ATL
I was in Atlanta for work a couple of weeks ago – a quick 4 day in-and-out trip. Whenever I travel I bring my trusty D90 and a couple of lenses with me. This trip was no exception. However, due to severe thunderstorms and very scratched up windows on my CRJ on the way down there was very little to photograph. Even a weather diversion to Augusta yielded nothing. Luckily on the day of my return I managed to get some pretty good snaps.
Due to Delta’s crushing dominance of ATL I was not expecting to get much variety in my photographs – a widget here, a widget there, maybe an AirTran. However, once I got to Concourse A and snooped around I was pleasantly surprised. The vast majority of metal was Delta, but for the aviation nerd there is a lot of little detail to see, appreciate and photograph. For instance the backbone of the Delta fleet, the 757. The size of this fleet is impressive; about 180 planes strong. However, characterizing that fleet with a single number doesn’t really paint a complete picture. Due to acquisitions and mergers and Delta’s ongoing transition there is so much diversity within the fleet: ETOPS vs. non-ETOPS, winglets vs. non-wingleted, livery differences and of course the issue of lineage. As you might expect there’s ex-Northwest 757s but did you know they have some former Singapore Airlines 757s? For my part I had forgotten SQ ever had 757s. There’s even some ex Shanghai Airlines birds in there.
I was lucky enough to see Delta’s 757 breast cancer awareness jet in special livery. Since then Delta have announced that it will be painted into normal colors and that a 767-400 will instead wear those colors. Speaking of the -400 I was disappointed that I did not spot a single one.
For shutter happy folks like myself ATL is a great spot to photograph just because it’s so busy. The frequency of takeoffs and landings means you can take some shots, review them and look back up only to see another aircraft rolling.
Incidentally I was questioned by two gentlemen from Homeland Security. Apparently the gate agent thought it was suspicious that I showed up so early for my flight and whipped out my DSLR and so he “reported” me. I, of course, cooperated when confornted and showed them my photos and explained why I was taking snaps. I even showed them this site while a remote agent did a background check on me.
Here are some snaps I got. Enjoy.
