Tag Archives: airliner

Getting the Moon in Some Shots

If you are shooting at the time of the month when the moon is close to full, it should mean it will show up in the background at some point when you have afternoon/evening light behind you. Will it make it into your shot? Probably not. The angles the planes take vary and the moon is constantly moving in the background so, while you can anticipate it might work out at some point and hope accordingly, that doesn’t mean it will work. Of course, you can also forget about it for a while and miss a perfectly good moon shot too – who would do that though?

At various times when shooting departures are Seattle Tacoma International Airport, I did get the moon to show up in the shots. Would it be with the most interesting aircraft in the foreground? Probably not. More likely to be an Alaska Airlines jet since they are the most common departure (and also the one more likely to have made me not be getting a shot) but that is still fine. Here are some results from across various shoots.

Arajet But Without the Paint

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Having Boeing on your doorstep means the chance to photograph airlines that you have a good chance of never seeing in their normal operations. Arajet, of the Dominican Republic, is one such airline. As they were taking delivery of some 737 Max jets, I was able to photograph them. On one occasion, I was out at Boeing Field when one of their jets was on test and I was looking forward to getting a shot. Unfortunately, I didn’t know it hadn’t yet been painted. Instead, I got a green plane with only the rudder and winglets giving away who the ultimate operator would be

I like the green of the unpainted jets and primer finishes on other planes also look good to me. I wasn’t so upset as a result, but it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. Still, it looked pretty good on approach. I did get another airframe in the finished livery so I will stick that at the bottom to show what this one would ultimately look like. Not a dramatic livery but something different.

Gateway Airliners

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Mesa Gateway airport in Arizona does get some airline visitors. Allegiant was bringing some jets in while we were visiting early last year. GlobalX also had some coming in. Judging by how many of their jets I saw off to one side not looking too active, I assume they undertake some maintenance work there too. Not a ton of variety with these two but here are some shots of their planes. Makes a change to not show a GlobalX jet at Boeing Field!

After Sunset at SEA as Well

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The light at sunset can make for some of the most pleasing shots and I did used to take the time to go to Burien when SEA was on a northerly flow to get some of the heavies departing in the best light. Once the sun goes down, it is tempting to head home but I would hang around a bit longer. The blue hour could make for some pleasing shots too and even when it was getting pretty dark, the amazing low light performance of a modern camera meant you could get something different. Combine that with the super noise reduction capabilities of current processing software and you can achieve shots that would have been impossible a few years ago.

We Can See Where the Fuel Is

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I have an old post from SFO on a similar theme to this one, but I make the rules on this blog and this post isn’t violating any of them. (If you want to know what the rules are, let me know and I shall try and come up with some.) When I jet descends from altitude, the fuel the remains in the wing tanks will be very cold. The warmer and moister air lower down can result in the formation of ice on the underside of the wings where the remaining fuel is pooled. This Delta A330 shows that, as expected, there is fuel at the inboard end of the wings but also, less expected by me at least, there is a tank further outboard that still has fuel in it. I like the fact that fuel is kept further out since it alleviates bending loads. You can see the shape of the access panels where the ice is forming.

Pima the Following Day

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A bit of a step back for today’s post. This one goes back to early ’24 when Mark and I were in Arizona. We had done a night shoot at the Pima museum the evening before courtesy of our friend Joe. We decided to head back during the following day to see everything in daylight. Despite being early in the year, the temperatures were pretty high and there was a limit to how much I could handle outside. I did get a few different subjects but then it was time to retreat to the hangars to get out of the sun.

The museum was more extensive than I recall from my original visit years ago. I don’t know whether the hangars had all been added since I last visited or I had just not realised what I was missing. Whatever the reason, there was plenty to see. The variety of exhibits is just amazing. Whether it is vintage fighters, old civil aircraft or widebody jets, there is something there for any speciality. The strength of the collection makes it possible for them to get all sorts of exhibits, and their space means that can be of any size. Recently, they have taken delivery of a Martin Mars flying boat, for example. No small task when you aren’t too close to any water!

Under Condor’s Sandy Jet

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The shot I always think about wanting to get is looking straight down on a plane in flight. Long ago, I discussed doing this with the WHF team at Waukegan, but we never made it work out. The next best version is the shot from beneath straight up. This is not so good because the fuselage shape is disrupted by the wing and a blank sky is never as interesting as the ground beneath. However, I do still like to shoot this sometimes. In this case, it was a Condor A330neo coming into SEA. This one is in the sand colours that they have. Probably not the contrast I would have liked but so be it.

CFM56 Inlet

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I recently took an EasyJet flight from Glasgow to Southampton at the end of a work trip. I boarded from the front of the plane and, as we lined up on the steps, I found myself staring into the inlet of the CFM56 engine on this A320. The blade designs on this older generation of engine are not as complex as the newer LEAP engines but they are still interesting to me. The fan blades still have snubbers on this design and the textures of the metals and the inlet look cool.

Looking Down on Boeing’s Flightline

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The first flight a Boeing 737 makes will usually take it from Renton where it was assembled to Boeing Field – a short distance away – where the flight test facility is located. Here the jets will undergo production flight testing and acceptance testing before delivery to the customers. Given the rate of production, that means there will always be a lot of jets parked on Boeing’s ramp.

Last summer, when I was up the tower at Boeing Field, I had a good view straight along the flight line. Further up the ramp were the active jets while the spot closer to the tower (where there used to be a viewing area before Max problems meant Boeing needed to park jets wherever it could find space) tends to be used for jets that are likely to be stored for longer – planes that were going to a customer that went bust for example.

I Finally Caught the Carbon China Airlines A350

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China Airlines has a livery which is fine but not terribly exciting. When they started taking delivery of their Airbus A350s, they had one delivered in a special scheme that had a blue carbon fibre style of design, similar to that which Airbus has painted on one of the development aircraft. This plane had been elusive to me. I had wanted to photograph it for a long time.

My frustration mounted further when I had been in LA for work. I was walking from the hotel to the airport to return home when I looked to my right and saw the jet on short final just a little way north of me. I had my camera with me (in the bag!) and, if I had paid attention, I could easily have got a shot. Instead, I was caught off guard and missed the opportunity.

All of this led to me being really pleased when I was waiting in Heathrow’s Terminal 5 for a flight for work and I saw the plane was on approach. Shooting through windows is never ideal but I wasn’t going to miss the chance this time. The light was nice, and the plane was easy to catch so I finally managed to get a few shots of this cool looking jet.