The skydiving plane that operates out of Upolu Airport, has lately been making some lower level takeoffs. A couple of times I’ve been walking up from the coast, east of the runway, when the plane suddenly zoomed into view and whizzed over my head.
On the third occasion, I was ready for it and got this photo. In this case, it was the pigeon that was startled and made a sudden takeoff of its own.
I often see the skydivers operating out of Upolu Airport. I see the plane take off and I see the brightly colored parachutes descending. But I’ve wanted to get a photo of the skydivers jumping out of the plane for some time. This photo isn’t it, but it’s the closest I’ve come.
Here, the skydiver has just jumped, but the main chute hasn’t yet opened. They typically drop for a while before opening the main chute, as this one did a minute or so later.
I like this photo, not just for the colors and lines, but for the fact it makes my little car look like a stretch limo!
I saw this pigeon on the coast, below Upolu. It’s the only brown pigeon I’ve seen, though their colors can vary a good deal. This one was disturbed by my attention, though it was a fair distance away, so it took off, swooping down as it did so. However, it did clear the water!
I saw this car abandoned at Upolu Airport. The pink sticker on the window is a police notice that the car will be impounded if it isn’t moved. But I liked the fact that the seat behind it holds several car parts boxes. Presumably the parts were tried, but failed to restore life to the car.
I also liked the little ‘Arf!’ sticker on the front. I hope the owner takes better care of the dog than they did the car.
When I first saw these two cows it was from the rear, looking into the sun (bottom photo). I thought it would make a nice photo if I could sneak past without disturbing them and get a photo from the front.
So I ambled along, trying not to provoke their interest and made it to a point where I had the sun at my back and a decent view of them. The only problem was, to get a clear shot I had to scramble up a bank and arrive at a spot where my view wasn’t blocked by another cow.
I gave it a good go, but just as I set up to take a photo, the one cow stirred. Still, I quite like the photo for the expressions. I had it tagged as two cows, but looking at the one on the right I’m not sure that’s the case and I certainly wasn’t about to scramble over the fence to see if I was right.
I saw these fish in a small bay where the waves were rolling in and liked the effect.
I caught up to this car driving back from Upolu Airport. Toward the top of this stretch of road, some tree roots have created some serious bumps and I was curious to see what was going to happen. As it happened she – dare I say, sadly – wasn’t catapulted into the air. Otherwise, that would definitely have been the top photo!
Graham's Island 