On Saturday I had to drop my son in the city, so I took the opportunity to grab my camera and head out to the airport. Whilst heading through Newtown, I was distracted by some crazy drivers and missed my intended turn to go over the saddle of Mt. Victoria. Never mind, I thought, there are other ways. I headed up past Wellington Zoo and over the hill there. At the top of the descent on the eastern side I caught sight of the airport from afar and so I stopped to see what sort of shots I could get.

With my trusty 55-300mm lens, the answer looks like this.

This view (a reasonable crop from the full 300mm of zoom) very much shows the workings of the airport and its surroundings. Lyall Bay beach is as popular as ever. On the other side of the road from that you can just see the very corner of the large retail complex. Beyond the hive of activity on the airport itself you can see golfers out for a round on the Miramar Golf Course. Taking centre stage in the shot is Cessna 650 Citation III, N163JM, which also features in the next shot, departing RWY34.

Here you can see part of the northern end of the western apron and the corner of Mirarmar township adjoining more of the golf course. Finally we see N163JM climbing skyward with a backdrop of the heights of Miramar and behind that (separated by the harbour entrance) the hills of Eastbourne.

A similar view is had in this shot of Eagle Air’s Beechcraft 1900D, ZK-EAG – one of the two resplendent in the All Blacks sponsorship colour scheme.

Next I headed down past the airport itself. I did take a couple of quick shots at the airport but won’t include them here. I was heading for a spot that Rodney reminded me of with a post not so long ago. There’s an access road to the Wellington VOR beacon in Strathmore which is freely accessible to walkers and cyclists. This puts you above the approach to RWY34, allowing shots such as this pair. The main difference is the use of different shutter speeds. The aircraft are ZK-NEZ and ZK-NEJ respectively, both Bombardier DHC-8 Q300s of Air Nelson.

Note not only the prop blur on the second shot, but also the motion blur of the background. I’m not sure which I prefer!

Of course, the prop blur problem can be solved by choosing a jet for the subject, such as Air New Zealand Airbus A320, ZK-OJS, seen here in an ‘over water’ angle but with the context of the South Headland Reserve at the edge of Lyall Bay.

And finally, ZK-OJS is seconds from touch down on RWY34.

You can check out the full collection of photos on Flickr.

I haven’t managed to get out to Wellington Airport much in the last few months, despite the astoundingly good weather. But over the last couple of weeks I’ve managed a couple of visits and here I present you some of the more interesting results.

First up is Jetstar Airbus A320, VH-VFF. Not a particularly unusual aircraft, location or even composition. But it is at a slower shutter speed than I usually use, and that’s as a result of the circular polarising filter I had fitted to my lens at the time. The net result of these two factors is the considerable ‘pan blur’ of the background, plus a distinct ‘pop’ to the aircraft, making it stand out from that background. Quite a pleasing look, I think.

Next up is the best shot I managed of Mount Cook Airline’s newest ATR72-600, ZK-MVB – currently the only aircraft in the wider Air New Zealand fleet to carry the new standard colour scheme of black tail and revised title font. It’s not a brilliant shot because I couldn’t stand in my usual spot atop the bench seat – which was occupied for pretty much the take off of this aircraft, no more no less – and so I had to shoot around, and as it turned out through, the fence. (Yes, you can see the fence in the shot.)

ATR72-500, ZK-MCP still wears an unusual white rudder. I say unusual, however from my observations it seems to have been this way for over a year now so maybe it’s the new normal?

Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche, ZK-NTV was spied sitting on the western apron so I grabbed a shot. It later disappeared but I did not see if it departed or was simply moved.

And finally, bringing my total of photographed “Black Beauty” schemed aircraft to four (out of a current six I believe), here’s Eagle Air’s Beech 1900D, ZK-EAG.

That just leaves the other 1900D, ZK-EAK and ATR72-600, ZK-MVA to capture. Who’d have thought, being a Wellingtonian, I would already have Boeing 777, ZK-OKQ but not the frequent ATR & Beech!

If you want to take a look at all of the photos from the recent two sessions, take a look here.

Another year has come and gone so it’s time to trawl the photo library and pick my favourites.

I only published a total of 99 aircraft photos in the entire year, so it seemed a bit much to be picking my usual crop of 12. I guess being an even numbered year there were no air shows, which usually bump up the published numbers.

I’ve selected 8 shots which particularly please me and I present them all to you here in the order taken.

There’s something about a brightly lit aircraft in a single coloured sky – even if that sky isn’t blue – that lends a soothing feeling to a shot, such as this one of Mount Cook Airline (Air New Zealand Link) ATR-72 500, ZK-MCF departing into a stiff Wellington southerly one year ago today (2nd January).

February 18th 2012 was the first time I managed to capture one of Air New Zealand’s black coloured aircraft. Here, Airbus A320 ZK-OAB crosses the threshold of RWY34.

Another new colour scheme made its first appearance in front of my camera on March 24th. Here, Virgin Samoa (formerly Polynesian Blue) Boeing 737-800, ZK-PBF alights on RWY 34.

A day later on March 25th, Jetstar’s Airbus A320, VH-VGV roars north in the morning sun.

On April 8th came the opportunity to catch another black Air New Zealand aircraft – rather rarer in these parts – alighting at Wellington. Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKQ paid a promotional visit.

In November 2012 I had an opportunity to meet some friends from Los Angeles in Sydney. I did very little aviation-wise until the last hour I was there, which I spent on the airport observation deck. I was close to those aircraft departing RWY 34L and these two I found particularly pleasing.

First up, Singapore Airlines Airbus A380, 9V-SKA retracts its gear as it climbs away from the runway.

While British Airways Boeing 747-400, G-BNLI has just completed gear retraction.

And finally, back to Wellington for a very unusual sight. I was standing about 6km away from the airport, on Wellington’s picturesque waterfront when I captured Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300, ZK-OKP showing off its fabulous Hobbit-themed colour scheme as it flew over the word premiere of the movie at 1,000ft.

That concludes the pick of 2012. 2013 has much to look forward to, including, hopefully, another great Wings Over Wairarapa air show in a few weeks’ time.

I made this a while ago but had held back on publishing it while in negotiations to sell one of my other photos to Air New Zealand’s advertising agency. That deal fell through (I guess they were looking for something cheap) so here it is.

It’s a mockup of how the 777-300 will look in Air New Zealand’s controversial new ‘monochrome’ colour scheme, based on a shot I took of ZK-OKM visiting Wellington in February 2009.

It is based on the poor marketing shot Air New Zealand released when they announced the scheme, along with a graphic of the logotype. Click on the photo to see a larger version.

What? A post on this site about a movie premiere? Yup!

On Wednesday, November 28th, 2012, the premiere of the first movie in The Hobbit trilogy took place in Wellington, New Zealand – my home city. (Useless fact: I grew up in the same town as Peter Jackson.)

In conjunction with the films’ makers, Air New Zealand have once again (as with the Lord of the Rings films) entered into a branding deal. This time around, Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKP has had an enormous decal applied to promote the first movie. In fact, the decal is the largest ever applied to any aircraft and took two weeks to apply.

Coming back to Wellington and the premiere, Air New Zealand flew this rather large airliner over the red carpet at a scant 1,000 feet altitude! Now, I’m no movie buff or star chaser, but send a cool aircraft like this near me and I will have my camera ready!

After flying down from Auckland and orbiting over Cook Strait, she floated in over the city right on 5:30pm.

Moments after crossing the red carpet in Courtenay Place, a couple of quick course adjustments were made to take her more over the harbour – affording me this spectacular view against an equally spectacular blue Wellington sky.

There are a few more photos to be found in the special set I created for this event on Flickr.

In early November I treated myself to a few days in Sydney to meet up with some friends. I got up to a bunch of touristy things, but firmly on my agenda was some time at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport with my camera.

I got myself to the airport with plenty of time to spare and after checking in and dropping my bag, I headed for the observation deck. It’s not an amazing space but is very functional and, on this occasion, perfectly placed to observe departures from parallel runways 34L and 34R.

Here’s an illustration of what parallel runways means. The near aircraft is Qantas 737 VH-VYA. The far one is an unidentified Jetstar A320. (Even my 16 megapixel camera couldn’t resolve a registration at that distance on a warm day!)

I was fortunate in the hour I spent up there to see a nice variety of heavy metal. None heavier than Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A380, 9V-SKA.

I’m a big fan of British Airways’ latest scheme and it’s hard to beat a 747 such as G-BNLI to show it off with a ‘One World’ alliance variation.

My mother has just today arrived back in the country from a trip to the UK. She travelled three out of six legs on a Qantas A380 such as this example, VH-OQJ, which began pushback right as I was about to leave the observation deck for my flight!

You can find all the photos I took in my Sydney Airport set on Flickr.

Wow! I haven’t posted since April 14th. Mind you, my photo library shows me I’ve only had my camera out at the airport four times since then.

Anyway, here’s a small selection from those visits.

All Blacks-themed Airbus A320, ZK-OAB takes off straight into the noon sun. I quite like this shot because of the obtuse light and the captured beacon flash.

Boeing 737-BBJ, N7600K departs mid-afternoon.

Vincent Aviation’s Jetstream J32, ZK-VAH floats onto the runway in the evening light.

Another Vincent Aviation Jetstream J32, ZK-LFW sports this rather unique scheme for its air ambulance duties. This is the first time I’ve seen this aircraft in this scheme. Clearly it had been doing engine run-ups, based on the missing cowls as it returned from the southern end of the western apron to the Vincent hangar.

And finally, a gorgeous Chinese example of a Gulfstream 550, B-8260 of Nanshan Jet sits quietly on the western apron near the Aero Club.

The rest of the photos from the “missing period” can be seen here.