by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 27, 2012 | Airlines |
After spending yet more time at observation points at Los Angeles International prior to heading for home after visiting family, I managed to capture another few hundred images. On my final day in Los Angeles, I split a few hours between the popular In-N-Out location and the Imperial Hill Observation area. I’m glad I did since I was able to spot airlines and aircraft that I had not seen on my 2 other “sessions” at LAX. This is the final installment of photos from what had easily been my greatest plane spotting experience.
If you missed my previous Plane Spotting Posts, you can find them here: Part I and Part II
ANA Boeing 777 Arrives From Tokyo
Arriving from Seoul, South Korea
Arriving from Hong Kong
Departing for Seoul, South Korea
Cathay's Boeing 777
EVA's Cargo flight departs
Emirates Boeing 777
Emirates continuing it's climb
No plane spotting session is complete without a Lufthansa 747!
Destination: Frankfurt
A very light FEDEX climbs steeply
MASAIR's Boeing 767
THAI's Boeing 777 arrives from Bangkok
....And departs for Bangkok a few hours later.
Singapore's Airbus A380
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 23, 2012 | Airlines |
I enjoyed my first day “Plane Spotting” at LAX so much that I decided to go back sooner than later and do it again.
This time, I decided to head over to the northeast corner of the airport and go to the world famous In-N-Out Burger Restaurant and take my photos from the park that is across the street from the restaurant. Located at the intersection of West 92 Street and South Sepulveda Boulevard, it is about as close as you can ever get to an airport to watch airplanes and enjoy lunch, dinner or both as it was in my case!
If you plan to visit make sure to have the proper equipment otherwise you will be disappointed. For Imperial Hill (use the above link to see it’s vantage point) you’ll need at least 300mm or more in lens ability otherwise you will not get close to the departing aircraft. For the In-N-Out location 80-140mm will be plenty of lens power. I found myself keeping my 18-70mm in the bag since it was a bit short and had to step back a bit to use my 150-500mm lens effectively.
Across from In-N-Out - A great park with plenty of room and a great view
Great vantage point and you only need 80-120mm of lens!
This time, I would have a great view of arriving aircraft throughout the afternoon. Yesterday’s trip to the Imperial Hill observation area afforded a great look at departing aircraft so today’s trip was a nice compliment.
Throughout the afternoon there were dozens of arrivals, primarily US based carriers and their regional fleet that we see everyday so I’ll spare you from those photos. The photos that I include here are of aircraft one typically doesn’t see everyday in most places (like GRR for example). After 500 pictures, I’ve narrowed it down to some of my favorites, including a few that are slightly off topic (you’ll see what I mean).
I'm going to see the inside of this one in September! 🙂
Not sure what to think of this one. At 500mm & heat-haze, it's blurry but interesting (I think...)
I mentioned earlier that there were a few “off-topic” pictures as well. Sitting near a restaurant attracts quite a variety of birds looking to take advantage of people’s generosity. In between arriving aircraft, I had a chance to stalk some of these birds, and found a couple of birds willing to pose.
This bird was perched several yards away. Nothing a fully extended 500mm couldn’t handle:
This little critter decided to demonstrate his hygiene by using dirt as a cleanser:
Step 1: Find soft patch of dirt
Stick head in dirt, make sure to get behind the ears.......
Ahhhhh, that's better.........
Having spent parts of 2 days Plane Spotting at LAX, it has quickly become one of my favorite places to watch airliners come and go. Not many airports are conducive to plane spotting but in the case of LAX its about as good as it can get.
My other favorite plane spotting airport is Frankfurt and I would give it a slight advantage over LAX because of it’s dedicated Observation Deck in Terminal 2. Frankfurt’s advantage is it’s ability to put you nearly on the tarmac as far as you vantage point is concerned. At the end of the day, you can’t go wrong with either one!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 22, 2012 | Airlines |
My wife and I visit Southern California a few times a year to spend time with her family. On most of these trips I would just pack my “Point-And-Shoot” camera so I would have something to take a picture with should the occassion arise.
On this trip, I decided to pack my DSLR and 150-500mm lens and made plans to spend at least several hours at LAX observing it’s air traffic. For those of you not familiar with LAX, there are 2 outstanding places that you can go to and watch airlines arrive and depart LAX.
One popular spot is near the “In-N-Out” Burger restaurant located near the Northeast corner of the airport property that affords great views of arriving aircraft since they literally fly overhead and are only a few hundred yards away from the the runway. The other popular spot is the observation area located on Imperial Hill that gives a fantastic view of the south side of the airport and is great spot for watching departures.
For this visit, I chose the Imperial Hill area since I was going to be there in the afternoon and early evening and that would give me a good opportunity to see flights leaving LAX.
After spending nearly four hours at the observation area and in between conversations with other Plane Spotting enthusiasts, I managed to snap off 700 pictures. I’ve starting sorting through them and have pulled out some of my favorites so far and have included them here. I head back home on tuesday and I’m thinking I’ll go to the In-N-Out and take a few hundred more photos!
Photos from the Imperial Hill Observation area (Click on the image for full view):
