Pic(k) of the week 28: Big bird
Even though this is not an aviation blog, over the years there has been a fair amount of flying going on here. Mostly because I'm an "aviation" photographer and secondary because my day-job has me flying large aircraft for a major airline in Dubai. Guess who!
Early September, I should start my conversion to the worlds largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380. Yes, 2 months of hard study, will probably mean I'll have to cut back a bit on the photography for a while. Having said this, there will be plenty of opportunity for photography during my upcoming Summer break end of the month; A weeklong photography adventure to Iceland, followed by several Belgian aviation fly-ins early August. Exciting times!
Back to the Airbus flagship, the A380. Knowing one of the flights lands in Dubai close to sunset, I looked for a good place to photograph this "big bird". The image above clearly shows the huge 80m wingspan. This is 15m more than the Boeing B747-400 and still 12m more than the brand-new B747-800! Even though the wing has its fair share of teething problems, Airbus says the wing area, is ready for even heavier A380's; up to 650 tons (over 1.430.000 pounds for the non-metric guys!). Present maximum take-off weights stand at 569 tons with plans for an increase to 575 tons early next year.
Image details:
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 70-200 2.8 VR2 lens
ISO 1600, 140mm, f2.8, 1/8000s
RAW development in Lightroom 4
Color and contrast optimization in Nik Color-Efex 4
A few more images of the A380 shoot can be found here.
Wherever you are, whatever you do,
have great weekend!
BJORN
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