Tag Archives: airliner

Do Whales Look Better in the Rain?

A rainy weekend and not much going on but I saw that Alaska Airlines’ West Coast Wonders jet was coming into Paine Field and, with nothing else going on, I figured I would swing by. The weather was far worse than I expected. It was pouring as the jet was on approach. I had gone so might as well try. At the last moment, I wondered whether I should have gone with video but too late. The jet’s lights were appearing out of the gloom. Streaming vortices from the flaps, it was soon by me and touching down. I was pessimistic but, as Nancy pointed out, the dark blue of the paint kind of suits a gloomy day and it didn’t look so bad!

Low shutter speed SEA shots

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A recent post was focused on some shots from BFI when I was dropping the shutter speed. I had also been playing with this one gloomy morning at Seattle Tacoma International a while back. I was waiting for a specific movement but was passing time with some of the more regular movements. Since they weren’t the most exciting subjects, I tried dropping the shutter speed down to make the motion more apparent. They were really dramatic shutter speeds, but it made a slightly more interesting shot than would other have been the case.

Gloomy Day for a National Arrival

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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.

Brief Time Shooting on the Ramp at SEA

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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.

Asiana Really Mixes Up Their Scheduling

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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.

777-300ER High Lift Flows

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Regular followers of the blog will know of my aerodynamics background and the fascination I have with fluid flows. Anything that shows it off will pique my interest. The damp conditions that the Pacific Northwest offers can, if the light is nice, provide a good show on a plane that is configured for landing. Plenty of flap angle and low speeds will drop the pressure and condense the moisture. This Qatar Airways 777-300ER was coming over SODO on its was into SEA when I shot it. Plenty of moisture over the flap system and some conspicuous trailing vortices. Just the sort of thing this guy loves.

Embraer’s Colorful Demonstrator

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Embraer developed a new generation of their E190/E195 family to take advantage of the latest generation of engines. The E2 versions of the jets have been quite successful (while the smaller version hasn’t sold, and I think the program is on pause). Embraer has liked to market the jet as the Profit Hunter and has taken to painting their demonstrators up in dramatic liveries to reflect hunting. There was a lion, and the current version incorporates an eagle’s head around the cockpit.

They were taking the jet to Asia for some customer demos, and it routed through Seattle. Initially it came up from Mexico to Boeing Field before continuing on to Anchorage and then across the Pacific. The return came back through Boeing Field and on to Florida before heading home to Brazil. I managed to catch it a little but not always how I would have liked. Still, it was interesting to see it as a different livery always make an airliner look better and this type has not sold in the US, so it is a bit of a novelty for now.

Video of Overflying A380

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I happened to be out in the parking lot at work when I noticed the approaching contrail of a large jet. Being next to the car, I grabbed the camera with my longest lens and focused on what turned out to be an Emirates A380 heading to California. I grabbed a few shots as it approached but the view through the viewfinder was more interesting as I watched the contrails curl up in the trailing vortices from the wing. The motion of the ice crystals made me think that video was a more appropriate idea. The stabilization of my lens is so good that handholding this video at 800mm was not a problem and the video below is the result.

Boeing’s Contribution to Sunday at Seafair

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The fast jet displays were the stars of the Seafair performances but the home manufacturer, Boeing, also provided a contribution on each day. On Sunday, that contribution was in the form of the 777X development aircraft, a 777-9. I was at Boeing Field on this day so got to see the aircraft launch and recover. An elevated view of an aircraft as large as the 777-9 is most impressive.

Since the plane is so large, I wasn’t going to use a longer lens to shoot it because I would have had way too much lens for the jet as it came by. Consequently, I was a bit short of lens when the aircraft was on the take off roll and rotating. Not enough time to change bodies so the compromise was okay. I still had a decent view of the jet even at 105mm.

The display was a long way away from where we were, but we did get to see the jet as it periodically popped up above the hills. It looked like they were really throwing the jet around. I imagine it looked pretty impressive for the crowd down on Lake Washington. I did stick with a longer lens for the recovery of the aircraft to get a good look at approach and touchdown. There is something really fun about getting to photograph a large jet like this from close proximity.

Let’s Experiment with Silly Shutter Speeds

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I have mentioned this in previous posts but the frame rate capabilities of my R3s have encouraged me to play around with some more aggressive settings. When something is a more important subject and not something I want to risk failing to get, I will be more cautious but there are plenty of other planes that I wouldn’t otherwise care about that provide a good subject to be a bit more ridiculous with. I was going down to 1/50^th of a second shutter speed. With this, I would go to the 30fps setting on the frame rate or even, occasionally, the 194fps setting just to see what might yield a sharp shot. The parallax issues are going to be an issue at this shutter speed but when you are directly abeam, you can get a good outcome. Here are some of the results from experimenting.