dmpop
Aircraft photography, spaghetti code, half-baked thoughts
Guestbook ReadsAirplane photography in ZRH with AirsideFoto
Last weekend, I had an opportunity to be a guest on a photo tour organized by AirsideFoto.
It was wonderful to join a group of like-minded people and come so close to airplanes. Only when you're standing close to something like an Airbus A350, can you truly appreciate the sheer size and awesomeness of these flying machines.
Even though my finger was mushing the shutter button practically without pause, my yield was rather meagre. I was pretty overwhelmed by being so unusually close to the action, and I've been struggling to find a good way to capture landing and taxiing airplanes.
The event almost didn't happen, by the way. An hour before us meeting, heavy snowfall hit the airport (I guess the weather didn't get the memo that it's mid-April). That meant that the visitor's terrace, where we were supposed to meet, was closed.
So there I was, sitting in the ticket area, biting my nails and frantically checking weather radar images. Fortunately half an hour later, the snowfall stopped. And even if it was still pretty nippy, the light and the skies were perfect for photographing aircraft.
The tour lasted two hours, and we managed to cover a lot of ground — literally and figuratively speaking. A bus brought us to several locations around the airport, where we could capture departing, landing, and taxiing airplanes as well as simply enjoy the surroundings. On a side note, there are quite a few interesting birds living in the area.
The entire program was well thought-out and equally well organized, so we could just focus on the photography part. And even though my German leaves a lot to be desired, and it's quite a challenge for me to understand Swiss German, I'm thankful that other participants didn't think much of it. All in all, it was one of the best airplane photography experiences ever.
