≡

Exclusive Interview: Airline Photographer Thomas Becker

By

This starts a new series where I will be interviewing people from different aspects of the airline industry. From pilots, to baggage handlers, to airline executives. If you have someone you would like to suggest for an interview or if you would be willing to be interviewed yourself, let me know!

Kras Air Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85702 is climbing into a surrealistic sky.

Kras Air Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85702 is climbing into a surrealistic sky.

When creating each blog I try to find a picture that corresponds with the story. Sometimes this is an easy 10 second task, but most times it takes me a bit longer to find a picture I really enjoy and that fits well. A great number of times I end up wanting to use one Photographer, Thomas Becker through Flickr. I emailed him a few questions and here are his answers:

The Airline Blog: How does the airline photography business work?
Thomas Becker: For me it is no business. I am doing aviation photography and post processing as a hobby. If there was a chance to earn money with it, I would definitely take it!

TAB: What types of clients do you get?
TB: From time to time I get asked by different organizations or companies, if I am willing to allow them to use one or more of my photos. Up to now there was no “paid” contract.

TAB: How do you get the type of access you need to take great photos?
TB: Almost all of my photos were taken at Frankfurt Airport (FRA/EDDF). Fraport is offering a limited number of good photo positions for spotters. There is no need to get special access to restricted areas to get good shots.

TAB: What is your favorite airplane to photograph? What is your favorite airline?
TB: My favorite airplane is the Tupolev Tu-154 which is no longer in service to Frankfurt. The 747 is great, too, as this aircraft still is the most elegant in the sky. From a photographic point of view, S7 Airlines is my favorite one as they really stand out with their green livery followed by Vietnam Airlines with their beautiful deep blue and yellow paint scheme.

TAB: What is your funniest, scariest, most bizarre, or most thought-provoking experience during a photo shoot?
TB: Every photographer is looking for “special” occasions he can shoot with his camera. A lot of them could easily be caught on video like aborted take-offs, go-arounds due to a blocked runway or a runway change shortly before touchdown.

So, for me as a photographer I am looking for unusual situations like funny faces during short finals, smoking landings (usually freighters…) and power-ups (you should see a 777 powering up her engines…) as well as rarely seen aircraft like military or private jets. The most bizarre experience was an aborted take-off of a B747 due to an engine failure – the complete runway length was necessary to stop as the decision to abort was taken almost at V1.

TAB: Do you keep up with the airline industry news? Anything on your mind?
TB: I am reading a number of magazines and blogs that cover the airline industry. Additionally I am discovering Twitter as an efficient source of information.

TAB: Why airline photography?
TB: When living near a large airport like Frankfurt and doing photography with semi-professional equipment, two things come together that lead to airline photography automatically. It´s a great activity that helps developing photographic skills as well as finding the right motives. And it´s fun! Aviation still is a very special way of transportation that fascinates a lot of people. I am one of them.

TAB: Do you see the airline industry differently through the lens of the camera?
TB: One thing adds to another – I was always interested in the airline industry, and that was fueled by starting aviation photography a few years ago. With my photography, I try to show the most beautiful sides of this industry.

TAB: Anything else you would like to share?
TB: Those who are interested in airline photography should invest into a DSLR camera and a good telezoom lens and
remember: the first 10,000 photos will be your worst! 😉

TAB: I have messed with my own pics on Flickr and it can be time consuming, how do you handle the thousands you have?
TB: I have built up a work-flow within Adobe Lightroom that works very well and minimizes the amount of manual work. I am using a 24″ iMac with an additional 24″ LCD. Within Lightroom two Plugins do the work in adding geotags into the EXIF data and exporting the photos to Flickr. Jeffrey Friedl has done a great work in developing these Plugins – the latest version is able to add photos to the Flickr groups/pools upfront, so A LOT of manual work is no longer necessary.

For me tagging, geotagging and machine tags are very important as the number of photos I have posted is several thousands now. You will find my photos in a number of groups – I personally run 23 of them like “Airplanes: Nose Shots” or “Aircraft with Names”.

Flickr is so great that I cannot remember anything in my “computerized” life (that started back then in 1982 with a Commodore 64) that had a similar impact on my free time…

Please feel free to check out Thomas’ other pictures on his Flickr account.

Memorial Day: a day to remember and give thanks

By

Two Hornets from VFA-87 wait as Crash and Hanky back out of a KC-10 from the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco.

Two Hornets from VFA-87 wait as Crash and Hanky back out of a KC-10 from the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco.

Unfortunately, many people just think of Memorial Day as a day off work (unless you are in the airline business where your work never stops), but it is much more than that. Many wonderful airline pilots start their careers as a military pilot and not all are able to make the transition to civilian life since they are killed in the line of duty.

Please take some time today and no matter what your political beliefs are or if you feel the wars we have fought and are currently are fighting are just, remember those that have died in the line of duty!

Image: Timmeh!

Passengers' Satisfaction with Airlines…is Rising?

By

Does Southwest Airlines giving out free drink coupons help them to acheive #1 status?

Does Southwest Airlines giving out free drink coupons help them to acheive #1 status?

According to the Customer Service Satisfaction Index, airline passengers feel the airlines are doing a 3.2% better job in customer service compared to the year before.

Although fees are up, the numbers of passengers are down. This means less lines, fewer bumped people, and more room since you might have no one sitting in the center seat.

Southwest Airlines was #1 for customer satisfaction for the 16th year in a row with it’s highest rating ever. The biggest gainers were Delta Airlines, US Airways, and Continental who improved by margins of 6.7% to 9.7%. American Airlines saw the largest decrease (3.2%) and United Airlines ended with the lowest overall score for the year.

It will be interesting to see if the airlines can keep this positive trend going, since hopefully by next year we’ll have a strong economy and fuller planes (and lines).

Source: USA Today Image: tsmyther

Some Awesome Changes to The Airline Blog

By

As the blog grows, we want to keep adding new and fun features to the blog. There have been some smaller changes and it might be hard for people to notice an easier to use layout, but there are some more obvious things that I wanted to point out:

  • SHARE items that interest you on a blog. On the bottom left of each entry you can see different ways in which you can share. Either, Digg, Facebook, Fark, and maybe more.
  • TWITTER. We now have a twitter account and will post when there are new postings and some random thoughts. FOLLOW THE AIRLINE BLOG!
  • COMMENT REPLIES. Now you can have replies to your comments emailed to you, to help foster better discussion.
  • EMAIL BLOGS. Get a daily email telling you what is new on The Airline Blog (you still have RSS option as well).
  • GRAVATAR. Want a nifty picture next to your comments? All you have to do is set up one Gravatar account and upload on image and it will show up on any WordPress blog (ie CrankyFlier or Delta Blog)  you comment on. No need to add a picture on each blog you read!
  • NO LOG INS. You can now comment without having to log-in. Yes, means I have to deal with more spam, but I think it  allows you to give your comments without having to go through the pain of creating an account (and put in your email address and it will post your Gravatar).
  • AWESOMENESS. Well this is not really new, but we will continue to keep adding on to it!

Stay tuned. We will continue to grow and add new content, new blog authors, interesting series, more videos, interviews with airline industry insiders, and much more! Any suggestions or story ideas, you are always welcome to email da***@************og.com.

THANKS FOR READING!