Promotional paint schemes are not uncommon – particularly with certain airlines. Alaska has a bunch of them. This one was a new one for me. WestJet, a Canadian airline, seems to have a marketing tie up with Disney too. They have painted a 737 up in an all-over shame that certainly gets your attention, if only to wonder what on earth it is. I was pleasantly surprised to catch it having had no idea it was on its way.
Getting shots of vapor is a popular thing when shooting fast jets. An airliner on a damp day can also result in some clouds being formed. While shooting something special at Oakland, I was getting a few shots to make sure the light metering was working as planned. A Southwest 737 came in and, as it flared for landing, it had a nice cloud of moisture form over the wing. Normally these things pop up further out on the approach and don’t make for a good shot but this one was close at hand.
I was a sitting by the window on the approach to Oakland and decided to play with the video functions on my phone. I have shot video clips a number of times of the approach but it takes a lot longer than you realize and makes for a very dull video without editing aggressively. Also, the turbulence when handholding a phone means the video is very jerky. Instead I switched the phone to time lapse mode and pointed it out of the window. The result is an accelerated version of the approach. The bumps are smoothed out by the compression of time and the maneuvers become more aggressive. I let the thing run until we are at the gate since that provides a more natural finish point. We spent a lot of time facing the water as we descended which is a bit less interesting than I would like but you can see that we are getting closer quite quickly.
When an airline decides to change its livery, it isn’t too long before large numbers of their aircraft are in the new scheme and you start forgetting that there was ever a previous paint job. In between those two points is the time when you are interested in the change. Catching something in the new livery is of interest. Alaska Airlines has changed their colors. As an airline that is active in this part of the world, the chances of catching the new look should be good.
It so happens I have seen two of them in close succession. One was overflying me while I was out walking. There was a lot of wildlife on my walk so I had a long lens on the camera so managed to get a couple of shots. The light was not great and there was plenty of cloud so not a great shot. The next time was shortly afterwards when the conditions had become considerably worse. Torrential rain meant that the plane was pretty obscured by the rain drops even though it was not far away. Neither of these will be shots that get pulled from the archives I imagine as they will be replaced by many more as the planes get repainted. However, they were my first encounters with the new look.
Southwest have a program of painting some of their jets up to represent states that they serve. One of the most recent additions to the fleet is a jet painted for the state of Tennessee. Having announced that the jet was joining the fleet, I decided to keep an eye out for it if I should be in a position to get a shot of it. Fortunately, I was in Oakland when it was due to depart. I popped along to the departure end of the runway to await it. It was scheduled on a flight a short while later. Another departure was due to go first so I figured I would shoot it as well in order to make sure that everything was working with my camera settings. Another Southwest takeoff is otherwise not too special. Imagine my surprise when they had switched the jets around. My practice turned out to be the Tennessee jet. Consequently I got the shot. If I had been waiting for the planned flight, I would have been sitting in the car when it took off. Lucky break and a good example of the benefit of not sitting in the car when something is happening!
In the past I have been able to get some reasonable shots of departing aircraft at SeaTac from the pier of the terminal that Southwest operate from while I am waiting for my flight. I was heading home in the evening and thought I would have little luck because the sun would be on the wrong side. Turns out, the sun was nowhere to be seen – this is Seattle so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Instead, it was raining (shocking news) so, even though the light should not have faded, it was pretty bleak. Normally, I would have thought this meant I would no be getting any shots. However, I decided to have a go anyway. Sometimes, the bad weather shots can come up with something a bit special. I did not anticipate getting this but it would have been frustrating to watch and miss something cool.
As it turned out, things weren’t too dramatic. I did get a few shots of the jets and turboprops as they headed out. Sometimes there would be puffs of vapor over the wings or clouds in the inlets but nothing too good. An Emirates 777 took off which meant a fair bit of spray behind it as it powered away. Sadly it rotated just as it went out of sight so the real clouds of spray were not visible from where I was.
Nothing too special today. However, I do like the look of a plane that is still in primer before it has gone to the paint shop. A 737 on test at Boeing Field came in while I was there so I got a chance to add another unpainted one to the collection.
Hyper lapse is not something I have tried a lot of but I have done a little experimentation. For those who are expert at it, my description might be a bit simplistic but it is basically a time lapse when the camera doesn’t stay still and the movement through a scene is accelerated. I had a go at this out of a window of a Southwest flight that was approaching Phoenix. Keeping the camera still and in the same reference to the aircraft is a little tricky but the nice thing about time lapse shooting is that small movements get blurred out quite quickly.
I liked the idea of the rapid passing of the scenery, the rapidity of the maneuvers and the speedy deployment of the flaps showing up. I decided to let it run until we were back at the gate. As my friend Paul said, “Don’t all Southwest flights taxi at that speed?”
Boeing Field not only is the home of development flight test activities for the commercial aircraft business but it is also where the production flight testing for the 737s is done. After the first flight from Renton, the jets come to Boeing Field for acceptance testing and delivery to the customers. Therefore, you can see 737s that you are unlikely to see again once they get into service. I had three customer aircraft on test flights at various times while I was there on one trip.
One of them is not such a surprise for anyone in Europe. A Ryanair 737 landed just as the sun was setting. That is a sight that many European travelers will have seen although we don’t get to see them over here. However, the other two were slightly more interesting to me. One was an Aeroflot jet and the other was from Iraqi Airways. I got the Aeroflot jet twice as it happened. It departed when I was passing through on my way to a meeting and it happened to come back late that day when I was coming back.
The Iraqi jet was one I had seen parked up as I drove by but I didn’t see it leave. However, it was due to return at the end of the day and actually came in not long before the Aeroflot jet. It was clearly going to be in before the sun went down. Aeroflot was a bit of a closer call. We knew it was coming but were watching the shadows stretch across the field and some clouds drift in. Fortunately, the cloud passed just in time and the sun was still just above the horizon so we ended up with some lovely light.
While waiting to get the shot of the Janet flight I posted about previously, there were plenty of other departures from McCarran. The majority of flights were coming out on the westerly runway rather than the one the Janets use so we were not getting the nice topside view of them turning. However, the light was very nice and so a few of them provided interesting targets. The Hawaiian Airbus A330 looked particularly nice but most looked good on those conditions. We were a bit focused on finding out how the Janet was doing so didn’t give them our full attention but some looked too good to ignore.
