SXM 03/24/2011 - Part 1 - Image Heavy

[gonzalu]

Well, I am faced with sorting through over 5,000 images. I shot all day each day I was there. About a 1,000 frames per day on average. That was just planes. At night more pics with the family.

Princess Juliana is a BUSY airport. It really is amazing how smooth the ops are given they have only one taxiway and it does not run the full length of the only RWY! Yes, not as much commercial jets as commuter and bizjets, but nevertheless, never a dull moment.

Since I have not had much time to properly edit, and I did want to share the experience with my friends here, I decided to just randomly pick frames and post as shot, only cropping and watermark.

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Got to JFK with plenty of time for parking and airtrain travel, check-in, security, etc. It was a rainy dull Monday morning of the 21st and I was bummed I would not get decent shots from the ground or on takeoff.

We pulled back on time, were given RWY 22R, crossed 31R right in front of T5 and took off immediately. Low cloud cover and within 100 feet, poof, in the clouds. I sat on the left side in order to have a better shooting position as shooting left handed is a PITA :tongue:

Absolutely smooth ride and great weather all the way down. Landed as usual over Maho on RWY 10 very early. We had to sit on the Taxiway waiting for an US Air to vacate our gate. All the better as I got to shoot some stuff landing right next to us. Backlit, but, heck, I was excited.

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OK enough text, to the pics. I will keep each post to 10 images or less to make the page load times better. Enjoy!

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G5786/1232251308_KoEdb-L.jpg

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G5790/1232251338_FoaSa-L.jpg

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G5803/1232251331_ioNSo-XL.jpg

some come in very low ;-)

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G5814/1232251449_mnZxK-L.jpg

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G5818/1232251414_ySV8z-L.jpg

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G5834/1232251478_WNQui-L.jpg

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G5855/1232251527_cx9mf-L.jpg

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G5985/1232251516_QLAH2-L.jpg

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G6019/1232251623_EyoJ8-L.jpg

This guy came in REALLY LOW and REALLY FAST!! I clipped the tail accidentally as I did not pull back on the zoom fast enough as he crossed... WOW! What an approach...

http://pictures.mannyphoto.com/Airplanes/Spotting/SXM-03242011/D3G6058/1232251662_zYgGE-L.jpg

continued...

[Zee71]

Welcome back home Manny...........I'm sure you'd still rather be at SXM still shooting. Great stuff!!!

[RomNYC]

WOW! I cannot believe how crowded Maho is nowadays... Good or bad I don't know, but in any case, I was eagerly waiting for your shots Manny!

And I'm not disappointed! Now to part 2 :cool:

[steve1840]

Drooooooool.... Manny, for coming right out of the camera those are great. Definitely worth the wait to see these photos!

[gonzalu]

Mark,

Yes, and welcome back from LA to you ;-) I am still daydreaming being at the beach in Maho !!

Rom, there were two super giant Cruise Ships per day in Philipsburg and it would just get completely crowded at the beach. ten vnas would pull up and tons of peeps would pour out and swamp the place. Yet at other times, it would be serene. Especially at the extremes of the day.

[NLovis]

Dam manny. Next time get me a ticket as well :wink:

[gonzalu]

Nick, I will bring you in my luggage, you should be able to fit.

Credit to JetBlue crew at SXM. My first bag was 3 pounds over 50 and when I went to redistribute, the girl said, no worries... it washes out on the other bag's weight!! SMART!!!!! Not so easy with Continental. I once had a similar issue and one bag was 40 lbs, the other 54lbs so I said, isn't it a wash since they're both going on the same cargo hold? She said, you MUST PAY extra!!!!!!! so I had to open them up and re-distribute, re-check the weights etc. What a downer... anyway. Back to editing.