IAD-26 March 2012

Hey Guys,

After an absence of nearly 3 months, I finally made the trek back up to Dulles for some spotting. This was to be my first spotting trip with my new 7D, and it is due to the learning curve associated with this and some resulting changes to my workflow that these photos weren't posted yesterday :biggrin:. With my 100-400 and 50D visiting Canon down in Newport News for some lovely R&R (that's Repair and Recalibration mind you), I shot the entire day with the 7D+ EF 400mm F5.6. Definitely learned a lot, and definitely messed up quite a bit too. Decided to also start trying my hand at shooting full manual in the evening.

The day can best be summarized as morning rocked, afternoon was dang awful, and the evening rocked. As I'm dealing with a new setup, I would love all the feedback I can get from y'all on these shots. I find I am often blind to my images' deficiencies until they are pointed out to me.




This photo was taken a few minutes before sunrise (and cleaned up heavily from ISO 1600 or 2000. I love the reflection of the coming sunrise on the nacelles

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6116/7...e7ba12f0_b.jpg



If you like Business Aviation, then Dulles was the place to be that morning. It was Gulfstreams galore, with a few additional bonus guests

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6235/6...fefb7ec6_b.jpg



http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/6...21b22a0e_b.jpg



http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6115/6...52e3c8f9_b.jpg



http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6035/7...ce06c8a9_b.jpg



And in a world populated by Citations, Lears, and Gulfstreams, the Falcon by Dassault has to be the Queen of the Corporate Jets

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7219/7...05c716e6_b.jpg



Mainline action was scarce as heck during the morning, which is the usual case at IAD. Mornings can be rather slow. Virgin America was a nice treat however.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7067/6...d5169525_b.jpg



This was only my 2nd time in numerous IAD trips catching my favorite international visitor, Ethiopian's 777LR from Addis Ababa (via Rome)

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6240/6...3a606981_b.jpg



The tower had been giving bird warnings to the larger aircraft landing on 1C. I never actually saw any until ANA landed. Then they were everywhere.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/7...c38b31dc_b.jpg


The light at Udvar Hazy was bad enough to not warrant sharing any of those pics. The only event of interest was a go around by Air France 28 Super due to wind shear. The tower was reporting gains and losses of 20 knots at times. Departures, thankfully, still happened off of 1R, which was a first for me.


The Super

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6233/6...536321b1_b.jpg



The "star" of the evening (bad pun intended)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7254/7...bcddd221_b.jpg



The left turns were much appreciated when the tower called them out

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7047/7...80070735_b.jpg



This was my first time catching South African in acceptable shooting conditions :)

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6229/7...cdd285e8_b.jpg



Austrian's 767s have to be among the sharpest looking out there, especially with those winglets

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7240/6...b79664af_b.jpg



KLM crossing paths with a contrailing AA 737-800 (I believe)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7117/7...9024e461_b.jpg



First time seeing an SAS A330 instead of the usual A340

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7252/7...e516c8fd_b.jpg



United put on a good show with their 777s

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7094/7...a9601947_b.jpg



http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6094/6...438ffc09_b.jpg



But this ex-CO 757 wins best turn out of the night as far as I'm concerned

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/6...300a40fd_b.jpg



And last is a somewhat whimsical shot on my part. I spent all night waiting for someone small enough to fly close enough to the American Flag that was flying in between me and the runway. It took 2 hours, but someone finally did, and gave me what ended up being my favorite shot of the night, albeit a slightly unusual one

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7127/6...f3cc07bf_b.jpg


As usual, I hope you have enjoyed!


Nick

Very nice!

Thank you!

Very nice! I love your flag shot!

Great work! I'll always enjoy the variation of United schemes ;) I'm a sucker for any aircraft banking!

Really nice work, Nick !

Very nice pics...

Very nice shots! Thanks for sharing!

What, no XJet CRJs? :-)

Boo no shots of my A320 departing to MIA!! Haha.

The wind on Monday was atrocious. I got so incredibly airsick on my LGA-IAD leg that I almost decided not to get on my second flight.

Antonis

What time did you leave? I may have you :)


And thank you all for the kind words. It means a lot coming from such an accomplished group of photographers.

That's a great flag shot - well done!

Scheduled departure was around 6:25. Airbus A320 in the "shades of blue" United scheme, but I can't tell you much more because I fell asleep the moment my head hit the seat. I do know, however, that we took off from runway 30.

I also arrived on runway 01 (on the left side of the airport) on a CRJ-700 around 5:30 in the old battleship gray United colors.

Antonis

Looks like I missed both of your flights :( However, I guarantee you that I saw your flight land from a good ways away. Hard to miss the CRJ's in the Battleship Gray!

That is a good set there! Were all with the 400mm? It is one of my favorite lens. Light, quick focus and typically sharper than the 100-400. I wish I would have packed mine for this trip.

Awesome set! What tips can you give for shooting IAD and DCA? I'm going to be in the area for the Andrews Air Show and am hoping to get a few hours each evening after the shot.