Chicago was a stop off on a work trip. We were on final approach to O’Hare and I was looking out of the window at the industrial areas that surround the airport. There are rail tracks scattered throughout these areas so seeing trains is not a surprise. However, I was a little caught out by what appeared to be some old Metra commuter cars parked up in one space. They have clearly been out of use for a while. If anyone knows who they belong to, please let me know.
San Francisco Bay has some strong tidal flows and crossing the bay is the San Mateo Bridge. It has to resist these regular flows which it does without any problem. There is a lot of silt in the bay and, as the tide is changing, this silt can get churned up, particularly by the turbulence around the piles for the bridge. As we flew down the final approach, I was able to get some shots of the aby that included the bridge and showed clearly the turbulence behind each bridge pile courtesy of the silt. This is something that an aerial view will give you that you would no notice as you drove over the bridge.
The south end of San Francisco Bay has a number of areas that are encircled with walls that allow the water to be cut off. These are used to dry out salt beds for harvesting. The sun evaporates the water and the salt is left when all the water is gone. After harvesting, the tide can be allowed to flood the beds again and the process repeated. One cool thing about these beds is that, presumably as a result of algae, they can turn some interesting colors as the water evaporates. I was flying in to SFO for work and we turned right over the beds on to the approach. With the sun out, the colors looked excellent.
This post was originally going to be based on a shot I got of the University of Washington’s football stadium that I took while were hiking in the park nearby. However, things moved on a bit and I wasn’t too bothered by the shot. Then, as I was coming home from a trip, I was sitting on the left side of the plane as we made our approach over Seattle. I was looking straight down on the university campus and the stadium. I figured this would be a more interesting view for a post so finally the topic makes its way on to the blog.
A previous post showed the start of construction of the new stadium in LA. When I was on that trip, my arriving flight had passed right by the construction site but I didn’t have a camera to hand at the time. I made another LA trip more recently and, this time, I had a camera at hand as we made our final approach. Obviously the construction process has moved on a bit but there is still plenty to be done. Maybe I will make some more trips and get further updates in the future.
NFL fans in a couple of cities are still mourning the loss of their teams to Los Angeles. With the Rams and the Chargers both now based in LA, a new stadium is being built to accommodate them. Meanwhile, they are playing in existing stadiums. The new stadium, when it is finished, will be one of the most extravagant designs and will be used for other tasks including the future Olympics. Right now, construction work is underway. I saw the work site from my plane as I came in to LAX but didn’t have the camera to hand. However, when flying above LAX in the helicopter, I was able to get some shots at a bit of a distance of the work in progress.
The weather over Sonoma was absolutely gorgeous when we were out on the photo flight (when isn’t the weather great in Sonoma?). While we were orbiting over the county awaiting the second aircraft to come up to shoot, I was looking out towards the coast. There was a lot more cloud that was hanging over the coastline with the sun still above it. With the door open and a long lens on one body, I figured I should get a few shots of the coastline. It looked gorgeous from where we were.
A view from above is a great perspective. You see things in a very different way. One place you don’t usually get to see from over the top is a major international airport. However, it is possible to charter a helicopter to fly over Los Angeles International Airport or LAX to the regulars. Flying in a helicopter with the doors off means you can shoot almost unobstructed in any direction with a little coordination with your pilot. Paul was our pilot and he knew exactly what he was doing as well as what we wanted from him. It made for a great combination.
The patterns in a major airport are interesting. You get the layout of the gates, the taxiways and runways, the lines guiding the aircraft, the shapes of the terminal buildings and even the coloring of the borders to the hard surfaces. Then you get the buildings themselves. Different generations of building have styles of architecture appropriate to what was expected at the time. LAX is famous for its spaceship like building in the middle of the complex and its more modern tower. Terminals went through a phase of being bland buildings but the recent addition to Tom Bradley International Terminal certainly has had more styling incorporated.
The large number of aircraft scattered around add another element to the view. Combine that with all of the service vehicles on the move and there is a complex compilation of elements. I particularly like the ability to see the tower from above. That is usually the highest point around but we were looking down on them while they were kindly providing control of the space to allow us to get our shots without interrupting the operations.
Flying out of Madras on our air to air sorties we had a short time when we were transiting to and from the area where we were with the target aircraft. The area is dotted with farms but also has some dramatic terrain. I took the chance to get some photos of the various canyons, lakes and homes. It looks like a place with lots of great places to have a house. I hope they didn’t mind us flying over!
A work trip required a very early start to the day. We took off just before sunrise and therefore got to enjoy the early light as we flew off. Nothing much more to tell than that but wanted to share some of the shots that resulted.
