Tag Archives: KSFO

Going Further Gets You There Quicker

The title of this post is a pretty weak premise for the pictures I am posting. The pictures are of Air India Boeing 777-200LRs. In the pictures, they are not doing anything special. However, I shall justify the pictures with a slightly interesting fact. Air India has been serving SFO for a while. It is a long flight from Delhi to San Francisco and they were looking in to alternative routes. A lot of negotiation ensued that finally allowed a polar route to be used. This route is nearly 1,000nm longer than the route that they were previously flying. However, the prevailing winds on the longer route are helping the jet along. The result is that the longer route is actually two hours quicker. Strange but true.

Time Lapse Up the Old Tower

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My trip up the tower at SFO got me thinking about what things I wanted to get done while I was there. One thing I had in mind was a time lapse. I was a bit bothered, though, because we would only have about 20 minutes and setting up the camera and getting it going would eat into that time. Fortunately, Nancy had just given me a new GoPro to replace the one I killed in Hawaii. This one had a time lapse function built in. Also, because it is small, it would be easier to get it close against the glass to minimize (but not totally remove) reflections.

When we got up the tower, I went straight to the window, hit the start button and leaned the camera against the glass. I had no idea whether it was working or not so just left it and hoped. I then started taking the other shots I was after. When our time was up, I had to remember to go and get it again. Only when I got home did I find out that it had taken a steady string of images. I then processed them using my usual software of LRTimelapse aided by the lens correction in Lightroom for the GoPro. The result is this video. It is a little wide angle for some of the distant action and it would have been fun to have a longer time to capture images over but, overall, it worked out quite well.

Just Not Quite the Right Spot

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As I was heading to the tower for my visit, I decided to check out a spot that I had read about for photography. The Airtrain Terminal 2 station has open ends that provide a view of the runways and taxiways. You can get a view of the operations which is quite good. However, you are looking out at each end. The middle of the view is obscured by the terminal buildings – at least for now until demolition takes them away to be replaced with something new. (Supposedly, the new building will include a viewing terrace!)

Unfortunately, some of the most interesting moments take place in the obscured area. Rotations for takeoff and touchdowns for landing can be just out of sight. This is unfortunate. Consequently, this is not a spot I shall try much but it does provide a slightly different view of things at SFO which is at least worth a try. Reverse operations were in effect so I might want to see how it is when things are operating the other way.

The Old Tower is Stripped Out

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The rebuilding of SFO has included building a new tower. I wrote about the old versus the new a while back in this post. The new tower has now been commissioned and is operational. It is time for the old tower to be demolished. Fortunately, the airport invited people to visit before demolition started. The inside of the tower was looking a bit sad. The equipment had all been ripped out. I doubt much of it is getting reused since the new tower will already have been equipped with the latest generation of air traffic control gear. However, the surrounds for the old gear were still there looking rather skeletal.

A week later the process of everything coming down would start. Soon it will look a lot worse and then it will be gone forever. We got a fleeting glimpse of its last days. I hope someone takes some pictures as everything comes down to preserve the last days forever.

LA Dodgers and Emirates Have a Thing

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Emirates A380s are a regular feature at SFO. They usually look pretty much the same with maybe the occasional graphic added for an event or other. This one was a bit out of the ordinary though. Apparently Emirates must have some sort of promotional tie in with the LA Dodgers. The side of the jet was adorned with a large graphic about the team. The side of an A380 is pretty sizeable so there is plenty of real estate to adorn with whatever you want to include. In this case, they made good use of it.

Getting WOW in Better Light

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My first encounter with a WOW A330 was towards the end of the day when the jet was a little backlit. I hadn’t had another chance to shoot one since them and wanted to try and do a little better. The deep color of the purple scheme should look more vibrant than the slightly washed out version I had managed before. The timing of the flights is such that they depart in the late morning. Since the jet is not too heavy, they go off the 01 runways which means they have a nice light on them during the lower winter sun. Unfortunately, they seem to like using 01L rather than 01R which puts them a little further away and a little more susceptible to heat haze. However, I got lucky this time and the conditions were okay.

Is Shooting in the Rain a Good Idea?

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It might be sometimes, but this was probably not one of them. The forecast was for wind and rain which was suggesting that SFO would be using reversed operations to normal. I thought it might be worth a shot. The rain was obviously a concern but I was hopeful, as I have been in the past, that it might make for some interesting shots. I had underestimated just how wet it was though.

The cloud base was very low. The jets landing on 19 were barely visible until they rolled out. The ones taking off were also heavily obscured. The rain was really making things difficult to see and a lot of adjustment in post is necessary to get anything. Only one jet seemed to perform well for me. The Singapore A350 must have gone in a gap in the conditions and it seemed to be the one that was cleanest when I looked at the shots. I won’t give up on things like this but I know the odds are not great.

More Parallels

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Not too much description to go with this post. SFO is well known for its parallel approaches (and departures) and I have been seeing a lot of them recently. Here are a few of the examples that have cropped up. As an extra, I include a shot of two on approach with a departure in the background. Combine a parallel pair with the other traffic a little further out on the approach and the sky looks a little busy. However, while it looks interesting in person, it doesn’t make for a compelling shot.

Air Berlin

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I wonder how long this plane will continue to show up at SFO. Air Berlin runs a service to San Francisco which is seasonal in nature. However, Air Berlin is currently in some difficulty and they are reorganizing the operations. Some of the services are moving in to Lufthansa control while the long haul stuff may be what remains. Consequently, they might still come to California but, for now, who knows. They aren’t a daily feature anyway so I haven’t seen the, very often. Here was a nice day when they did show up.

The French Government Comes to Town

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Catching a cool bizjet is nice but coming across one that is a bit special is even better. I almost missed this one. I was focused on something else when I looked up and saw something on the approach. At first I thought it was a parallel approach but I lifted the camera up to my eye and saw it was a colorful fun that was getting my attention. It was a Dassault Falcon 7X. It was in French government colors. The fin was the French tricolor. This was a cool thing to catch and quite a surprise.