Tag Archives: air travel

Aug 19 2017
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Daily Post, Landscape

Stopover (brief)

Saturday 19th August 2017, 2.20pm (day 2,186)

Toronto, 19/8/17

I could leave this city unnamed, as a test of your geographical knowledge… but OK, it’s Toronto, meaning Canada makes its debut on the blog. However, the fact that I should have been in a position to capture this shot at least 90 minutes before I did suggests that this country’s national airline might have done a better job with punctuality today. What should have been a comfortable stopover with plenty of time for lunch became a 45-minute plummet through airport corridors and some quality time with US Customs and Border Protection (who seem to have colonised their friendly neighbour to the north already). This is not going to be the least stressful journey I have ever undertaken, and it’s only half done yet.

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Jun 22 2017
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Daily Post, Landscape

First sunset since Friday

Wednesday 21st June 2017, 8.55pm (day 2,127)

Sunset over Manchester, 21/6/17Today was the summer solstice, the Northern Hemisphere’s longest day. But seeing as I’ve been north of the Arctic Circle since Saturday morning this was a regression, in daylight terms. No problem with that however. The 24-hour daylight was nice in some ways but it could become monotonous after a while. Shot taken from above Manchester on the final flight home: the city centre is just visible down there in the haze.

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Mar 21 2017
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

This week’s transit lounge (Helsinki)

Monday 20th March 2017, 4.55pm (day 2,034)

Helsinki airport, 20/3/17

I am sat in my hotel room in Tokyo as I type this, but there can be no photos of Japan for this day as I didn’t touch Asian soil until Tuesday morning. This is Helsinki, which a few years ago had several shots on this blog in its own right but since then has become another one of those places (Copenhagen, Schiphol, Istanbul….) seen as an airport transfer but not otherwise ‘real’. How does it compare? Well, it has a decent amount of booze in it as you can see. And there was sunshine, which was certainly more than there was in Manchester on departure, or indeed on Tokyo on arrival, both teeming with rain.

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Mar 16 2017
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Daily Post, Transport

Contrail weave

Wednesday 15th March 2017, 5.50pm (day 2,029)

Contrailscape, 15/3/17

On evenings like this it is as if the flight paths are creating some kind of tapestry. There is the latest weave going in, from top left. We humans seem to have found various ways to fiddle with the climate, and these artificial clouds are just another example of that, but they’re so everyday now, do we even think about them as much as we should?

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May 14 2016
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Crashed out

Friday 13th May 2016, 6.10pm (CET) (day 1,723)

Crashed out, 13/5/16

The truly superstitious probably wouldn’t have booked to fly on Friday 13th, but I am not among them, and the flights didn’t seem any less busy to me. This one was taken somewhere between Moscow and Amsterdam on leg one of my journey home.

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Oct 18 2015
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Daily Post, Landscape

Beneath the cloud

Sunday 18th October 2015, 11.05am (day 1,515)

Beneath mushroom cloud, 18/10/15

Sometimes the shots just have that extra little thing about them that you didn’t even realise was there when you took it. I’ve travelled today, to a place that I’ve not been to before and which you’ll see over the next few days, rest assured, but this shot was taken en route. These clouds are not natural, they are being pumped out of some power station or other, maybe in France or northern Germany, I’m not completely sure. I loved the way they flattened out at the top in some cold layer. But it was only when I uploaded this one that I spotted the plane…

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Sep 28 2015
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Daily Post, Interior

Passengers arriving, Schiphol

Monday 28th September 2015, 3.25pm (day 1,495)

Schiphol arrivals, 28/9/15

Although I have been doing plenty of work trips recently they have all been in the UK, and it’s been six months since I was actually at Manchester airport heading off somewhere for work. Today I changed planes in Schiphol, one of those hub airports that almost everyone who flies probably ends up at some point or another, and what a joyful place it is…. I was sitting behind this fence watching the arriving passengers get off the plane we were about to get on, and I kind of like this shot just for the effect, how the fence and the light make the woman look sort of ghostly.

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Apr 05 2015
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Daily Post, Landscape

Sunrise wing

Sunday 5th April 2015, 6.15am (British summer time) (day 1,319)

Sunrise wing, 5/4/15

Taken somewhere over Wales on our final descent into Manchester this morning, allowing for the time difference a 19-hour journey door to door. The humps in the foreground are the wing and engine; behind are various hills poking above a layer of mist and fog.

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Apr 05 2015
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Daily Post, Landscape

Farewell to San Francisco

Saturday 4th April 2015, 8.20am (day 1,318)

San Francisco, 4/4/15

Off I go on my way home. I hope to be back one day — but that is true of many places. I guess there are several where I have visited for the last time in my life… and there is no way of telling which. Anyway, enough of that — check out the Bay Bridge in the foreground, Golden Gate behind, and Alcatraz to centre right. A very impressive city, and an enjoyable and interesting week.

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Feb 03 2015
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Daily Post, Landscape

Sea-monster island, near Bergen

Tuesday 3rd February 2015, 3.50pm (day 1,258)

Sea monster island, 3/2/15

As pictured from the final descent into Bergen Flesland airport this afternoon. Tell me I’m not the only person who sees this. I’m just waiting for the moment at which it snaps its jaws open and consumes the yacht without a trace.I have looked for this island (or peninsula, or archipelago) on a map of the area but can’t identify it; perhaps it only reveals its monstrous nature from this very specific angle.

Postscript: As the comment indicates one of my followers has since identified this as the island of Snilstveitøy.

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