Scottish Air Show, Ayr

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Today was the airshow in Ayr, marking the last Scottish flight of the Avro Vulcan XH558.

Last weekend I saw inside its sister plane, down in Carlisle. This week, I enjoyed watching it fly – and what a beautiful bird it was. So elegant – when cruising around slowly it was as though she was toying with the audience. And when they opened the throttle to accelerate or head upwards…. wow. What an engine roar.

The Red Arrows were also there – an impressive display of several fly-pasts ludicrously close and at high speed.

I’ve also made a little video of the Vulcan:

Solar Eclipse 2015: a teaser

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After all that driving to get this, I couldn’t let today pass without posting taster shot from the solar eclipse.

I find it interesting that, for all the posturing online about the need for Baader solar sheets and that ND filters wouldn’t provide enough protection, nature provided clouds as the best kind of filter anyway.

The colour photo was taken with a 20-year-old Centon 500mm f/8 mirror lens and probably an ND8 filter hand-held in front; the black and white image was the kit telephoto 55-210mm lens at the far end.

Both taken from the road beside Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven.