Category Archives: Pacific Northwest

Watching the Ferries While I Work

I was getting my car serviced up in Everett and was working from the dealership’s lounge while they were busy with it. When they finished, I didn’t have much time before my next call so, since I couldn’t get back to the office in time, I parked down on the waterfront to take my calls. I ended up spending the rest of the day working there (and having my lunch). It was a lovely day, and the ferries were coming in and out of the Mukilteo terminal. I did take a moment every once in a while, to grab some photos of the two ferries as they went back and forth.

Departures Off the Parallel

Having made the FOD Walk at Boeing Field before, I missed it the next year but did it again this year. I saw a few of the local aircraft operating from the short runway while the long runway was closed for us. Since I was on the south end this year, I wasn’t as close to the runway as last time, but I still got a good view of the passing planes as they climbed out.

Gloomy Day for a National Arrival

It was a wet and gloomy weekend morning up in Everett and so might not have been worth heading out.  However, National Airlines was bringing a 747-400 into the Boeing facility and that was worth a trip. The plane emerged from the gloom as it came down the approach and, as it came across the threshold, the vortices could be seen streaming off the flaps. A grey jet on a gloomy day is always a tough one but I think this was definitely a result.

Gnarly and Spooky Tree

In the glade down near the river in Bloedel Reserve, there is a tree that is super gnarly looking. The center of it seems to have been broken apart and damaged over time but the tree still seems to be doing fine. It looks very different depending on the angle from which you look at it. I think this could be the sort of tree that someone would incorporate in a fairy tale!

Nothing to Say Other Than It’s an Avanti

No shock to any regular reader that I found a way to photograph another Avanti. Just some good fortune about when it showed up at Boeing Field and that the light was playing ball when it had been rainy for a good portion of the time. I was able to be there to catch it and would have loved to have been there for departure too, but you take what you can get.

Brief Time Shooting on the Ramp at SEA

I was clearing out some old shots to try and clean up some hard drive space. As I ran through some of them, I found some shots I took at Seattle Tacoma International during a visit. We were heading out to a part of the airfield to look at where some future work may be undertaken. As we drove across the ramp, I did grab a few shots of the aircraft as they taxied around and also as some were departing. It is fun to shoot from a ramp as you get a very different perspective on things.

Growlers Head Home Together

During Seafair, the USN Growlers from Whidbey Island did a display earlier in the schedule. Once they were done, the jets headed home in midafternoon. They didn’t have a long trip home so getting back to base was probably a simple call. What made it better was that they undertook a section departure and the view from the tower was really cool. The tricky thing about a section departure from a photographic point of view is which plane to track. Which one looks dominant in the shot early on and which is dominant later in the pass? It changes but tracking is harder to switch. Small problem, I know, but a little tricky.

Hope On Our Route

Last year, when we made our trip to Kelowna, we stopped en route for lunch at a town called Hope. It is a small town and surrounded by mountains which makes for quite a distinctive view. There is a large park in the center of the town and the place we had lunch faced this park. The town was used for some filming for the Rambo First Blood movie and, when I happened to see a clip of this recently, I recognized the location immediately.  Apparently, the town has some statues of the actors, but we didn’t see those while we were there.

Asiana Really Mixes Up Their Scheduling

Plenty of airlines switch equipment around on routes as the demand ebbs and flows. One that seems to do this more than most when it comes to flights to Seattle is Asiana. Their long-haul fleet includes Boeing 777-200ERs, Airbus A350-900s and Airbus A330-300s and all of them seem to appear.  The A330s are not as regular as they used to be but you never really know whether it is going to be an A350 or a 777 at any point. Here is a selection of images I have got over time of the three types as they arrive and depart from SEA.

Crows Eating the Berries

Two years in a row, I have seen this in Juanita Bay Park. There are some trees that have some red berries on them in the fall and the crows seem to love them. They can flock to the trees in large numbers sometimes. I assume the fruity casing of the berries is appealing as they do like them. However, when I get closer, the crows seem to get nervous. A little video to add to show one of the crows having a good chomp.