My nephew’s graduation took place at Ann Arbor MI. I had not been there before but the main graduation ceremony was held in the football stadium. It might be able to hold 100,000 but on this day there were not so many. We had more space to spread out than would be the case in a football game and behind the stage area was left empty. While we waited for things to “kick off”, I figured I would grab a panorama or two of the Big House.
Arrivals at Vancouver are often on a westerly heading and on the north runway. This is not ideal for photography at touchdown except in the height of summer. Then the light comes around to the north side quite nicely. I wasn’t in Vancouver at the peak time but I did have a visit when the sun had started to get to a good spot. I met up with my buddy Mark for a little evening shooting.
Unfortunately, not everything I wanted came to the runway. The glide slope was apparently unserviceable so some airlines chose to go to the south runway. However, enough came to the north to be worthwhile. The later it got, the better the light became. Some interesting overseas arrivals come in late enough to take advantage of this plus the regular local traffic to provide some nice opportunities. It was a nice evening of shooting and meant the traffic was far easier by the time I got on the road home.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that there was interest in McLaren starting to develop road cars. I guess the first time I saw one on the road, we still lived in Chicago, so it has been a while. However, it still feels very recent. What I haven’t done is pay much attention to what the different models are. Consequently, when I am at Exotic@RTC, there are a bunch of McLarens from the local dealer as well as some local owners and I have absolutely no idea which model is which. Moreover, I don’t know whether or is a base model of “little” interest or a particularly rare example. I might recognize a Senna by the huge wing but haven’t seen one of those yet.
Instead I just wander around and look at the various cars to see which ones I like the look of. Their styling is generally pretty nice. Some of them have more interesting shaping for the aerodynamics (no surprise that is something I am focused on) but the simpler shapes are nice too. Seeing which colors they bring can be fun too. Some of the colors are rather vibrant/gaudy. I was quite interested in one vehicle that was originally painted red but had been wrapped in a matte gray film with just some elements of the red visible around certain areas.
Since I don’t know which model is which, I guess it is probably safer for me to just not bother buying one for now. I’ll have to do my research to make sure I don’t buy the wrong one. That would be so embarrassing…
American Airlines has painted a number of its jets in liveries of the airlines that went into it over the years. It happens that, as I write this on a plane, I just saw an A320 in American West colors as we taxied out. They painted up three 737s in special schemes and I had a poor record of seeing them. Two of these, the TWA scheme and the Reno Air scheme, both showed up at DFW while I was there waiting for a flight home. The TWA scheme landed just after I got there so I saw it while riding the inter-terminal shuttle. I then had it taxi out past me a little while later. Sadly it took off from the other side of the field. The Reno jet followed later and it did take off from our side so I felt like I had finally checked out something that had evaded me for too long.
I posted a photo of a cormorant sitting on a post in Lake Washington in this post. More recently, the same post became the resting place for a heron. I had plenty of time to inch closer to get a better shot of the bird. The background was rather distracting so I ended up crouching in an strange position in order to get a cleaner background. The heron seemed content to wait for me to get the shot.
Corporate jets are rarely painted in interesting schemes so, when they are, you notice them. This one showed at at Boeing Field with a puma on the tail. A bit of research when back home suggests it is a project between Jay Z and the sport gear manufacturer Puma. I think it is to help out athletes that are sponsored by them. The registration is apparently a reference to Jay Z himself. I have no idea who was on it on this occasion. Maybe Sean was onboard?
I posted a shot of a boat that was partially submerged in Renton in this post. I came across a similar sight in Kenmore recently. This boat was tied up to the outside of the marina but was clearly in a bad way. I don’t know what happened but I am going to make a guess. The water level in the lake is very high at the moment. There are many wooden piles out in the water that are normally above the surface but they are currently all submerged. I wonder whether the boat’s owner did not know they were there and punched a hole in the hull?
The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a jet that has had its time and is now rapidly disappearing from the skies of the US. However, they aren’t all gone. American Airlines has been a big user but the arrival of 737s and A319s means they are heading to the desert in large numbers. I had assumed that meant they were a rarity but DFW is clearly still seeing a lot of them. I was taking a shot of any of them that showed up since I might not get many more chances. I have, of course, shot them a lot of the years but this was a nice final encounter. Strange how pleased you are to see something that used to be a bit of a yawn.
A work requirement needed some photos of a project in which we are involved. We provided he pictures but the team requiring them had an issue with the images we had an wanted something new. When we couldn’t find any more, the easiest thing was to take some. I was heading in the right direction one day so stopped off to take some shots of the Sound Transit Link light rail system. I figured I would share a little of them here too for the rail fans amongst you.
Until recently I had never heard of Miami Air International. Then I photographed this rather unpleasant yellow 737-800 that landed at Boeing Field. Only FlightAware (and a squint at the text on the fuselage) let me know who operated the jet. The Scimitar winglets hint at the previous owner since they clearly didn’t get repainted! A couple of days after this, another of their jets went off a runway in Florida and ended up in a river. Now I know who they are!
