Housekeeping book not disagreed on the doneness temperatures. Almost every internet recipe I looked at had rare being 125 degrees, but the cookbook (and my oven thermometer!) has rare being 140 degrees. I ended up pulling out the roast at 135 degrees to split the difference, after which the internal temperature kept rising as the meat rested to a high of 145 (not unexpected). The beef was a little overdone, with some rare parts but most at medium, so next time I plan to take it out of the oven at 128 degrees or so.
Here’s a really unattractive picture showing how it turned out; I was in a hurry to eat!
I also made roast potatoes, and Yorkshire puddings using the rendered beef fat which turned out nice, and Louise prepared some carrots and broccoli. One thing that didn’t work out this time was the gravy; I’ve had some leftover Bisto granules kicking around for a few months (sealed up), which I combine with some red wine, the beef drippings and a bit of water, and it always tastes great. This time though it was revolting; I tried again without the wine and beef drippings and it was just as bad, so I think the granules had gone off or something. So we made do with lots of mint sauce. Anyone who says mint sauce is just for lamb has clearly never tried it with beef!
Teriyaki Chicken and BBQ Pork Belly
Recently the lunch crew at work have been visiting Kushi Box at least once a week. They serve some great teriyaki chicken over rice, especially with the spicy miso. One of my favourite things there though is their “P-Toro”, which is pork belly (or jowl depending on who you believe). All of their meat is barbecued there in the store on their grill and tastes great, but the p-toro is out of this world… crunchy, chewy, salty and amazingly delicious.
So when my friend Justin (why are like half my friends called Justin?) mentioned that he’d found some pork belly at a Korean supermarket just a couple of miles from where we live, I had to try grilling it myself. Along with that I decided to do some teriyaki chicken, and Louise made some rice to get the whole experience.
First, I marinated the chicken for an hour or so. This is my marinade:
Juice of one lime
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
I cut the chicken breasts in half through the center, like butterflying them but cutting all the way, to reduce the thickness and therefore cooking time. Put the chicken and marinade in a freezer bag and put in the fridge for a while, turning halfway through the marinating time. It’s best to marinade the chicken for at least a couple of hours.
The marinated chicken and the pork with salt and pepper added, ready to put on the grill.
The pork belly I had was thin-sliced, maybe 1/5 inch thick with no skin on. To prepare just cover both sides with salt and pepper. I tried cooking them two ways – low (around 300 degrees) for around 20 minutes, turning every 4 minutes; and on a medium heat, around 400 degrees for about 8-9 minutes. I overcooked some of the first batch but otherwise couldn’t really tell a difference between the two.
The chicken I put on the grill for 4 minutes per side at 400 degrees, then basted with teriyaki sauce and cooked for a minute extra on each side. Once you add in the time they sat waiting for me to turn everything at once, I think it was probably 12 minutes total and they were a little overdone, a bit dry, so I’ll try them for a minute or two less next time.
Right after cooking, with a beer for the chef.
And how was it all? Well, the pork was amazing, just as good as Kushi Box, and the chicken would have been as good had I not grilled it for too long. I’ll call it a success!
Off-camera Flash
Posted by: DaveS in Photography on April 18th, 2010
Basically all of my photography up until now has been with ambient light; that just means using whatever light you happen to have in a scene without introducing or controlling any yourself. It’s bugged me for a while that I don’t have any experience with flashes so I decided recently to try to educate myself.
The online bible for this stuff is a website called Strobist, run by an (ex?) newspaper photographer called David Hobby. It advocates off-camera flash as the most creative and effective way to light many setups, and has so much information on the site that it will blow your mind. It’s well-organized too, and if you’re starting out just read his “Lighting 101” followed by “Lighting 102” and the “on assignment” section. Even if you know nothing about lighting, like me, you’ll learn quickly almost despite yourself!
Here’s the equipment I bought to get started:
Canon 430EX II flash – you can get by with a manual flash but I wanted something general-purpose for non-strobist stuff too.
Westcott white satin shoot-through umbrella – you use this to diffuse and soften the light from your flash.
Manfrotto Lite-tite umbrella adaptor – necessary to mount the umbrella.
Stroboframe mounting shoe – The Manfrotto umbrella adaptor needs this to be able to mount the flash to the top.
One thing I forgot to get was a collection of gels (coloured covers for your flash head that help your colour-match the ambient light or to create effects). Also, I was able to skip any wireless or wired remote flash triggering devices as the 7D I’m using has a built-in remote flash trigger (it works as an ST-E2 which is the Canon wireless [preflash] triggering system).
Today I set things up and carried out some experiments. To prepare I bought some stuff from the local Michael’s, which is a craft store here in Canada (I’m pretty sure they’re in the USA too). I got a foam core board for $5, which I planned to use as a base as well as a reflector for fill light. I also got a couple of rolls of paper, the one I ended up using today was a roll of banner paper that cost $15 for 30″ x 75′, which I thought was more than reasonable. I was worried it might be too thin but it worked great. Here’s what my setup looked like:
The camera went on the tripod to the left, I’d removed it when taking this photo. I moved the lightstand around during the shoot to try out different angles. Notice the foam core on the left of the chair which I used as fill (the light from the flash bounces off it and reflects back onto the subject). Note also the super-nerdy Canon mode dial decal on the Macbook that I was testing out tethered shooting with 
My first subjects were my older SLRs, the 10D and the 40D. here’s my favourite shot from the day:
It came out pretty nicely I thought! Getting the right exposure was a bit trial-and-error but I’m sure I’ll refine that as I get more experience. Who knows where I’ll go next with this, but I’m looking forward to trying more shots and getting better at this area of photography that’s new and fresh for me.
Muse at the Pacific Coliseum, April 1st 2010
I’ve been a Muse fan for a couple of years now, getting into them quite late when I found some random Youtube video with a kicking soundtrack that happened to be “Map of the Problematique” from Black Holes and Revelations. Since then I’ve listened to most of their other albums and was super-happy last year when they announced their first Vancouver concert since 2004! Last night was finally time for the gig, and it didn’t disappoint!
We had really good seats, maybe 60 feet from the stage right at ground level in row 1. Pacific Coliseum used to be where the Canucks played, and our seats were actually in one of the the bullpens.
The support band was the Silversun Pickups, who despite a bit of a crappy sound mix I thought were pretty good. After they’d finished their set there almost 45 minutes went by before the headliners finally made their appearance, but when they did it was more than worth the wait. The lights went down and the 40ft tall video towers came on, with a display of figures endlessly climbing stairs. Then the covers around them dropped, “Uprising” kicked in and Muse appeared!
It was an amazing concert, Matt Bellamy especially was on top form and the light show was incredible. During “Plugin Baby” they dropped inflatable eyes from the ceiling; when they popped while people bounced them around, ticker tape and glitter showered out.
All in all, a fantastic show and well worth waiting for (although don’t leave it another 6 years please!). This is the last shot I took all night (on my iPhone, didn’t have another camera with me) while the band were saying their goodbyes.
San Marzano Tomato Sauce
Had a very relaxing Saturday night this week with some wine, a movie and pasta with a homemade sauce. The sauce turned out great – I found the basic recipe here at Butteryum, but I’ve made a few changes and use different ingredients so I’ll go over my method here too.
Ingredients:
A small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper for the onion
2 cans of Unico San Marzano tomatoes
3/4 can tomato paste
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup red wine
4 pinches of sugar
Parmigiano Reggiano rind
This recipe makes enough sauce for around 4 servings for two people; we freeze most of it after letting it cool.
First, puree the tomatoes in a food processor. I use the Unico brand of San Marzano tomatoes because they’re cheap and easy to get hold of. The first time I made this sauce I used imported San Marzano tomatoes from a local Italian deli which cost almost three times as much, and with Unico I can’t really tell a difference.
Next chop a small onion and fry it in the oil at a medium heat, with salt and pepper, until it carmelizes. Throw in the garlic and stir for just about 20-30 seconds, until just after that amazing sweet cooking-garlic smell starts, then add the tomato paste. Keep stirring and cook for around 4 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, wine, sugar, spices and the cheese rind; bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Simmer time seems to be controversial when it comes to these sauces; the original recipe I link above says to simmer for an hour, but I found other links that claim cooking tomatoes for longer than around 10 minutes increases bitterness. Personally I found that a 20-minute simmer tastes better to me than an hour.
For the cheese rind, what I find is that if I buy a small slice of Parmigiano Reggiano and have some grated with pasta every time I have it, it lasts me 3 weeks or so which is coincidentally roughly how often I make this sauce. So I’ve always got a rind to throw in, and honestly it makes a huge difference to the taste. It’s optional but I’d highly recommend it!
The wine we had this time was a pretty good Chianti we found called Melini. It’s not too expensive and is easy to find around Vancouver. We use it for the sauce and have the rest of the bottle with the pasta.
Sorry for the lack of pictures, I’ll throw some in here next time we make it!
Vancouver Photo Sites
Posted by: DaveS in Photography on March 13th, 2010
Edit 03/14/10 – Added more places; one I came up with and the others as suggested in the comments, thanks!
Justin made a great comment on my last post along the lines of “we need to keep taking photos now that the Olympics are over”. In the spirit of that I’m making a list here of great places around Vancouver to take pictures.
Coal Harbour condo buildings, December 2004. Canon 10D, Tokina 19-35, 1/125, f/8, ISO 400
The downtown core – Lots of cool stuff here of course. The Paralympics are on now so there’s still some related stuff on display. I’ve always wanted to do a series of shots of Vancouver’s back alleys, they’re so impressively seedy and grim. More sunrise/sunset stuff would be cool. I’d LOVE to be able to get up high and take some shots – we got onto the roof of our building at work once for a team photo, 23 stories up, and I didn’t have my camera. Are there any other public viewing platforms around Vancouver? There’s the Harbour Centre restaurant but you’re shooting through glass.
Stanley Park – I’ve never really done a good photoshoot around here. The lighting is frequently challenging with the typical high dynamic range of woodland environments. An overcast day might mitigate that. Shots of the Lion’s Gate Bridge from the seawall and Prospect Point would be cool.
George C Reifel Bird Sanctuary – Been here a few times but not since I got my 100-400. When it’s not raining this is a spectacular place for birding and other wildlife photography. The setting by the ocean is nice too.
Horseshoe Bay – Been a while since I drove out here. When the weather is good it’s a beautiful place. I need to find some good places to shoot from up on the mountainsides overlooking the village and bay, to get away from the typical tourist-style shots of the docks and ferries.
Barnet Marine Park – Went here a few times last year, it’s a wonderful place along the Burrard Inlet in between Burnaby and Port Moody. Some really great opportunities for the North Shore mountains, some birding, boats etc. Probably spectacular at sunset with the light on the mountains.
Beached rowboat at Barnet Marine Park, September 2008. Canon 40D, 10-22 lens at 22mm, 1/250, f/8, ISO 100
Burnaby Mountain and SFU – Burnaby Mountain is a great place to shoot, with sweeping views of the inlet and mountains. SFU has some awesome architecture that’s been in tons of movies and TV shows, and I’ve never taken a walk around it.
Buntzen Lake – Scenic lake with some hiking trails. Been here a few times. It’s most interesting when you get some fog on the lake in the autumn.
Iona Beach Park and the airport – Iona is a really cool place right by the airport. Lots of people don’t seem to know it exists, so here’s a good link to help you get a sense of it. There’s a 2-mile-long breakwater extending out into the ocean that you can walk along and get right under the flightpath from one of the main runways. In addition the marshes to the north are full of birds (different ones at different times of the year), dragonflies, flowers and water scenes. I love this place.
Deep Cove – Picturesque little village right on the inlet, on the North Shore. Been here lots of times but haven’t taken too many memorable pictures yet. Gets very busy when the weather is good.
Lonsdale Quay – Probably the best place on the North Shore to take shots of downtown. Need to get out here one evening to get some better skyline shots; the ones I took before the Olympics aren’t bad but they don’t stand up to high-res use for a 3-monitor wallpaper like I want I should make a panorama with the 100-400.
Steveston and White Rock – Both of these places are nice little seaside towns, like Deep Cove but larger.
Whistler – A bit further afield, but Whistler is just PACKED with photo opportunities. Louise and I spent a day here in late summer 2008 and I got some of my favourite shots of the year in just that time. Within a couple of hours you can go from amazing coastlines to glacial streams through forests to epic mountaintop views. Have to do it again this year.
Queen Elizabeth Park and the Bloedel Conservatory – Shouldn’t leave it too long to visit here again as the Conservatory is under threat of closure. I hope it doesn’t happen 
Great views of downtown if the foliage isn’t too overgrown too.
Granville Island
UBC/MOA
Alouette and Stave Lakes
Fort Langley
That’s the start of my list; I’ll add to it as I think of more. Please comment if you know of anywhere worth a visit that I’ve missed – I’m sure there are tons of places!
