DUS 1

We checked in for our Buzz flight to Dusseldorf and left a little behind schedule but made the time up enroute and arrived about 09-10 on Thursday 16th and after leaving some baggage at Left Luggage we headed for the Railway Terrace for the day.

During winter time the Terrace opening hours are 9am until 8pm and this applies to both the main one at the Terminal and the Railway deck too, at this time of the year I wouldn't be bothering to arrive earlier than this anyway if you are a photographer only like me as the sun is just getting above the horizon then.

The day started off rather dull but in mid morning it brightened up a fair bit to be part cloudy and this gave oppertunities for shooting as you can see by the thumbs below.

The temperture was just above zero degrees when we got there and it remained chilly throughout the day so it was a case of popping in and out of the glazed enclosure which was comfortable as the heating was on all day.

TC-SKC 737-800
Sky Airlines
(Dusseldorf 16-1-03).

OE-LBR A320
Austrian Airlines
(Dusseldorf 16-1-03).

YU-AOM Fokker 100
Montenegro Airlines
(Dusseldorf 16-1-03).

VP-BAF A310
Aeroflot
(Dusseldorf 16-1-03).

Movements were on the slow side which was natural as there was a lack of charters but there was still plenty to see and apart from the usual German regulars of Lufthansa, Air Berlin, Eurowings, Deutsche BA, LTU, Condor (T Cook) and Hapag we also saw the following:- Swiss 146, Finnair A319, Eurolot ATR42, ALitalia EMB145, Buzz 146, Privitair 737, LOT EMB145, Austrian A320, Onur A320,Sun Express 737, Alitalia A319, Cyprus A310, Iberia MD80, Air France 737, Hahn Air Metroliner and a daily Malev Express CRJ.

This reasonable weather was a bonus and we went through a few rolls of film during the day but the main objective of the trip was to take night time shots from the Terrace so in late afternoon with the sun getting low and straight down the runway we headed to the main Terminal and onto the big viewing deck after showing our tickets to the person behind the window.

It was really cold with a strong breeze so the scarf, wooly hat and gloves helped keep a good bit of the chill away and it eventually became dark at 5-30pm leaving us about 2 1/2 hours of action left with the cameras and Tripods.

There were not many people wandering about the Terrace and as darkness came most of the remaning ones drifted away so there was just the two of us and a handful of others plus the two security men keeping an eye on things and we spent our time wandering about checking the Stands for anything liable to push back.

Being a weekday there was a reasonable amount of movements so it was a case of keeping on the move and checking on the ones most likely to move as what you want is to catch them just before pushing back to get ready with the camera and Tripod, once the tug is detached you don't get much time before they taxi away.

Camera settings for the night time shots ranged from 4 to 10 seconds at F5.6 with the shorter times being the ones with the Terminal in the background which gave more light to the shots from the light stands and office window lights being on, with the breeze though I had to be very careful not to let the wind blow directly onto the camera and Tripod so as to stop camera shake and I did lose a few because of this but not that many.

Generally I had the camera on a 2 second delay before it took the shots so that gave me time to stand in front of it from whatever direction the wind was blowing and this helped greatly to stop camera shake, the other helpful thing was that I took my biggest Tripod and it was tall enough to reach over the metal hand barrier without winding it up higher so that made it more stable otherwise I would have had lots of problems with the wind moving my camera and bluring shots particularly on the 10 second ones.

Here below are some of the night shots taken on that first night:-