Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Above LA

Arriving in LA from the north brings you in to the city from an interesting direction. You come down the coast and then run in to the city before making a turn towards the west to land (assuming LAX is operating in the usual direction. You can see Van Nuys, come over Culver City south of Beverly Hills with the Hollywood sign off to the north and then pass close over the top of Downtown before making the turn. You are pretty low so have a nice angle on things as you go and, with it being later in the day in the early spring light, things aren’t as harsh as they get later in the year.

A few good views of the city as well as the race track near the airport were on offer so who was I to say no?

A380 Row

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I was on a flight home that stopped in LAX en route. I hadn’t planned anything for where I was sitting but we happened to land on the south side of the field and, being Southwest, the terminal was on the north side which meant traversing the field. This took us past the Bradley International Terminal. It was quite full as we passed with plenty of heavies. It had taken on a bit of an A380 theme so I grabbed the phone and got a few shots as we came by. Phone pictures through an airplane window may not be the best but it was what was to hand and they were hardly arranged for a great image anyway. If you like to see big planes from around the world, this will be for you. There are a couple of other visitors to LAX that day below. If not, come back in a couple of days and see if I have something better for you.

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.

Easterlies – Good for Me, Bad for Them!

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One of the surprising benefits of the bad weather system that passed through Los Angeles while I was there was that it made for some different operations at LAX. LAX has four runways in two pairs, one north of the terminal complex and one south. The prevailing wind is from the ocean so everything tends to operate with arrivals and departures in a westerly direction.

The airport is pretty much designed to operate this was – more so since the construction of the extension to the international terminal has resulted in the cross taxiway between the north and south areas being closed off. Moving aircraft from the north to the south and vice versa seems to be a bit of a hassle and, for some reason, if the traffic is operating in the opposite direction, it seems to be just that bit harder.

When the weather turned bad, operations started out in the morning with some westerly movements and some easterlies. Some of these were simultaneous with arrivals heading towards departures coming out from the other side of the field – not unsafe but certainly a little disconcerting I imagine. As the wind strengthened, the incoming flights were redirected and the airfield went to a full easterly operation.

While this may have made the ground handling a little more tricky, it was certainly good from my point of view. Relocating to Imperial Hill, I now had a lot of arrivals coming in on the runway closest to me and touching down pretty much directly in front of me. (If it weren’t for the number of power cables around this area blocking the touchdown zones, this would have been perfect.)

This also meant a lot of departing traffic came our way as well so it was a chance to see things in a slightly different way to that which is normally the case at LAX. This combined with a few pleasant surprises. One was the arrival of a Qantas A380 on our runway. From what I understand, they normally operate from the north side only so this was quite a bonus and there is a shot of it in the post here.

Also, we had a DHL DC-8 show up. Not only did it land in front of us but it turned around pretty quickly and soon taxied past us and lined up to depart. Not a bad piece of luck. The light was a little erratic – it was bad weather that caused all of this – but it was still an interesting opportunity.

What Else Does LAX Offer?

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Aside from chasing a few A380s, LAX has the advantage of a mix of aircraft from all over the place. It also has a good selection of spots from which to take pictures. While I was there (at various times over a few days) I managed to get a few different shots. It is a lot easier to do this today than it was in the past.

Websites that list flight movements combined with a smart phone allow you to be a lot more aware of what is coming and what is due out. No longer do you wonder whether you can move on only to see something amazing arrive just as you drive down the street. The data isn’t always accurate but it does make things a lot easier.

At this time of year, one of the favored spots by the In’n’Out burger joint is not ideal for the sun. However, walking a short distance down the street can overcome this. It also gives you a vantage point from almost directly underneath the aircraft (or right under them if you prefer) from which you can get something a little different. I tried a bunch of these out while I was there.

Nothing much else to say about the location so here are some of the shots to enjoy.

Hunting the A380

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I was recently in LAX and had some time to shoot around LAX. While Chicago is a major international airport, LAX has a more diverse selection of aircraft from different countries showing up and it is certainly easier to shoot at. Whether you are at Imperial Hill, near the In’n’Out Burger on Sepulveda or near the Proud Bird, there are a lot of options.

One of the things I was keen to do was get some shots of the A380s. LAX is one of the airports that attracts A380s from a number of operators with more to come in the not too distant future. Qantas and Singapore were early operators of the aircraft and soon brought them to LAX. Korean has recently introduced the plans and they are now a daily arrival.

I have occasionally seen A380s on the ground at Heathrow and LAX when passing through but the only one I had seen flying was at Oshkosh a couple of years ago. As I wrote in a recent post, we tend to crave what we haven’t seen and my interest in getting A380s on this trip was pretty much in that vein.

The timing of arrivals can easily be tracked online. Unfortunately, the majority of A380 operations are on the northern runways which are a little less convenient for shooting. However, I did get lucky with a Qantas A380 showing up on the southerly runways when easterly approaches were in operation. I got a few, even if the light wasn’t always the best. Soon they will be very common and I will wonder what the fuss was – oh, rubbish. I still like to catch 747s!

Griffith Park Observatory

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After I paid a visit to the exhibition of Gerry Holtz’s images (which you can read about here), I had some time to spare in the vicinity of Hollywood. It wasn’t the greatest day from a weather perspective – that was one of the reasons I had chosen that day to go to the gallery – but it was still a reasonable day to be out and about. I asked Gerry whether he had any recommendations.

He suggested that I visit Griffith Park Observatory. Interestingly, this was one of the things that I had been contemplating so, when Gerry brought it up, it seemed like it had to be the place to go. I had seen the location in movies and TV shows at various times over the years and the view over the city seemed to be quite appealing.

Gerry gave me some directions as to the best way to get into the park and I followed these without difficulty. The route it took into the park went past some very nice houses. Given the size of the places, the way in which they had been maintained and the location near Hollywood but on a hill, I suspect those places were not for those short of cash!

Since it was a Saturday, I wasn’t the only one thinking that this might be a good place to visit. The parking lot at the observatory was closed off since it was full at the time. I ended up descending the other road to the summit which was lined with parked cars in both directions. Rather than join this idea, I turned around and went back over to the side I had ascended, found a parking bay and walked back to the top. It wasn’t a long walk and it was nice to get the heart pumping a bit after a lot of time in the car.

The observatory itself was well worth the visit. The location is impressive and the view across the city below was great although it would have been better if it weren’t such a grotty day. Of course, LA does have a reputation for smog so perhaps I was actually getting a better view than normal.

I not only had a great view of the city below but also a good angle on the Hollywood sign on the hills not far away. I had seen the sign a number of times in the distance but had never really been this close. I obviously took a few shots. Another cultural icon was commemorated here. James Dean’s film Rebel Without a Cause had some scenes filmed here and a bust of Dean is mounted on a plinth on the foreground of the observatory.

I made the most of the outside views first since I was a bit concerned that the rain might show up. Once I had satisfied my initial interest, I headed inside to see the observatory’s exhibits. It seemed to be a well laid out place and have a number of interesting presentations. It certainly seemed to be popular with a lot of people visiting. I scooted around looking at some of these but I was slightly more interested in the historical elements. There were a number of older technology items to look at including the old projector for the planetarium and the telescope.

After wandering the insides, I headed up to the roof for one final look around before heading back to the hotel. The view from up top was a nice extra addition to the visit and seemed to be less popular than the rest of the place. Maybe the trip up the stairs is more than some what to make. The rain hadn’t come but I still decided to walk back down to the car. It did have a little drop of rain as I went but nothing that caused any problems. The view back as I descended was quite appealing and I was glad to have ticked off another one of those famous places I had always intended to see.

Gerry Holtz Exhibition

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I was recently in Los Angeles and, while there, took the opportunity to catch up with Gerry Holtz. Gerry is a great guy I met at the Kennedy Space Center when we were both there to witness the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. Gerry lives in LA where he runs his own business in the video editing and production business with much of his work being on your TV screens on a regular basis.

However, Gerry is also a photographer and a pretty good one at that! One of the things that he has been working on in recent years is a form of panorama shooting that creates a 360 degree view in a single square format image. Gerry has an exhibit running presently at a cafe in Hollywood. If you are nearby, the details of the venue are below and, without jumping to the end of the story too quickly, I do recommend a visit.

Gerry makes use of some familiar software tools to create the panoramas but the important elements of his work are the ability to visualize how the components of the scene will appear in the finished image and the willingness to do more than just use the basic software tools. He works on the details of the image – both the elements and their blending and the dynamic range that can be present in a shot covering such a wide area. The result is a far more time consuming process to create the final image but a result that justifies the effort.

He also has put a lot of effort into the display of the images for this event. A number of them have been mounted on rotating frames since the image can be viewed from many angles and the rotating frame makes this easier for the viewer to achieve. A smart idea and one that works very well.

You might have noticed that I normally have a number of images in my posts but this time there are none. Since this is Gerry’s work, I did not want to reproduce it here. However, you can certainly take a look at what he does by visiting his Facebook page. Go to www.facebook.com/gerradaholtzphotography to take a look at examples of Gerry’s work. I think you will be both impressed and fascinated. Some of the images can appear very abstract but then you can explore them further to see more of what is there. Some will be of familiar locations and others you will not have seen before.

I would like to thanks Gerry for taking the time to show me around the exhibit and to wish him well with further displays of the work. I understand he is considering a book of more of the images and think this would be a great idea. The exhibit is at 6547 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90038 . If you are in the area, take a look!