Airport Therapy

I had a family emergency this week that ended up with me flying out of SJC at 6am. I was staggering bleary eyed around the new terminal, and I saw this. I had my d700, but it would have been just too intrusive to shoot with that in the largely empty terminal at 5-something in the morning, so I had to iPhone it.

I will say that photography is about the only thing that keeps me sane in airports, but maybe this is a sign I should take up meditation.

"The Jet Set"

Snapped this waiting for B at the airport -- still lovin' the 4s camera.

The Friendly Skies

I'm on a roll with the airport theme lately. Shot this at the airport in San Jose de los Cabos. We disembarked onto the tarmac, and there was actually a human line of people to mark where we should walk (there was a non-zero risk of walking into machinery or propellers). I thought it was pretty cool that we had actual people sort of welcoming us (even if they weren't always so excited about it), and I liked this shot I got of one of the guys with the zig-zag of the ramp in the background.

Security

Our trip to Cabo san Lucas also brought me face to face with my first Mexican airport. Parts of it were identical (maybe modulo a decade or two), but what I wasn't prepared for was stepping off the tarmac and into a giant room of people shouting about timeshare deals to me. I'm not talking about a few people peddling, I mean institutional support for airport spam. Imagine a whole room of people behind desks, all of whom were ostensibly offering you rides to your hotel -- in return for listening to a time share pitch. It was actually impossible to distinguish between legitimate taxi companies and time share companies (it actually wasn't even clear if there *was* such a thing as a legitimate taxi company).

The coolest guy in the giant was this security guy shoved off in a corner, way more alert than his lazy dog snoozing underfoot. Loved this shot of him, and the framing of bystanders really gave it an interesting perspective.

Purgatory

I shot this one early morning in Atlanta back in July, passing through there after a red-eye to the east coast. I think the feeling of being trapped on the inside while the good stuff is going on outside is a multi-functional metaphor for the holidays: trapped travelers, people snowed in with their families, those days after Christmas when you're dreaming of going back home, or just the people wondering why we save all the champagne for New Year's Eve. ;)

Exeunt Omnes

Shot this in the Denver airport this last June -- normally advice is to 'go towards the light', but given how miserable air travel is these days, the light at the end of the tunnel is likely to be a train. ;)

Heaven's Gate

A few weeks back when I was in South Carolina (chasing after alligators), I ended up leaving via the Charleston airport. It was a small airport, and really pleasant, with a lot of southern hospitality -- kind of the opposite of some other airports I frequent.

I shot this waiting for my girlfriend to get through security -- saw the woman standing there in the light, framed by the window and the row of chairs, and the shot took itself form there.

The Matron

I've been busy with work and some travel lately, so I haven't had an opportunity to go out to the city and shoot as much as I like. This shot is from the Orlando airport [I went out to see the antepenultimate shuttle launch!], early in the morning. I saw this women in a square of light, and used my iPhone to catch this candid. Just enough dynamic range on that tiny sensor to get detail throughout the frame, and a pose which is even better than the one she had just before the phone's camera fired. 

Photography is now the last remaining good thing about airports. :)