For the aircraft folks

Aircraft folks, I haven’t forgotten about you!

There’s been trains, and beaches, and water, and scenic shots, and even an aircraft boneyard – but no “live” aircraft for a while.

I took a bit of a break from what I’ve been working on for the site and finished cropping and cleaning of new images from HNL and YVR.  These images were taken with either the D7100 and 18-270 or with my Icon during taxi and takeoff.

This batch includes a couple of new airlines and schemes.

I’ve also completed the rest of Hawaiian Airlines’ fleet – the A330 and B767 have been added to round things out.  The only other type of aircraft they fly is the B717.

The snow-covered mountains in the background at YVR (Vancouver International Airport, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) add something to aircraft photography.  I need to build in a little more time when I am there next if Mrs. Frog will let me.  HNL (Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii) is also quite an interesting place, with many Asian airlines and aircraft not readily seen in the US mainland – it’s just not all that easy to shoot there.

Air Canada E-190 at YVR.
Air Canada E-190 at YVR. Click the image to go to the commercial airplane gallery.

There’s more aircraft to add from these two airports, and they’ll get processed and added at some point in time – or when I need a diversion – whichever comes first!.  More new types of aircraft, and more new airlines.  There’s even a Boeing 727 freighter in the bunch – I didn’t know that there were still 727s in the air!  There are probably some airlines you’ve never heard of in the next batch, and since this is a “fun” gallery, there  may be some less than technically perfect images in there for the sake of sharing a plane type or an obscure airline.

Mentally, it was a good diversion for me to take – and I hope y’all enjoy a little diversion courtesy of the world’s airlines.

 

Fifi Awakens

Wondering just what the title is about?

Well, now that I have your attention…

I recently had the fortune/privilege of seeing the only operable Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber in the world (at least as of March 2015), Fifi.

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It was a strange day in some ways.

On one hand, there was the awe of what was the biggest and baddest bomber of its’ time.

There was the awe of watching her awaken from a slumber and prepare for flight.  The smell of unburnt fuel as the revolutions built, the puffs of sweetly acrid smoke dissipating into the air.  The vibration at my feet.

The realization that not only was I watching a machine, but one made for war.

As I said, it wasn’t just a “let’s go take airplane pictures” kind of day.  It was a day of reflection.

There were World War II Veterans there, including at least one who flew in one of Fifi’s kin, a member of a P-38 Ground Crew, and a P-51 pilot.  There were people of all nations and colors.

Many cheered when Fifi’s fourth engine reached full revs.  I wonder if they were cheering for Fifi as she is or what she represents to each of them.

It made me think of something related, but not.

My mind went to the the smiling boy I remember from across the street went to war as a young man, and didn’t come home.  I was probably reflecting differently than most that day.  I’ll stop there, because we all reflect upon war and loss differently.

But, let’s look at Fifi for what she is – an aircraft of a bygone era.  Technologically, the B-29 was at the leading edge of bomber design at that time.  And, I got to see her fly in 2015.

If you’d like to learn more about the B-29, click here for Wikipedia’s page, and here for Boeing’s page.

If you’d like to see Fifi as she awakens, click here to be taken to the Laughing Frog Images YouTube page or click here to be taken directly to the video.  It’s not the greatest video in the world, as I had to hold my phone above people, and try to keep it steady for about four minutes – so I apologize for the technical quality, but not the content.

I am working on a gallery of Fifi for Laughing Frog Images.  In the interest of being true to Fifi’s era, all of the images will be in Black and White.  There will be two versions of each image – one will mimic Kodak Panatomic X film (“Pan-X”), and one will mimic the grainy reproduction of a newspaper of the era.  It will be interesting to see what the feedback is on the two versions.