Tag Archives: color

Special Liveries

On the whole, airline liveries are getting less and less interesting. Whether it is the branding style, the minimizing of cost or the need to return jets to lessors without too much repainting being necessary, they are ending up a bit dull. However, periodically, an airline will paint one or more of its jets in special color schemes. These may celebrate some event, recall a previous airline that was merged in at some point or be part of an alliance. Whatever the reason, it makes for some variety which is welcome.

I figured I would see which special liveries I have managed to photograph over some time. All of this was prompted by a recent China Eastern A330 that came in to SFO. My friend Roger told me it was coming in which came as a nice addition to the morning. As I was looking at the shots, I started flicking back through the catalog.

I decided not to include the alliance aircraft here. OneWorld, Star Alliance and Skyteam jets tend to be rather similar so I didn’t think they added something special. However, plenty of other jets have been more distinctive looks. It turns out that I have more of them than I realized and I didn’t want to just food this page so maybe I will have another batch of these at some point.

Autumnal Vines in Napa Valley

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Fall color is usually associated with trees. However, grape vines are also prone to some nice color changes through autumn and we took a ride up to Napa Valley to see how things were looking. We probably we there a little after the peak of the colors but there were still some nice colors to be seen. A good number of vines were already devoid of leaves but others had developed a strong red hue. Heading up to Calistoga, we could get up on the hillside and see the valley floor below us. The variation in the different fields helped to emphasize the colors more in my opinion.

Sunset Skies

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I’m not sure what it is about the weather in the Bay Area but we do seem to get a good selection of sunsets in our town. The clouds at high level get lit from beneath frequently and the famous bad weather of the area does not seem to obstruct the sun as much as you would think. I was in the office at home doing a few things when I glanced out of the window and saw the sky producing all sorts of patterns. I grabbed a few quick shots because the camera was on the desk. Just as well it was because a few minutes later everything was done. If I had needed to go downstairs to get the camera, I would have missed the whole thing.

Yountville in Fall

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It seems like a long time ago that we were in the transition from summer to winter. Fall in California is a little later than in some other places but, even so, it was still a while ago. We spent a day up in the wine country back then and the colors in the trees and the vines were very nice. I think we had missed the peak of the color for the vines but, as I was walking around Yountville, the sun was bringing out some great color in the trees.

Driving in to town we had passed a great variety of colors so I decided to walk back down through the town to take a closer look. Everywhere I looked there was another tree with the leaves glowing in the light. It was great. Whether looking along the road or up through the foliage, you couldn’t help but stare at the vibrancy of everything. It is cool to get good sun when the colors in the trees are nice too. Sometimes in the past I have struggled with getting the best of fall colors when the light became flat while the trees were at their best. Not so this time!

USAirways is Going

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The merger of American Airlines and USAirways is now getting close to the point where the two airlines become one. A lot of the USAirways aircraft and undergoing the repainting process to the colors of the combined airline. It won’t be too long before they have all gone and another airline’s colors will be consigned to history. Given that there is enthusiasm for retro schemes, some will remain. However, I thought I would have a little retrospective of some USAirways planes.

There are two liveries that dominate the shots I have. I flew on USAirways in the 90s but don’t have much to show of the colors that they had then (or the US Air name!). They have a big fleet so the transition won’t be instant but it will suddenly occur to me that the old colors aren’t showing up any more. In advance of that time, here are some samples of the old colors.

Onset of Fall Colors

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When talking about fall, the most obvious photography option is foliage. A favorite spot to go to see the fall colors is the Morton Arboretum out at Lisle. The full colors had not come into their own but, with a number of trips coming up for work and pleasure, I wasn’t going to have a chance to get out there before it was all likely to be over. When it is done, it is done very quickly. Therefore, an early visit seemed worth a shot.

We were certainly too early. However, there was still some interesting color developing with some of the trees. You could see what was going to look very good before too long so, while the conditions this year might not have been ideal for fall color, I suspect the large number of visitors they get at this time of year won’t be too disappointed. We got there later in the day to make the most of the nicer light and had a wander amongst some of the trees. Irrespective of the color or time of year, the arboretum is one of the more pleasant places to be.

I also wanted to play around with the fish-eye amongst the trees. This was something I had been thinking about for a while so had a quick roam amongst some of the stands. However, it was getting a little late so I had to get some quick shots. This is something I will come back to try again and spend more time finding the sort of trees that might suit what I have in mind.

Some Special Schemes

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One of the things I did quite well with while around LAX was getting jets with special color schemes. Plenty of airlines are painting aircraft in something other than the normal house colors. This can be a livery that is part of their alliance, like OneWorld or Skyteam, or it can be something special of their own. It might also be a tie up with another organization.

Whatever the reason, it certainly makes things more interesting to get something that is a little different to break up the monotony of the regular fleets. Here are a selection of some of the different colors that were on display while I was out west. The Alaska scheme is not too apparent since the shot is head on but you can see it if you look. Others are more obvious. Hope they are worth a look.