Tag Archives: 737-900er

Night Touchdown

I posted about some night photography I tried on jets approaching SeaTac.  After finishing that up I was heading to the terminal to pick up my colleague and I decided to go for a shot of touchdown in the dark.  This was not going to be an easy one to get since it is really pretty dark at the north end of the airport so little ambient light.  I was relying on the lights of the jet and pushing the ISO to a really high level.  It is true that the noise gets really tough in those conditions but when looking at the image at a normal size, it really is not a big deal.  Besides, it is a shot we would never have done in pre-digital days.

Polarizing the Overfliers

I was in a location where a couple of the departures from SEA were overflying me.  I happened to have the camera to hand (of course I did) and I had the polarizer on there at the time.  I had an Alaska Airlines 737 (what a shock from SEA) and a Hawaiian Airlines A330.  I grabbed a few shots.  The thing I like about the polarizer is cutting down on the glare from the white fuselages but they were still pretty bright.  The rest of the sky was darkened considerably and, when editing to address the white fuselages, even more dark.  I quite like the deep and moody look it gives to the shots with very little editing involved.  Both jets pulled some vapor as they came through the same area so clearly there was extra moisture in that one spot.  Maybe it was a thermal?

Delta Jets at Moses Lake

While production Max jets awaiting delivery are all over Moses Lake, they aren’t the only 737s stored there.  Coming up on the south side, the first jets to be visible were Delta Airlines 737-900ERs.  I assume these have been stored here while a substantial portion of the fleet is inactive due to the massive downturn in air travel resulting from the pandemic.  No idea how long these jets will be here but I guess Delta will pull them out as they increase the schedules.

Finding a New Place for the Outer Arrivals

SeaTac is not the easiest place to get shots of the arrivals in the afternoon if the flow is from the north.  The inner runway is okay but the outer is not so easy without bugging the more experienced locals.  I was heading to the airport for a meeting but, with easy traffic, I got there a little early and decided to do a quick trip around the airport.  I came across a gravel parking area that gives a view of short final.  The planes appear quickly and are soon below the sight lines for the runway but there is a window in which you can shoot.  On this day the weather was crummy with rain constantly coming down – sometimes very heavily.  This was just a recce but I did get an A220 and some other types in the few minutes I was there before heading to my meeting.

Veterans’ Alaska 737 – Finally!

Alaska Airlines has a number of jets in special colors.  My efforts to finally get the merger jet were covered in this post.  One of the other jets that I never managed to catch in California was their Tribute to Service aircraft that is honoring veterans.  My friend Roger caught it a number of times but I was always in the wrong place.

Alaska is, despite the name, headquartered in Seattle so their jets are regularly rotating through SeaTac.  Shortly after arriving here, I saw that this jet was coming in and, since I was nearby, I decided to see if it could finally catch it.  Sure enough, I got it. I would also like to point out the sun and blue skies in this shot for those of you that think I have moved to somewhere where it only rains.  It’s true that it does rain but not as much as you think so far!