I finally had the time to sort through my photos from a trip a month ago to Germany, Austria and Slovakia. As part of the trip I had an 8-hour layover in O’Hare which was spent mostly in Terminal 5 which provided a great view of the arrivals and departures taking place on runways 28R and 28C. In my opinion, I believe that Terminal 5 offers the best vantage point for plane spotting at the airport. The only knock on it is the fact that most of the aircraft, most of the time, will be back lit thanks to the sun’s path and orientation of the runway. You’ll see that play out in the photos.
For this post, I focused on unique carriers that visit O’Hare. I figure most of you have seen American or United Airlines short and medium haul aircraft so I’ll spare you photos of their A320s, 737s and regional jets.
Russia’s AirBridgeCargo 747-8F VQ-BRH entered service for the carrier in September 2013.
American’s 3rd oldest 787, N802N, delivered in May 2015.
ANA’s 777-300, JA735A, entered service in June 2006.
Speedbird’s 744, G-CIVF, entered service in April 1995.
Cargolux’s 747-400F, LX-VCV, entered service in December 2005.
Cathay’s 777, B-KPW, was delivered in August 2011.
Etihad’s 777-300, A6-ETQ entered service in September 2013.
Eva Cargo’s 747-400F entered service in July 2012.
Not a heavy, but Frontier’s tails always makes for a nice photo. N229FR (Airbus A320) was delivered in April 2015.
Iberia’s A330, EC-MAA, was delivered in April 2014.
JAL’s 777, JA731J, was delivered in June 2004.
Korean’s 777-300, HL8006, was delivered in July 2015.
Lufthansa’s 747-8i, D-ABYI, entered service in June 2013. Seen here in her ‘Siegerflieger’ livery.
‘YI’ arriving at her gate in Terminal 5.
NCA’s 747-8F, JA12KZ, entered service in January 2013.
Qatar Cargo’s 777, A7-BFE, was delivered in June 2013.
TNT’s 777, OO-TSB, was delivered in April 2012.
United’s 747-400, N127UA, was delivered in August 1999.
Part 7 continues with more photos that I though were worth sharing from our recent Safari trip. You’ll find below photos from a wide variety of critters including Giraffes, Leopards, Rhinos, Cheetahs and a few birds. After the photos, there’s a short video showing an adolescent Elephant greeting our vehicle…..
If you missed my previous installments, use the following links to see each part:
Ahead of a trip to Europe in a few days, I needed to calibrate a few pieces of equipment so we decided to make an afternoon of it and head to Lake Michigan and catch the sunset.
For those of you unfamiliar with Lake Michigan, it is the 5th largest lake in the world with a surface area of 22,400 square miles and has over 1600 miles of shoreline. It it also known as the largest lake in the world to be within the borders of a single country. History suggests that the name Michigan comes from the Ojibwa word ‘Mishigami’ which translates into ‘Great Water’. Very fitting.
Being that I live only 20 minutes from the lake, I figured it would be a good place to take the photos I needed to test the equipment. Conditions were great and we were treated to a fantastic sunset, so what became a quick run for a few photos became bit of a ‘trip report’.
All of the following images were taken inside of Holland State Park. Fortunately crowds were small but the view was large! Enjoy!
A bit of history behind Holland Harbor:
No trip to the lake is complete with the standard Seagull photos……
While waiting for the sunset, a Windsurfer provided some decent subject matter….
Then came the light show……..
I like this shot especially because of the contrast between the blue sky and clouds ‘blocking’ it from the sunset.
My favorite from the evening…..
Visitors are treated to a dramatic sunset….
Holland, Michigan’s famous Lighthouse at last light….
