Pro Flight Photography Tip, & Stunned Three Times in 90 Minutes!

Stunned Three Times in 90 Minutes!

I woke at 3:06 am this morning, 54 minutes before the alarm was set to go off. Denise Ippolito and I left my home in Indian Lake Estates at 5:46am, she on the way to her home along the Jersey shore, me on my way to the Winter Wings Festival in Klamath, OR.

Two-thirds of the way to Dallas Fort-Worth (and on my way to Portland and then Klamath Falls), while sitting in an American Airlines first class seat (paid for with air miles), I asked for a second cup of water with no ice. “We have no more bottled water,” the flight attendant said. I was stunned. No water in first class…. I had not eaten breakfast on the flight and had had not partaken of the wine or the Bloody Marys that seemed a bit too popular for so early in the day. All that I wanted was a glass of water. “Can you check in the back and see if they have any water left there?” I asked. “Already did,” she said sweetly. “They only had four bottles of water for all the folks in coach. We often run out of water.”

I was stunned.

We landed on time at DFW and I was over-whelmed by hunger so I took my blood sugar (79) and injected my pre-meal bolus. I picked the Cool River Café on the D Concourse opposite Gate 25. I ordered the Seared Ahi, medium rare–no balsamic anything, no glaze, just the seared fish on a plate. Plus a side of broccoli. I was not expecting anything too great in an airport. The food came out in twenty minutes.

With my first bite of the fish, I was stunned again. It was scrumptious. And the lightly steamed broccoli was just perfect.

Then I headed to Gate D-29 to catch my flight to Portland, also AA first. At the restaurant I had forked over $7.99 via credit card to T-Mobile to get on line for “24 hours at this location only.” I connected easily after filling in my cc info. And enjoyed a few minutes of e-mailing. I had planned to work on this blog post for about an hour at the gate only when I opened my computer my T-Mobile connection came up as “No Internet Access.”

Stunned again.

Unwilling to give up after getting ripped off, I called Jim at the office and asked him to get a toll free # for me for T-Mobile. He did. I called. “This is no longer a valid number.”

Many, you gotta love it. I gave up.

My flight to Portland and the connecting flight to Klamath were stunningly uneventful.

Pro Flight Photography Tip

When you start making images like the one above, there is a message for you: turn the camera on end and start trying to create tight verticals of the incoming birds. After I made three in a row like this I did just that and came up with the winner that heads this blog post. We were baiting the birds with fish on the recently concluded SW Florida IPT.

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the image above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins.

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2XIII teleconverter.
Canon EF 2X III TC. It seems that the new 2X (the EF 2X III) is noticeably sharper than the old one (the EF 2X II).
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. And this is the very best professional digital camera body that I have even used..

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. Fast and dependable.

If you are considering the purchase of a major piece of photographic gear be it a new camera, a long lens, a tripod or a head, or some accessories be sure to check out our complete Shopper’s Guide.