Tag Archives: terminal

The Iconic Main Terminal Building at IAD

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First thing is to apologise for an issue with an image in here. How about that for a compelling way to start a post. However, it was impossible to avoid reflections in some of the shots I took here and, unfortunately, the reflection removal tool in Lightroom continues to underperform in my experience. I do think they did something to make it worse because my initial experience was good. Anyway, for some of these I was shooting through two panes of glass that had a few metres between them, which meant I couldn’t avoid reflections.

Our trip to the US for a family event took us through Dulles airport. The iconic terminal at Dulles now sits at the heart of a bunch of terminal buildings which are far less interesting architecturally. However, the swooping shape is still in use and that is where we checked in. Inside the roofline is equally impressive. When at our departure gate, we had a good view back across and this is where the reflections have been unavoidable. I first saw this airport in 1993, and it still catches my eye when I see it now.

Watching Ferries from the Pub

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I’m certainly a sucker for a ferry photo as a search on this blog will confirm. I also like a pub by the sea, so Nancy and I had lunch at the Still and West on Spice Island in Portsmouth. This pub is right next the the entrance to Portsmouth’s harbour and also alongside the Wightlink ferry terminal. The service is frequent during the summer so, sitting there and eating lunch means you will get a decent number of ferries coming and going. Since you are sitting just above the water level, they look quite imposing as they come by. Also, they swing into the terminal in quick order and then disappear around the corner. It’s really quite fun to watch. Nancy normally tolerates my jumping up for photos of various things but I think even she thinks that the ferries are quite enjoyable to watch from here.

Denver Union Station

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I had to make a quick trip to Denver not long ago.  My flight left the morning after the meetings, and it wasn’t too early, so I decided to take the train to the airport rather than an Uber.  It was only about a ten-minute walk to Denver Union Station from the hotel and it was a sunny morning, so it felt good to stroll down through the city.  The station has been redeveloped with the introduction of the commuter rail services and the general updates to the LoDo area.  However, the original station building is still at the heart of the facility.  It is a nice-looking structure.

Once inside, the area of the platforms for the services has been modernized.  A nice, glazed roof has been added over the platform areas to provide shelter for the passengers waiting for their trains.  It has a good feel to it and doesn’t look like it is out of place with the older structures and the newer ones.  A pretty good job by the architects in my opinion.  It was a brief visit before my train came but a nice way to start the journey home.

Horseshoe Bay

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Our trip to Nanaimo meant a ferry ride with BC Ferries.  Normally we end up going from Tsawwassen but, because reservations were already getting hard to find, we took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay.  It has been a while since I departed from there and I didn’t remember much about it.  The waiting area was rather busy and not the most relaxing spot to wait for a ferry.  However, once on the boat, we got a nice view of the bay and the surrounding coastline.  It was a rather picturesque spot.  Figured I would share some shots of it here.

Cormorants Aplenty on a Ferry Trip

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Time for another cormorant related post today.  When taking the ferries on the various routes around Puget Sound, the infrastructure at the terminals is often popular with the cormorants.  This can mean that you can get quite close to them while on the ferry without them getting spooked.  They are also coming and going with some frequency so takeoffs and landings are common, and they will often fly quite close to the ferry.

On this trip, the angle of the light to the terminal was in my favor and I was able to get a few close-up views of the birds.  There was still some ironwork in the way of a totally clean shot, but not enough to ruin the images.  They also obliged by flying around at convenient times when I was ready to get an image and I got some of the better shots that I have taken of cormorants in recent years.

New Bradley Midfield Terminal

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When I was last at LAX, there was plenty of construction underway in the middle of the field.  The Bradley International Terminal was being expanded to accommodate the growth that had taken place.  This was all pre-pandemic of course.  On this visit, it looked like everything was complete.  The new midfield terminal area was looking finished and there were aircraft on the gates including a China Southern A380.  With that fleet due for retirement, that might be my last chance to see one.  Not sure whether I will get to use the terminal or not but it looked good.

Container Terminal Evening

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Evening light can make many things look better than they do in the middle of the day.  The warm evening light just makes things look better with the warm color and the softer shadows.  In those conditions, even a container terminal looks interesting.  From the roof of the hotel we were staying in downtown last year, we got a good view across Elliott Bay towards the terminal.

Island Ferry Terminals

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The San Juan Islands were our escape a couple of times during the limits on travel that COVID provided.  Getting to the islands involves a ferry trip and I will always enjoy that.  One of the things that I find interesting about the ferry terminals on the islands is how simple they are.  When we lived in the UK, the ferries were constantly expanding in their usage and the terminals were all getting upgraded to accommodate more vehicles.  They also had shops and food outlets.

The San Juans are far lower key.  The terminals are often in remote locations (accepting that the islands are generally pretty remote anyway) and they are tucked away looking far more like part of the coastline.  As we travel on the ferries, we get to see some that we stop at and others we pass.  Here are a few of the ones I have photographed from the water.

Fauntleroy Terminal

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Continuing my lockdown hobby of checking out ferry services, I took a trip to West Seattle to see the terminal for Washington State Ferries at Fauntleroy.  The service here goes to Vashon Island and Southworth – trips that I have yet to make but I would like to go cycling on Vashon at some point so I might get to use it then.  I chose a pretty unpleasant day to make my trip there.  Winter doesn’t provide reliable weather but the weekend is the only free time so you get what you are given.

The terminal is right next to Lincoln Park.  I walked through the park to the water and strolled along the shore.  A ferry was heading out at this time and, since the schedule was quite infrequent at that time of day, that was all I got to see move.  I walked along the water and back to the road heading down to the terminal itself.  It is not much of a terminal to be honest.  Some holding lanes for the cars and not a lot else.  Compared to the new Mukilteo terminal it is very low key.  There is a little public park and beach just below the terminal which I briefly checked out but the increasing intensity of the rain meant I didn’t stay around too long!

Demolition of the Old Mukilteo Terminal

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With the new terminal open and operational at Mukilteo, the construction crews have turned their attention to the demolition of the old terminal facilities.  The redevelopment of the waterfront includes returning this old space for new usage.  The old terminal building was not a particularly impressive structure but now it looks very sad as everything is taken down.

Across the road, the old lanes for holding the cars prior to boarding are still visible but some of the area has already been cut through by the new access road construction for the terminal.  One side of the old lot was briefly the home for one of the toll booths which looked rather feeble on its own.  Next time I was there, it was gone.

The old span that connected to the berth has been lifted out.  It was sitting on a barge on my last visit.  A large floating crane had been brought in for the large lifts where a smaller crane had previously been in use.  The structures were in the process of being removed.  The concrete top to one side had been removed and the posts showed the damage from the cuts.  The other side had a crew preparing the lifting lines to take that side off too.

It won’t be too long before all trace of the old terminal is gone and then it will be very hard to remember what it looked like at all.