Review Of 2004-1

In February 2004 I bought a Canon 100-400mm Image Stabilised lense and made good use of it throughout the rest of the year as it has better auto focus than my previous Canon 75-300mm lense and with the higher quality glass the photos show more contrast and sharpness.

My D60 Digital Camera has a cropping factor of 1.6x so now having a 400mm lense this is giving me in effect what would be a 640mm lense on a normal SLR Camera and thanks to this extra range it gives me more options of where to shoot from so I have been using it on long distance shots that I couldn't take before.

I've always been keen on the view of looking down a Runway to shoot action shots and this year at Edinburgh and Prestwick I've managed to take a few interesting ones doing this and with the addition of a Canon 1.4x Extender bought late in the year it now gives me 520mm on my Camera and with the cropping factor of 1.6x the equivalent of 896mm on a normal SLR Camera.

Here is a small selection of the ones I liked from this year.

G-RJXC EMB145
British Midland
(Edinburgh 22-3-04).

N73544 S Constellation
Const' Historical Society
(Prestwick 2-5-04).

EC-IUA 747-200
Air Pullmantur
(Glasgow 22-5-04).

G-VAST 747-400
Virgin Atlantic
(Prestwick 6-7-04).

RA-82080 AN124
Polet
(Prestwick 20-9-04).

A6-EAQ A330
Emirates Airlines
(Glasgow 23-10-04).

10881 KC135
US Air Force
(Prestwick 25-10-04).

The following photos below on this page are the ones that I liked from 2004.

ZH106 E3 Sentry
RAF
(Prestwick 16-1-04).

N767NA 767-300
North American Airlines
(Prestwick 17-1-04).

N129AA DC10
Hawaiian Airlines
(Prestwick 26-1-04).

G-BZZJ 737
Ryanair
(Prestwick 14-2-04).

EI-CST 737-800
Ryanair
(Prestwick 14-2-04).

RAF AWACS

An E3 Sentry had diverted in from the previous night and it left the next morning when I was there during a good sunshine break and it worked out nicely when the 707 stopped at the holding point to wait for a Ryanair 737 to land.

North American 767

North American 757's and 767's made many tech stops at Prestwick when flying troops from the States to Italy on their way to the Middle East and for a long period these flights were only during darkness but for a short spell before they finished there were a few in daylight and on this day two 767's were on the ground at the same time.

Hawaiian DC10

There have been many Federal Express DC10's going through Prestwick on their way to Venice for Cargo conversion and part of the fun of these were to see what scheme they were in while Ferrying through.

Fedex picked up passenger DC10's from various Airlines after they were retired from passenger services and usually the schemes of their previous owners remained intact but titles and tail colours would be removed, this was the second one from Hawaiian that had came through but unlike the previous this one had both titles and tail colours still on it.

One thing about being a shooter you always want the sun shining so it can lead to a long wait for it and with this one I had a patient 2 hours to pass before the heavy clouds finally parted and some sunshine lit it up, just as well it did as 10 minutes later the crew came out for it and vehicles were parked in front of it.

Global Supply 747

There is a scheduled Global Supply 747 on Saturday evenings but occasional other ones turn up here and on this visit to Prestwick one called up approach for some circuit training and proceeded to do an hour of touch and go's.

N408MC 747-400
Emirates SkyCargo
(Prestwick 25-2-04).

ZS-OZV Dc8-62
African International
(Prestwick 25-2-04).

C-GNRL Convair 580
ACEF Cargo
(Glasgow 26-2-04).

LZ-CBG Antonov 12
Heli Air
(Glasgow 15-3-04).

G-RJXC EMB145
British Midland
(Edinburgh 22-3-04).

Emirates Skycargo 747

Emirates have a leased Atlas 747 for Cargo use and it is seen a lot at Amsterdam but it regularly comes here to Prestwick for maintenance about every 3 months and usually stays for 2 or 3 days.

African Airlines Dc8

When you hear of a Dc8 visiting it's a must see these days as they are a rare sight now and I was lucky with this one being more than three hours late arriving, it landed just after midday when if it had been on time about 9am the sun would have been at a back angle to my right and not as good.

ACEF Cargo Convair 580

I woud have missed this one if someone hadn't told me it was coming just as I was heading home at 1pm, it had an original arrival time of 1-30pm but didn't show until 2-30pm but it was very dull then and my shots were poor so I waited another hour for it to refuel and leave, the sun came out one minute earlier before it left from Runway 05. I was frozen stiff waiting on this one but worth it in the end.

Heli Air AN12

Not many Antonov 12's visit Glasgow so I made an effort for this one that came in to uplift an Orchestra's instruments for a concert, the rain became heavy as it lined up so I got this shot just in time.

British Midland EMB145

I bought my Canon 100-400mm IS lense in Febuary 2004 and one of the spots I had in mind to use it was the Footbidge at Edinburgh that looks down the Runway from the 06 end.

I had tried this spot before with my 75-300mm lenese but it didn't have enough reach to bring the shot close enough so I was here specifically for some shots like this.

As Edinburgh does not have links that go to the end of the Runway at both ends you can get views like this of two aircraft pointing in different directions which looks odd but it is a result aircraft having to backtrack for departure like the Axis 737 is doing in the background.

This turned out to be one of my most popular photos on Airliners.net when I uploaded it.

F-GCBB 747-200
Air France
(Edinburgh 22-3-04).

G-EZEC A319
Easyjet
(Edinburgh 30-3-04).

SX-BLV 757
Air Scotland
(Edinburgh 30-3-04).

A6-EAQ A330-200
Emirates Airlines
(Glasgow 10-4-04).

Air France 747

I went to Edinburgh on the Monday with a friend to shoot this Air France 747 taking home French Rugby supporters who were here for the bi-annual Rugby match against Scotland.

Having bought my Canon 100-400mm Image Stabilised lense in mid Febuary this was one of the spots I really wanted to try it out at .

Our main reason for this visit was to shoot the departing 747 from the Footbridge looking down the Runway so after a look around Cargo and a little time at the Ingliston viewing spot we parked the car at the nearest road to the Footbridge and walked 5 minutes to get ready for the 747 to depart as you see here.

This was another popular one on Airliners.net but I would say that if going here you really need a 400mm lense on a DSLR with cropping factor of 1.6x to get in close enough.

Easyjet A319

On my next visit to Edinburgh I headed down to the Footbridge again in mid afternoon and there was a Runway switch to 06 so this gave me different views from a week earlier of landers coming over the top of me.

Easyjet had not long started using the new A319's in the UK and the Gatwick to Edinburgh route was one of the first to get them so good to manage some shots of them not long after starting.

Air Scotland 757

The sole Air Scotland 757 leased from Thomas Cook arrived in from Glasgow during late afternoon to pick up passengers from Edinburgh before flying off to Spain and a crosswind made it appear a little off course on finals for Runway 06.

I am a fan of this sort of view down a Runway , it's nice and quiet here at the Footbridge and you find very few photographers shoot from it as a long lense is required, I use the Canon 100-400mm IS lense when I am here and now have a Canon 1.4x Extender to give me 560mm plus the cameras cropping factor of 1.6x so making the equivalent of 896mm if it were a normal SLR camera.

Only problem is that I don't have auto focus as it is an F4.5 lense and only F4 and lower lenses will give auto focus with an Extender so it can be tricky to manual focus on something moving towards or away from me.

I have used the 1.4x Extender on lots of shots from here and some at Prestwick looking down that Runway and although I will lose some shots due to softness there are many others that I have been satisfied with so it has been worth picking up this second hand Extender for spots like this.

Emirates A330

This was the first Emirates Airlines flight into Glasgow to begin their daily service to Dubai and we were all well aware that it would receive a Fire hose welcome so I did my best to find a spot to get some shots of it.

Unfortunately the Airport allocated Emirates a dedicated stand for the route and it parks here on Stand 29 on the inside of the Pier where it is very difficult to get an angle to shoot so this photo was my best effort of the water salute.

N805NW A330-300
Northwest Airlines
(Glasgow 15-4-04).

SX-BLW 757
Air Scotland
(Glasgow 30-4-04).

N73544 S Constellation
Const' Historical Society
(Prestwick 2-5-04).

N647US 767-200
US Airways
(Glasgow 11-5-04).

VN-A144 777
Vietnam Airlines
(Edinburgh 22-5-04).

Northwest A330

A Northwest A330 diverted into Glasgow with a medical emergency and it was the Airline's first visit to the UK of this type in the new colour scheme, it parked on Stand 30 so I waited for more than 2 hours for the sun to show and managed a few shots with a long lense.

Air Scotland 757

Air Scotland had handed back their leased 757 from Thomas Cook and leased this one from Air 2000 so when I heard it had parked on Stand 34 for the night I headed out with a Tripod and cable release for some night shots as this was yet another colour scheme variation.

Having experimented with night shots after darkness a few weeks earlier and struggled with the very yellow tinted lighting I had discovered from previous efforts that if I shot just before darkness when there was still a touch of light left in the sky in RAW mode I could use a Filter in Photoshop to knock out this annoying artificial cast so I managed this one and was quite pleased with the finished result.

Super Constellation

Lots of people turned up at Prestwick to see the recently restored Super Constellation arriving for a five day stop while on it's delivery flight to Switzerland, unfortunately this was a very dull day particularly in early evening when it arrived at Prestwick.

After a go-around requested by the Tower it came in to land and I noticed two people get out of a red van parked at the Holding Point with cameras to shoot it so I thought best to try and catch the aircraft when they were in view to add a little more interest.

US Air 767

Another first day visit to Glasgow in 2004 and like the Emirates in April the 767 received a Water salute to welcome it's first day of the new Summer season route from Glasgow to Philadelphia.

I didn't get there for it landing so thought I must had missed the Fire hose welcome but to my surprise it was done as the aircraft departed after pushing back from Stand.

At Glasgow there is a road on the opposite of the Airport that runs past the Fire Training ground and although the BAA have planted a lot of Fir trees to block the view there are a few breaks in them so aircraft can be shot taxing from the North side, the view is good from here and this spot can come in handy later in the day during the Summer months when the sun has moved around behind.

Vietnam Airlines 777

Another highlight this Summer was the first ever visit of a Boeing 777 to Edinburgh this being the President of Vietnam's State visit to Scotland so I went through with a friend and it arrived on time on a very nice sunny day.

It parked at the top end of the Short Runway for a night stop and I have another couple of shots of it in the Edinburgh pages.

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