Lufthansa have painted up one of their 747-8I jets in a livery that is based on their old color scheme. Until recently, the Seattle route was being flown with a 747-400 so I didn’t anticipate the chance to see it. Then, in the aftermath of the Air Berlin bankruptcy, Lufthansa deployed some 747s on domestic services to bolster capacity. This meant some 747-400s were pulled from routes and the 747-8I was subbed on to Seattle. I was down there on a crummy day to get the IL-76 and the special jet was due in. I figured I couldn’t miss it, even if the conditions weren’t great. The light was not great as it came down the approach but the shot from behind as it got to the threshold was a bit better.
Walking back in to Log Boom Park from the pier, you get to the shoreline which is a popular spot for the ducks. They clearly like the shallow water and the multiple spots where they can come out of the water to rest. As I was approaching, they seemed to be in agreement that it was bath time. Every duck was taking a turn at washing their plumage.
I figured I would take a chance on the shots. Slow shutter speeds were worth a go. The problem with this is that the ducks are moving a lot so the chances of getting a sharp head/eye are a bit limited. However, if that does work out, the flapping of the wings should look more interesting than trying to freeze the action. Making use of the high shutter rate on the camera is a good way of improving the likelihood of some success and, I was okay with getting a few that worked out.
I missed the best of this event. I got to Everett towards the end of a filming session with a Gulfstream G650ER jet. An Astar was being used to film the jet as it flew some approaches. I had actually noticed the jet online earlier in the day because it had been flying orbits over some of the islands and showed up on FlightRadar24. I didn’t know what it was at the time but, once I got to Everett it all became clear. I didn’t get anything of the Astar as I didn’t have the camera out when I first arrived but I did get a shot or two of the Gulfstream near the end of the flights. Looked like a fun sortie to be involved with.
Boeing announced the sale of a couple of 747-8F freighters to Qatar Cargo and then immediately delivered one of them. I was confused at the time as I thought it would be a while before the deliveries took place, but it turned out that they had sold a couple of jets that had been previously built but had not been delivered. The second of the jets was recently in flight test. This jet is quite well known as Boeing had painted it up in Seattle Seahawks colors for a Super Bowl appearance and then for a few follow up flights. Now it has been repainted and, when I shot it one weekend afternoon, it was close to being ready for delivery.
I wrote in a previous post about heading out to get shots of a Sounder train for a project I was working on. I did get a bonus opportunity while I was there. The same line is used by the Amtrak Cascades services between Seattle and Vancouver BC. A train from Vancouver was running a bit late so it was the first one I saw. It appeared to have been that they held the Sounder trains for the Cascades train, perhaps because of the timings of the stops although I don’t know for sure. Either way, it showed up just after I got there.
WSDOT’s new Siemens Charger locos had just entered service on this day and one of them was on the front of the train. They had not yet removed the old loco as they were running in the new units to deal with any infant mortality issues. The Charger was mounted ahead of the NPCU on the opposite end to the other loco. Having worked on the Charger program, I was pleased to see them in service.
Alaska’s cargo operation has used 737-400 freighters for a while. They are now the launch customer for a cargo conversion of the 737-700. I read about them taking delivery of the first aircraft but wasn’t too focused on seeing one. I almost ignored this departure since SeaTac has a steady stream of Alaska 737s. I did decide to shoot it though when something about it looked different. Sure enough, it was the cargo conversion. A lack of windows and the cargo markings set it apart.
This Korean Air 787-9 Dreamliner is seen taking off one Saturday afternoon from Paine Field on a production flight test. It was lightly loaded so it was off the ground pretty rapidly and was already cleaning up the gear as it came toward me. The wheels are braked before the gear comes up to stop them spinning before they enter the bay. This can result in a burst of brake dust that blows clear in the slipstream and the shadow of the brake dust showed up clearly. As they continued the climb out, they actually lowered the gear again. I think this was to cool the brakes given they had done a high-speed taxi run prior to the takeoff.
Night photo shoots are becoming more popular these days. The Flying Heritage Combat Armor Museum (FHCAM) held one with the de Havilland Mosquito. The evening started out with the plane on the ramp when people were free to wander around the aircraft. I was shooting a lot of long exposures using the tripod which does a good job of removing the people provided they keep moving. However, a few people were hanging around for long periods so they show up in the shots. Others were using the flashes on their cameras or flashlights to look at stuff which made things blow out.
Once we were all cleared from the ramp, one of the FHCAM crew came out to talk about the aircraft. He was the one that would carry out the engine runs and he ran through the test procedures that would be followed for the engines. People had the chance to ask questions and get a good understanding of the plane and how it is operated.
Then came the fun. The engines were fired up in sequence. Then they were run through the test program. The blue flame from the exhaust stacks could be clearly seen in the very dark conditions. When the mag checks were carried out, the flames were even more conspicuous. I moved around a bit to get some different positions. I was quite surprised to see how blurred some of the shots were. The aircraft clearly moves a lot despite being chocked and so some of the shots were totally unusable. This was a lesson learned. In future I would focus on shortening the exposure times a lot to minimize this issue which I hadn’t anticipated.
I also shot a bunch of video while the runs were underway. The edited video is below. It was a fun evening and thanks to FHCAM for holding it. It would be fun to do on another type. It might be nice to have a touch more light on the ramp but the dark conditions did have some advantages. I discovered a bit about shooting in that environment which should hopefully help on future night shoots.
After our lunch in Tacoma, we took a quick stroll around the area before heading home. There is a glass museum which looks like something that will be a source for another day trip. To get to the museum, we walked across a bridge of glass. There were glass sculptures at one end of the bridge and, on the bridge itself, there was a roof structure that incorporated multiple glass pieces.
Mounting the glass in the roof meant that light could be let in from above and the glass was illuminated from behind. As the daylight was drawing to a close, this meant that some nice soft light was filtering through the colors giving a great effect. We were spot on with our timing. When we walked back, the light was gone.
The shores of Puget Sound provide plenty of places to explore. One of these was a beach in Shoreline, a town that is quite appropriately named. I was actually about to head back to the car when this event occurred. As I walked up the path I saw people coming in the opposite direction. I thought they had a dog with them and that it was swimming in the water alongside them. Then I realized that the head in the water was not a dog but instead was a sealion.
The sealion was very close in to the shore and seemed to be quite interested in what was going on. I turned back around and headed to the water as it came closer. There were some old wood pilings in the water and the sealion came in to those, almost as if they provided a measure of protection. Then it paused before turning around and swimming back in the other direction. Shortly thereafter, it dipped under the surface and swam away. By this point, a few people had stopped to watch its progress. A sealion is hardly a rarity but it is interesting just how much attention it garners all the same.
Lufthansa have painted up one of their 747-8I jets in a livery that is based on their old color scheme. Until recently, the Seattle route was being flown with a 747-400 so I didn’t anticipate the chance to see it. Then, in the aftermath of the Air Berlin bankruptcy, Lufthansa deployed some 747s on domestic services to bolster capacity. This meant some 747-400s were pulled from routes and the 747-8I was subbed on to Seattle. I was down there on a crummy day to get the IL-76 and the special jet was due in. I figured I couldn’t miss it, even if the conditions weren’t great. The light was not great as it came down the approach but the shot from behind as it got to the threshold was a bit better.
