Tag Archives: mount rainier

Mount Rainier Aerial Tour

Another trip and another flight out of SeaTac.  I was sitting on the left side of the plane without having given any thought to what I might see en route.  As it happened, we departed to the south and then, after a short time in the climb, we turned on course for our destination.  It just so happened that our turn brought us around the south side of Mount Rainier.  I was sitting on the side that happened to have a great view of the mountain as we turned.

I was sitting down the back of the plane so, for a while, the wing was in the shot.  I wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed by this or to have something to give some perspective to what I was shooting.  Aerial photos of large landscapes usually lack a sense of scale and I doubt the wing altered that, but it was worth a try.  The cloud banks that lay on the surrounding foothills are probably rather large, but they seem almost insignificant against the scale of the mountain.  A lucky day to be heading the right way, sitting on the right side of the plane, turning where we did and then not having the whole thing shrouded in cloud!

FedEx Sneak in But the Background is Good

While on the hunt for a different aircraft, I was getting some shots of the aircraft coming in to SeaTac from the south.  I was pleased to see a FedEx jet showing up on FlightRadar24 but it seemed to be rather close to another plane.  It turns out they were scheduling them in on roughly parallel approaches and the FedEx was going to the center runway – not near me.  I was a bit annoyed and the view of the center was a bit obscured from where I was.  Haze was also going to be a problem – plus the odd power line.  However, there was one upside.  Mount Rainier is in that direction so, while the shot wasn’t what I wanted, it wasn’t a total loss.