JFK 01/15/2012

Cold but a good day. Good to see Manny, Steve, Kaz, and Gordon

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Eric, Manny, Steve, Kaz and Gordon......wish I could have joined you, but I was busy doing more home improvement stuff out in Southold. During a quick break I was able to get off a shot of the Emirates A380 passing at flight level 19,000 on its way to JFK. Taken with my 300mm + 1.7 TC (unfortunately I didn't have my monopod).

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Very nice Mark... Eric, as always, I have just started to download my cards :mad: I wonder if Steve made it home on time. Nice seeing Eric, Kaz after almost 6 months LOL and Steve ... missed Gordon as I never got to HoBe

Nice to spend the afternoon with Manny and Eric. Steve, sorry you had to break out early pal. Mark, we missed ya!

Some shots from me

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It was an absolutely, albeit a *bit* cold, gorgeous day today. My flight to DC was at 4:25pm so I figured I'd spot some before my flight. It was nice seeing Eric today, sorry I didn't get a chance to see anyone else. Here are some of my shots:

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Some shots from the plane:

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It was good to see all you guys again, and finally meeting Fasil. Manny, Kaz, Eric.....I really wish I could have stayed longer and hung out for the rest of the day. I went to Adorama this morning before heading out and purchased a Canon 50D and tried it out at HoBe on some departures. Here are a few results.

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Eric.....where the ell were you at HobE? I didn't see you there?

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Originally Posted by steve1840

It was good to see all you guys again, and finally meeting Fasil. Manny, Kaz, Eric.....I really wish I could have stayed longer and hung out for the rest of the day. I went to Adorama this morning before heading out and purchased a Canon 50D and tried it out at HoBe on some departures. Here are a few results.

Eric.....where the ell were you at HobE? I didn't see you there?

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I was at the end of the lot, I saw Gordon there. You must have been the guys standing out on the beach. I didn't get out of the car, it was freezing.

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Originally Posted by eric8669

I was at the end of the lot, I saw Gordon there. You must have been the guys standing out on the beach. I didn't get out of the car, it was freezing.

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Yeah, that was Fasil and another spotter (Nick) from the Wash-Balt spotters group. We, were definitely the ones crazy enough to walk out on the beach.

Steve .... congrats on your new purchase. Images look sweet

Good stuff guys! What focal length do you need to fill the frame from HoBe?

Jeremy, it depends on the subject and at what point you snap the photo. But 400mm will work fine at HoBe. To shoot stuff like 737s a crop sensor body will help tremendously to keep from wasting valuable pixels on blue sky.

Hello all! I have been introduced in this thread and another in various ways, but I am the other WashBalt guy with Fasil (aka Nick from Richmond :wink: ) I've been a member for a few months, just kinda lurking and planning a NYC spotting trip that was supposed to be in March. However when Fasil emailed me with the chance to catch the final SQ 744 flight to JFK, I couldn't say no. We were crazy enough to shoot out on the beach until about 4:40, and lets just say we were a tad bit chilly. It was a pleasure to meet both William and Steve at Panera and HoBe respectively. Lets see if I can't add some shots that haven't already been posted here...

Early morning Delta A330 departure

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One of two FedEx MD-10s that morning

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A Seagull checking out the Uzbekistan 767

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I had always wanted to see an SQ 747-400 again (it had been 12 years since I had last seen one). What a treat.

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This bird has always eluded me at DFW, no better way to catch her too!

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JAL flexing nicely for the camera

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The Korean Super is a sight to behold for sure

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Finally snagged a Delta 747! Been wanting this shot for a few years now

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First Air India jet for me

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Fasil and I had both essentially fallen asleep when this guy started his departure. Fortunately something woke me up and we both made it out of the car somehow

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Thankfully he came close enough and didn't turn inside of us

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My first China Airlines 747

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Closeup on EVA

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And finally China Eastern's sunset departure

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Thanks for looking,

Nick

Nick, great shots! I am definitely doing HoBe in the morning and late afternoon next time I am there. It was a pleasure meeting you on Sunday. Hopefully yourself, and Fasil can make it back up for warmer weather.

Great job on these shots, Nick !

Oh, Nick....I saw what you were talking about when you said that some of the shots you took at Bayswater were heat shimmered, as I had the same problem on some shots I took at HoBe. Only about half of my shots of the Emirates and South African came out clean. About half of those and the rest of the shots showed very obvious signs of heat shimmer......and they were WAY WAY off the ground. Unreal!

This day went on my record book as my coldest day ever despite I came prepared with layer and layers of clothing but it was unbearable. The wind was slaughtering us live. I will never forget this day and how I sacrificed to do what I love to do most.

Thank you Kaz and Steve.

Steve: I know exactly what you mean, hence why you don't see an Emirates 777 shot here from me. Even my ANA shot was barely passable for my tastes. I would love to understand why my Bayswater shots were so trashed as well. Granted I wasn't shooting from the park, as we thought it was locked (didn't see the pedestrian gate that exists apparently). The only thing I could figure is that the island or piece of land between me and the aircraft was radiating heat. any landfills in the area across from Bayswater?

Nick

Not there, nick, no landfills. I think it may have had to do with just how cold it was and the suns radiant heat being strong enough to cause a difference in temps.

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Originally Posted by NickPeterman

Thank you Kaz and Steve.

Steve: I know exactly what you mean, hence why you don't see an Emirates 777 shot here from me. Even my ANA shot was barely passable for my tastes. I would love to understand why my Bayswater shots were so trashed as well. Granted I wasn't shooting from the park, as we thought it was locked (didn't see the pedestrian gate that exists apparently). The only thing I could figure is that the island or piece of land between me and the aircraft was radiating heat. any landfills in the area across from Bayswater?

Nick

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If you guys were not in the park, where were you shooting from?

Manny will explain the heat haze issue way better then me. Lets just say, Plane over water, Cold air temps, warmer water temps and distance from aircraft all are factors.

We were essentially at the corner of Norton Drive and Westbourne Avenue. We'll just chalk it up to everything you said. At least I got the departure shot of KE on Sunday, as ATC changed runways right before it landed on Monday, much to my dismay

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Originally Posted by eric8669

If you guys were not in the park, where were you shooting from? Manny will explain the heat haze issue way better then me. Lets just say, Plane over water, Cold air temps, warmer water temps and distance from aircraft all are factors.

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Eric is too kind ... Heat Haze is ALWAYS present... just in different amounts. The longer your distance from the subject being photographed, the more compression of all those waves.

On a scientific level, what is really happening is that the surface of the water is really easy to heat up, much easier than say a grassy field, and consequently, a hot tarmac. The heated particles in the surface being heated will raise just as any warm gas will rise above a colder one. Since water is actually also evaporating, it will rise much higher than say the gases emanating from a hot tarmac. As these hot gases rise through and meet with the colder gas (air) above it, it creates turbulence. Very small turbulence but significant enough to cause diffraction in the light traversing through it as it twists and turns on its way up through the colder air. This will literally speed up and slow down light and when you multiply it over distance, it exaggerates the effect to the point where your images are unusable. For a much better explanation and understanding of this and many other Quantum Mechanics and Physics related effects, please read or listen to Richard Feynman, the god of Quantum Mechanics!! His book "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter" should be required reading for humans... but I digress... :tongue:

Air temperatures in the teens or low 20s, water temperature in the low to mid 30s - just like an asphalt runway/ramp on a hot day, the water is radiating heat into the air above it.

BTW from my totally amateurish understanding of the science and theory, a WINDY day should be WORSE than a STILL day. At least on a STILL or CALM winds day, the turbulence effect should be minimized. However, my brain also then throws in the fact that WIND can help dissipate the heated air so it should be clearer. However, I believe the SPEED at which the particles of turbulence are being displaced causes a greater potential for diffraction at higher rates which are easily seen ... When I saw the SIA A380 through my viewfinder, I could actually SEE the heat haze wildly, especially at its edges. I have not seen it that bad that high in a very long time ...

Wow! Thank you all for the quick and detailed replies. That explains a lot!

I love physics! F(net)=MA FTW!!!:cool:

Chemistry, however...

William!! Gotta love mass and force :-)

Anyway, here is an example of how bad it was.. .the cheat line is NOT over-sharpened. It is the effect of heat haze combined with interpolation from reduction ... the edge of the fuselage is also pretty bad and actually, almost any straight line has problems. What a disaster it was. Thank goodness this is a daily event now.

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Great stuff. Looks like China Southern could give Air France a run for dirtiest planes in the air :confused:

They definitely could! At least China Eastern's livery has more color to distract you from all the grime :biggrin: