Category Archives: Bay Area

How Long for Lufthansa A340s?

The A340s are disappearing from the fleets of major airlines pretty quickly as the 787s and A350s come in to service. Lufthansa is one airline that still has not only the A340-600 in service but the A340-300 too. I shot a 600 on approach to SFO last year and it got me wondering just how long they have remaining in service. While fuel prices are relatively low, they may hang on but higher fuel prices could accelerate their demise. We shall see. In the meantime, here are some of their fleet in service across the years.

Nice Light on Korean 777

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Korean Air 777s are hardly a rarity so would not normally warrant a blog post. However, this one arrived at a time when the light seemed to be particularly appealing and I was pleasantly surprised by the shot. I figured it could have a blog post on what is probably a cold and rainy winter’s day.

Virgin Atlantic Multiple Crosses at SFO

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My last time shooting at SFO, I got shots of a Virgin Atlantic 787 arriving. Crossing shots are not unusual at SFO as the jets on approach will often have departing jets in the background. The Virgin jet had this. It also had a second crossing shot a little earlier on the approach. A jet heading over the bay to pick up the approach further down was directly behind the 787 just after it passed Coyote Point.

Terminal View from the Shuttle

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I was in San Francisco for a work visit a little while back. I was picking up a rental car so took the shuttle that runs around the terminal areas and then out to the rental car facility. This trip gives you a view of the apron areas by each terminal. As you drop away from the central terminal area, you get a good view back across the ramp area predominantly used by United but also other Star Alliance carriers. I grabbed some shots from the shuttle to give an overview of this area that is otherwise obscured from view.

Pelican Formations

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When we lived in the Bay Area, I got used to the pelicans being around. Only when you move away do they suddenly become interesting again. I used to enjoy the formations of pelicans touring the bay and to see a bunch of them heading towards us at Fisherman’s Park was fun. They approached us head on before curving around the shoreline and away. Their low level flying is so effortless, I become jealous of their ability to float around the bay with freedom.

Coming Over Coyote

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Coyote Point on San Francisco Bay is a spot from which I have shot many times. It provides the closest spot to the approach path for the planes coming in to the 28 runways at SFO. It is also a pleasant place to hang out with a nice view of the bay, the marina below with plenty of boat traffic and a fair selection of wildlife. When shooting from Fisherman’s Park, the approach line makes the planes appear to be coming from behind Coyote Point. Given that it was a nice clear day when we were there, you had a good view of the approaching jets. Only the widebodies are large enough to show up well but it makes a change from my usual close-cropped style of shooting to go wider and get something with some local context.

Formation Work with Gull

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Hayman and I were shooting at Anza Fisherman’s Park. As the name suggests, this is a popular spot for fishing and this seems to attract the attention of a lot of gulls. There was a steady breeze which allowed the gulls to hover close above us and sometimes alongside us. We didn’t have anything of interest for them but it took them a while to work that out.

I got some shots of them as they hung around us. The background of a few was disturbed a little by the fishing poles that were propped up but the long lens wide open managed to isolate them from most of the background. They were a bit like photographing aircraft in formation but they didn’t necessarily respond to the directions I had for the shots I was after. Not the best formation pilots for photo work I guess.

Timely Cloud Shadows and Backdrops

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My afternoon of shooting at SFO with Hayman was a lot of fun. However, we were a little thwarted by the weather at times. Banks of clouds would roll in from the hills beyond the airport at odd times. Sometimes, there would just be a thin layer of cloud that was over the water but it would, of course, be just behind the flightpath of the jets. The sun might be on them but, with the cloud behind, a white airliner can be a lot less interesting to shoot.

Shooting at SFO is often about waiting for the international traffic. Endless Untied jets is not really that special but the widebodies from overseas are the ones you want. Of course, the weather can choose exactly those times to bring in more cloud. If the sun disappears for a moment, you can bet it will be when the Cathay A350 shows up or something similar. You just have to work with what you get and keep looking through the viewfinder for that brief instant when the plane pops into the sun through a small gap in the clouds.

Alaska Livery A320s – Something’s Missing

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With Alaska Airlines taking over Virgin America, there is a lot of repainting to be done of the fleet. I have seen a few of the newer A321neos around in Alaska colors (mostly special schemes) but I hadn’t had any luck with the A320s in the traditional Alaska scheme. A visit to SFO was bound to change that given that this was the base for Virgin America. Sure enough I got to shoot a few of the jets in their new livery. I have to say, I think it looks quite good on the A320. Of course, there is something of the livery that is missing. None of the Airbus jets carries the “Proudly All Boeing” graphic. None of the Embraers do either although that might soon be something they can add before too long!

Three Planes per Shot?

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I haven’t shot at Fisherman’s Park before and I am glad Hayman suggested it. The location provides a slightly different perspective on the planes coming in to SFO. It also seems to be the right angle to get lots of planes in one shot. Parallel approaches will give you two but you can also get the aircraft departing off the 01s in the background too. Sadly, they were often in shade as they departed but it still provided some contrasting shots. Then it was just a question of whether you could get two arriving and two departing jets in the same shot or not. Sadly, not this time.