Transportation

I’ve been participating in a local photography club, the Desert Light Photography Group. Part of the activity is submitting photographs at the monthly meetings that conform to a chosen theme. The theme for the April meeting is Transportation and today I’ll share some of the shots I’ve taken in preparation for the next meeting. I’ve cut the candidates down to 8; I need to cull that down to 5 final choices. Following are the finalists. Your thoughts on what I should choose would be helpful and welcome. If you’d like to make suggestions, kindly send your preferences by adding the photo(s) title (s) using the “Add a Comment” button at the bottom of the page.

This first picture was taken near Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. The Sky Train is an intra-airport transportation system, linking PHX’s terminals, rental car depot, parking areas and a connection to the city’s public transit system. These trains aren’t racing; one’s coming, the other’s going.

The 44th Street Station is where where the Sky Train system connects with Valley Metro Rail, part of Phoenix’s urban transit. It’s very new, modern and airy, not to mention photogenic. This hall is where passengers embark and disembark the Sky Train, into and out of the cars which arrive and depart outside. Continuing down the hall leads to the boarding platform for Valley Metro Rail.

Of course, Sky Harbor is all about air travel. While visiting the area, I was able to photograph several aircraft coming and going. These next two are among my favourite airplane pictures, beginning with a Southwest Airlines 737. I captured this one from the cell phone parking lot at the east end of runway 8.

Another good spot to photograph is the top level of the Terminal 4 parkade. I took this next picture as an American Airlines plane touched down. (This location also provides a great view of downtown Phoenix. The photo in the masthead at the top of the page pictures the city centre.)

Another form of air travel popular in the desert is hot air ballooning. I took this picture from the Cave Creek Regional Park, not far from home.

While on a short hike in the Cave Creek Regional Park, I met several groups of trail riders using one of the Old West’s most storied forms of transportation, the horse. The young lady pictured on the horse was the ride leader, graciously smiling for the camera.

I made a brief visit to Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s rail yard near downtown Phoenix in search of some interesting rail cars. There wasn’t much that was readily accessible for photography, but I did get a few shots of this one graffiti-adorned livestock carrier. I chose to forgo the colourful graffiti in favour of this better quality, black and white version of the scene.

I conclude with one more airplane shot, this one taken at Scottsdale’s Municipal Airport (SCF). I was stationed at the south end of the runway on N 73d Street, a great location to photograph landings. I estimate this plane was no more than 75 ft (23 m) above me when I snapped the shutter. The challenging thing about photographing a propellor-driven plane is getting the right shutter speed. I wanted to show the propellor in motion (blurred) but not the plane itself. I found a pleasing outcome with a shutter shutter speed of 1/1000 sec.

I hope you enjoy these pictures, a little different from my normal choice of subjects. It’s good for me to expand my horizons and learn other genres of  photography. Lend me a hand and let me know which you think I should use.