Tag Archives: airliner

Getting up someone’s nose

I have shot many times at O’Hare over the years. There are a few locations that provide opportunities but they do depend on the time of day and the approaches the jets are making. I was out there recently and wanted to try something different. I didn’t know how well it would work out but wanted to experiment. I checked out what was due in and found a time in the schedule when nothing unusual was coming in. Without the need to make sure I got something that was uncommon, I could risk not getting anything at all for a while.

I wanted to get more directly under the approach path. This is something that I have done before at Washington National but I have had less success at O’Hare. I went out a little further on the approach. The jets were a little higher but I wanted to see what I could get. You end up with both a slightly more head on shot and also get to look right up as they pass overhead. I like the view which is slightly less conventional. Winter is probably a good time to do this since the sun is lower in the sky and the snow on the ground provides a bit more light on the underside avoiding the silhouettes more common in the summer.

New American Livery – Not That Bad

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Having heard a lot of comments about people’s views of the new livery American Airlines has adopted, I was reserving judgement until I had seen it myself. When I first saw images online, I was not bowled over with it but I was not appalled as some people seem to have been. Given the boring nature of many liveries these days, I thought it was a little different from the norm and certainly not cause for offense. Of course, there were plenty who thought the exact opposite.

I have now had my first chance to see it for myself and I have to say my opinion is much the same. I was lucky in this instance that I got to photograph it just before the sun went down so it was bathed in some very favorable light. Even so, I think it looked okay. You will make your own decision of course. In time, we will forget this discussion ever took place!

First Crossing Shot of the Season

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Just a quick joke. I was out shooting wildlife when there were a couple of airliners overhead. It is a bit early in the year for airshows but I guess this might count as my first crossing shot of two jets for the year. Hopefully there will be a few more!

Head on Big Boys

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My day out shooting with Hayman was mainly an aviation themed event. One of the things I was interested in was looking for something more head on as the heavier jets launch out of SFO. Most aircraft depart off 01 and head out across the bay. however, the heavier widebodies launch off 28 and climb out towards South San Francisco. A head on shot of them coming off the runway is what i really want.

Hayman had a location which was halfway to what we wanted. You are a bit further from the airport and so they rise out of the surrounding landscape rather than seeing them come off the runway itself. The location has a lot of promise. Sadly, on this day the weather was not nice and, as the day was moving along, what light there was after the clouds had taken their share was fading fast. however, it was rather fun to see the 747s and A380 climbing out over us. Definitely something to try again some time. As for the runway shot, we shall have to keep exploring to find the right spot for that!

Cloudy SFO

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I was in the Bay Area visiting my friend Hayman, a fellow ISAP member, so it wasn’t hard to predict what we would do with the day. we actually decided to stay locally checking out whatever SFO had to offer. We did not have the best run of luck. First the weather was a bit crappy so the photo opportunities were going to be a bit more limited. However, sometimes, bad weather can give something different so we weren’t to be deterred.

One location we had in mind was crowded and we couldn’t even park. This coincided with the arrival of the Lufthansa A380 so we already had missed one opportunity. Oh well. More strange was that everything was departing from 10 as we approached the airport. This is a very strange procedure for SFO, particularly given the wind was calm so not forcing something different. This could have given us some unusual departure shots. Just as we approached, they reverted to normal operations. See a pattern developing?

We still had some fun and got a few shots. As you can see, nothing terribly special from me. Hayman may have done better. None of these will be seen beyond this post but a day out with a friend shooting aircraft is still better than a lot of the alternatives! Cheers Hayman.

A Rare Beast

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Over recent years I have made many trips that take me through Baltimore Washington International airport or BWI. It is the easiest route for me when heading to Washington DC. One of the nice things about BWI is that Northrop Grumman have a facility there that focuses on radar development. As part of this facility, they have a flight test department that makes use of some interesting aircraft. A few times I have seen one of them on the move while I was in the airport but normally I did not have a camera to hand to catch them. However, one time I did get lucky.

I managed to see their BAC 1-11 taxiing out for departure. This is an aircraft that has received a number of modifications for airborne testing of radar systems. While it is an old airframe and there aren’t many of them in service any more, it obviously still performs the required role well and they continue to operate it. It taxied past the terminal and then departed across in front of us. Since it is a bit dated, the noise levels were apparent even inside the terminal. However, it was fun to see it in action. A recent trip also spotted a smokey trail on approach. Sure enough, it was back. Sadly, no camera to hand that time!

Other O’Hare stuff

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The trip to O’Hare for the arrival of the United 787 meant I had a bit of time to shoot some other aircraft while I was there. I had started out at the arrival end of 28 for the 787 to show up. When we changed rapidly to 10, I was now on a good side of the field for some of the departures.

Departures at this end can be a good selection. Some will turn towards you and give a nice topside view. Others head out straight or turn away so you are always wondering whether this one will be worthwhile. I wasn’t out for a long time so this was just a chance to see what would come out before heading home. A 747 freighter is a welcome addition but it, sadly, turned away. Even so, it still looks cool. A few gave me a better view. I grabbed some shots and then headed home.

United 787

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A while back I was in Seattle and headed up to Everett to see the large numbers of 787 airframes parked up awaiting rework and delivery to their customers. When you see that many of them lying around, sometimes it is hard to remember that some of them are now getting delivered and entering service. One of Chicago’s local airlines (if you have a local airline these days) is United and they are the first US operator to take delivery of the aircraft.

Houston is the base of operations for the early aircraft but as they are trying to build experience for the crews, they are carrying out internal flights before taking the planes overseas. The first revenue flight was a leg from Houston to Chicago O’Hare. I was interested in covering this for the magazine since they were planning a reception for the aircraft when it got to O’Hare. The Chicago airport media relations people were not handling the event but they gave me the contact details for United. Sadly United were not inclined to respond to inquiries.

However, I decided that it was worth heading up to O’Hare anyway since the forecast was looking quite pleasant. Admittedly, these things will soon be a very common sight but getting the first arrival seemed like something worth spending a morning on. (In truth, the 787 had already been to O’Hare a few times on proving flights but let’s not get too picky!)

I was not the only one there. A lot of people had shown up and the place under the approach to 28 was pretty busy. That is until they changed runways shortly before the 787 was due in. A convoy of cars suddenly headed out to get around to the 10 arrivals. I was part of the convoy and found a spot that seemed reasonable. I had barely got out when the 787 came into view. Fortunately, the sun was being cooperative and the 10 approach actually was better for putting the light on the nose of the aircraft rather than the rear. I wonder how long it will be before I get bored with United 787s showing up.

Experimenting with Multiple Exposures

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Right away I must admit that this is not my idea. I know that is true of many photographic tools but I once saw someone do something just like this and I wanted to try it out myself. The question was how to go about it. I improvised a bit and trusted the camera to do what I wanted which it didn’t always do so I have learned some lessons already.

The idea is to take multiple exposures of aircraft on the approach and then combine them into one image in which the aircraft appear multiple times. I would set myself up in a position and then take a sequence of shots as the aircraft moved through the frame. My first mistake was that, because I was taking the same shot each time, I thought the exposure would not change. Not true! The camera will make some minor tweaks and this will make the whole thing less easy. White balance may also vary but I shoot in raw so syncing that afterwards is no problem.

Since I was not using a tripod, the shots are not all perfectly aligned. I took all the images in Lightroom and used the Open as Layers option to Photoshop. Then I used the auto align layers option to get everything perfectly in place. It is surprising just how much you move doing something like this! I originally thought I could just set every layer above the base one to Difference blending mode and everything would pop right out. However, that didn’t work as I had hoped. The aircraft all had an odd color cast.

Instead, I put a layer mask on each upper layer and then painted in the aircraft one layer at a time. This is more time consuming but it did the trick. Of course, if the exposures are perfectly matched, you don’t have to paint too accurately. if not, the sky color is different so a far more accurate painting on the layer mask is required.

This was a fun thing to experiment with. SFO is a great spot since you can get parallel approaches in one direction and parallel departures on the cross runway. This puts lots of aircraft in a single shot which makes it more interesting. Another time, I will take the lessons from this time and try and get them a bit better.

SFO

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My work recently took me out the the Bay Area for a number of meetings. When they were all finished, I needed to write up some notes. Tapping on the laptop is something that can be achieved wherever you are. Also, SFO has a nice diverse selection of aircraft that visit. Therefore, my decision was made to take the laptop and the camera and head to Coyote Point. During the week there are less people there so it is quite a peaceful place to get some work done.

Of course, whenever something interesting made its way in to the approach, I could look up and grab a couple of shots before returning to my tasks at hand. SFO is like many hub airports in that it has a lot of the same things coming in and out. However, it has a lot of long haul traffic as well which provides an opportunity to see something a little different. This can include newer aircraft as well as those that are on their way out.

Lufthansa is now operating A380s in to SFO so catching that on the approach was a nice new thing to see. Meanwhile, the number of 747s arriving is gradually going down as they get phased out. Cathay brought one in as I was arriving. I imagine they won’t be around for much longer.

The sun was bright but the air temperature was relatively low. This meant that the heat haze was not too much of a problem. I could even get reasonable shots of the airport itself as the aircraft landed (nothing that would be publishable but not bad). A buddy was coming in with a BA 747 later in the day so I decided to move to the area on the shore near the Marriott to get some different shots. Unfortunately, this was not a good move. The heat haze to the runway at low tide was quite bad and most shots do not survive too detailed scrutiny. One to remember if I find myself back there at any time.