Ever missed a shot that you REALLY REALLY wanted??

[northerner2121]

I have. Back in December 2002 I was sitting at the Air Canada gate in Atlanta. I'm looking up and down the concourse for someone, I look out the window and what do I see? Lufthansa's Star Alliance A340 taxiing by! In Atlanta this is a pretty rare sight because I have only seen the normally painted ones before. I bolt over to the window, getting some strange looks, yes, furiously unzip my camera bag, turn the switch to on, listen to the 4 different tones that indicate its on, but by then it was too late to even get a tail shot GRR! Maybe another time. I'd like to hear some of your stories

~Ryan

[Petertenthije]

Oh yes, I missed the Thair "Royal Barge" a few times when I just saw it fly over from the train to Heathrow. Same goes for the Qantas Qunala Dreaming which I have seen a few time. Unfortunately most of the Qantas flights leave rather late.

[Legend_Airlines]

I always seem to miss Air Canada's Symphony of Voices C-FFWN.

I can see it parked at the gate (YYZ) when I'm driving into the airport, but when I check-in and take a walk down the terminal, it does a vanishing act on me!

[DRS-Spotter]

Oh yes...
Last year on May 1st I was out for spotting at DRS/EDDC. This day we had a Air Dolomiti ATR here in DRS. I know thats nothing special but if you would know the timetable of DRS...
Around 5o'clock in the evening I drove back home because the ATR had departed and I was a bit hungry. Few days later I read on the Internet that arround 17:30 the Abu Dhabi Amiri Flight 744 A6-YAS made a few approaches and a full landing. Still today I can't forgive me that didn't stay that half hour. Later that day my girlfriend kicked me off ...I don't care much about this - BUT THE 744 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
________
Web Shows

[Stefano Rota]

I was at Quito Interantional Airport going to board my flight to Bogota to then leave to Frankfurt when i hear this plane roar its engines, then it suddendly got into my mind, TAKE THE CAMERA OUT, i took it out, untill it reacted, TOO LATE! USA C-17 passes by for the first time at UIO! It was amazing And i missed it, . Maybe sometime later.


Stefano rota

[Eagle_Driver]

I was at PHNL last year(I was actually at a nearby park shooting pics of planes landing on the Reef Runway), and I saw 3 or 4 F-15's take off right after each other heading straight towards me and then making a break turn to the right, and then they went out of sight. As those planes rocketed over my head, I was so excited since that was my first time ever seeing an F-15 actually flying, that I didn't even think about taking pictures of them, I just watched them until they were out of sight

[Stefano Rota]

TODAY!

I went plane spotting, all the planes were landing from the other side of the runway, and i decide to go and get a drink, I hear this one land, start walking back to the fence and what was it !

ATLAS AIR 747-200!!!! It was fully loaded, went to the end of the runway, were I WAS BEFORE, then it turned arround. I saw it from an other place. Where i couldnt really take a picture. A friend of mine said i should take it any ways, i did, but not good.

[AJ]

We heard a Qantas B747-400 coming the other way that was passing down the other side of the flightdeck. I unstrapped, got across and tried to snap her with a closing speed of over 1700kmph. When I checked out the photo the -400 was wedged in the corner of the shot with too much motion blur. D'oh!

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290568897&p=4228736894&idx=37

[SWA733Captain]

Lets see...just this weekend i tried to get a shot of the Concorde in dawn lighting as i landed in JFK on a B6 A320, tried to change a setting quickly but ent up getting the tail cut off by the edge of the window. Other missed shots include the Star Alliance 767, also seen in JFK and a Delta 777(yeah, i come from Buffalo so it's a rarity) in Orlando and i chopped the tail off as it landed. I'm sure i got more but thats all i can think of off hand...

[pilotguy]

2 stories both from my recent trip to LAX (21st of June).

1: We had met some locals that told us that a ATA L-1011 would be coming at a certain time on the north side of the airport. It is my understanding that ATA is the only US carrier still using the L-1011. I was really excited that I was going to be able to get a shot of this bird. So we drive over to the north side and goto the In N Out burger about 45 min before the L-1011 was suposed to come in. I put my camera bag on the table (I was eating ouside) and though "should I take it out?" I decided no. While I was stuffing my face with a buger the L-1011 comes in like 40 min early right in front of me! I don't know if I'll ever have a chance to see it again.

2. The next day we head out the south side to get a picture of the EL AL 777 which comes in the morning. I was told that 99% of the time it lands south side. Instead a Qantas comes in south and we see the El AL on north. The reason it went north was because of the Qantas. It would have come on our side if the Qantas didn't come in at the same time!

[Msh744]

Lets see, here's one.

Star Alliance LH 744, arriving on 31R at JFK on the evening of May 9, 2003. I thought it would taxi my direction, but I was wrong, so I only got an obstructed shot of its tail.

[Greg]

The chance to shoot a picture of what it looks like to circle east of Charlotte for 30 min. in a circle surronded by T-storms. I couldn't keep my eyes open though.

[N391DA]

I was at ICT in March 2000 with my Nikon and I saw a Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 test flight taxiing by. But the autofocus kept on messing up and focusing on other stuff and I missed it.

[JCS17]

A TACA A319/320 flies here daily, and I can never get a shot of it for some reason. It always lands on a different runway than where I am shooting.

I never was able to shoot the Trans-Canada A319, because it always seemed to land where I wasnt taking pictures from....now we just get Jazz CRJs.

I finally got the Retrojet 757, after 5 months of being at DFW nearly every weekend. I'm still praying that they dont re-paint the 738 Astrojet soon because I havent gotten a pic of that yet either.

Another a/c that better not be repainted soon is the BA 777-200 "Benyhone Tartan," the only tail design I cant seem to nail down. I saw it on Saturday...landing on a runway on the other side of the airport.

[northerner2121]

pilotguy - I saw one of ATA's L1011's! I got a pretty good shot of it at the gate in Atlanta. It's the first time i've seen an ATA in Atlanta, but I know they've been coming here for quite a while. I can't upload the picture right now though because I'm stuck in Toronto.