Yakutia is a Russian airline that has had a few problems recently and has been banned by the Russian authorities from some services until it can sort out its problems. Consequently, I am more pleased than I might otherwise be that I caught this Sukhoi Superjet at Narita in their colors as I might not get the chance again. We shall see if they get straightened out or whether some larger airline takes over their operations.
While in Victoria we walked along the shoreline of the harbor and made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf. This are is a mix of houseboats, tour boats and commercial boats. It is clearly a real commercial port at one end but the houseboat end is a different story. The houseboats are real houses. The residents were in evidence while we were there but there is plenty of stuff for the tourists too. The houseboats are painted in a variety of striking colors and on a sunny day it looked pretty nice. The houseboats were quite small and I wonder whether they are a fun place to live, a bit inconvenient or a pain given the people wandering around every day.
While I enjoyed my visit to Haneda earlier this year, I was a little frustrated by one thing. Regular readers will know of my interest in trying to capture the articulated gear feature of the 777-300ER. Haneda provided a great opportunity to photograph this as the departing planes were rotating almost directly in front of me. It is also an airport that gets plenty of 777s. Unfortunately, all of the ones that came my way were 200ERs. There were 300ERs departing too but they all went off the parallel runway on the opposite side of the terminal to me. I could only see them once airborne and backlit. Someone in air traffic must have been trying to thwart me!
My second trip to Japan of the year provided an opportunity to see more airlines that I don’t normally come across. I had a few hours at Narita waiting for my flight home and these shots are some of those I was not too familiar with. No details here about the airlines. Just a gratuitous posting of airliner shots.
I had a short wait at Tampa for a flight home after a work trip. The gate I was waiting at did not have a lot of traffic nearby. Indeed, judging by the total lack of lines at security, maybe none of the gates at Tampa have a lot of traffic! The view from our gate was towards a cargo ramp and there were two 767 freighters loading up. They both finished loading and taxied off while I was there. One was in Amazon Prime colors but the other was unmarked. However, a quick search tells me it is also a Prime jet but I guess they haven’t got around to painting it yet.
Half an hour of spare time on my way back to John Wayne Airport so I figured a quick shoot of approaches was worth a shot. It wasn’t going to be the most productive of shoots but why waste an opportunity. There were some regional jets and some airliners while I was there but also a few biz jets showed up. The sun was getting lower so the light was a bit more appealing. Even so, just a few stock shots for possible future use. Two Alaska Embraers came in but they were from different operators, Skywest and Horizon. I know someone who has a preference there (David).
Returning from a work trip to Dallas, I was flying out of DFW. I got to the airport in plenty of time so, with a bit of time to kill, I decided to take a ride on the train that runs between the terminals. It makes a loop of the whole airport in both directions. I decided to see what you could see from the train and did a whole loop of the airport.
First, it is not a great photo platform. Aside from shooting through the windows (which were actually not that bad), the stations are not well located for viewing the ramps and, when it has a clearer view, it is moving at speed and is a pretty unsteady base for shooting. There are always reflections too, of course.
DFW is an American hub and that is pretty obvious as you head around the terminals. No shortage of American jets including a few remaining MD-80s and one of the special scheme jets too. The longer view across the gates with the multiple fins was a shot you could get at a number of places. It wasn’t just American though. Obviously other airlines use the airport. It happened that a British Airways 747-400 had pushed as we got there and the train runs around the perimeter of that ramp so we saw it from almost all sides.
If you have a bit of spare time while waiting for a flight at DFW, I would definitely take a ride around the terminals. It is a lot more interesting than sitting waiting at a gate and the food options weren’t great either so take a ride and see what is going on and where people are going to and coming from.
I was in southern California for a day and I flew in and out of John Wayne Airport in Orange County. On the approach to the airport, I got a good view of Tustin. This is a retired military airfield and, in its earlier days, it had been an airship base. It still has two large airship hangars in the same style as those I have seen before at Moffett Field and Tillamook.
After my meetings had wrapped up and I was heading back to the airport, I took a few minutes to divert past the hangars and to grab a couple of shots of them. They are impressive structures and appear to be in great condition. I have no idea whether they are used much at this point and who looks after them but either they are well taken care of or the southern California climate doesn’t cause them too much trouble.
While I was staying in the same hotel as last time during my recent visit to Tokyo, I was on the opposite side of the hotel. This gave me a view across to a large radio mast a couple of kilometers north of Minato. In the early evening, the mast picked up the setting sun quite well. Once things had got dark, it was well illuminated and hard to miss!
The day I was flying out of Narita was not a good day for weather. Another typhoon was approaching and the rain ahead of the storm had reached us. I did initially visit the viewing terrace in the terminal but, as the rain started, I decided to head inside and go to the Delta lounge which has a great view of the runway and the ramp. It wasn’t long before the heavens opened. Departures reversed direction as the wind shifted.
The arriving jets were now throwing up huge clouds of spray as they selected reverse. Combined with the heavy rain already, they were pretty obscured. Editing the photos allows you to do a lot of work with the contrast to bring out more of the detail but the real view was surprisingly limited. Some of the shots are so hidden by rain that there is little that can be done with them. Departures also did a good job throwing up lots of water in their wake.
The amount of moisture in the air meant the inlets would often be fogged, even for the jets that were landing. Trailing vortices were showing on climb out and there was lots of vapor over the wings after takeoff. The only downside to all of this was that the cloudy background makes it harder to apprecaite the effects that were on show. It does show, though, that a rainy day is not necessarily one to be ignored from a photography perspective. You can sometimes get some interesting shots in conditions that seem very unappealing. (It doesn’t hurt to be shooting this from indoors in a warm and dry room with a ready supply of food and beverages.)
