Into the Wild Blue

Living close to O'Hare Field allows me the opportunity on the occasional sunny afternoon to drive down Irving Park Road, locate the takeoff or the landing pattern, and wait. Wait a few seconds, that is, for the next aircraft in action, climbing or lowering, right in view of the telephoto lens.

Off We Go

Today's aircraft photos feature dramatic clouds, one with standard color and one with color enhanced in some Photoshop experiments. Feel free to decide for yourself which is which. We will be working on airplanes for several more days.

Alaska Sky

Another reason to love aircraft photography in Alaska is the quality of the sky. Some of the days the weather was cloudy, which cancels much airplane photography, but on a clear day you can see the most perfect blue backdrop to the airplanes.

Close Up Aviation

Pontoon boats look quite solid and ungainly until they glide across the surface of a lake and rise quickly into the sky. The size and nature of the aircraft allows a photographer to be much closer and with a great vantage point compared to larger airplanes.

Soar into 2010

Happy New Year! One of my photographer's collections is of images of flight. I always enjoyed shooting airplanes in action, or for that matter just preparing for action, and I began a collection of such in 2008. The impetus was seeing a lake outside Anchorage, Alaska where no boats are allowed. The reason? The center is the airstrip for the airplanes docked all along the shoreline.
It is a real chance to get up close and look carefully at some personal aircraft.

Happy New Year

A final photo of a Christmas decoration is a thoughtful gift we were given of an monogram flag outside our front door. It brings to a close my first year (actually started three weeks into the year) of blogging. My goal for 2010 is to continue to post nearly every day, with one or two photos and usually continuing a topic over a period of days or weeks. I have no idea what topic I will open tomorrow, so tune in then.

In case future reference might be of interest, I have tracked the general topics I have covered by date this year and list them here. Happy New Year!

2009 Topics: 1/15 2008 Alaska Vacation, 2/12 Winterscapes, 2/19 Restoration of Family Portraits, 3/2 Springscapes, 3/6 Abstracts & Polar Coordinates, 3/13 Chicago Architecture, 3/25 Arizona Spring Training, 4/11 IPRA Magazine Cover 1979, 4/15 2008 Garden Views, 5/13 St. James Farm, 5/27 Migratory Bird Day, 6/5 New Invaders Rock Band in Glen Ellyn, 6/9 Millennium Park, 6/16 Art Institute Modern Wing, 6/28 Peoria Chiefs & Josh Vitters, 7/1 Meeting Bobby in Boston, 7/16 2009 Europe Vacation beginning in Britain, 8/9 2009 Europe Vacation continuing on the Continent, 9/16 Brookfield Zoo, 9/26 Revolutionary War Encampment & Skirmish, 10/4 Springfield and Lincoln Sites, 10/14 New Salem Lincoln Sites, 10/19 Fall Festival at Danada (Horses), 10/29 Wayne-DuPage Fox Hunt, 11/1 Fall Color in Waterfall Glen, 11/11 Fall Color in Volkening Farm, 11/15 Fall Color in Maple Grove & Meacham Grove Forest Preserves, 11/22 Signs Seen, 12/1 Christmas Holiday Decorations, 12/9 Winterscapes, 12/16 Photos With Santa, 12/26 Icy Christmas & Decorations

Garland

One of the nicest new decorations we bought this year was, believe it or not, one piece of golden garland. We use it in the Disney Room.