I went to DFW Airport this afternoon to see a family member off on their flight home.  Since I was there, I decided to visit the Founder’s Plaza viewing center and take some photos with my new (to me) Olympus SP-550UZ camera.  It has a 18X optical zoom (equivalent to 28mm to 504mm 35mm lens) and a great reputation for its dual image stabilization.

Before anything else, let me comment on these photos.  First, this was my first practice run and there are some not so good ones.  Second, there are some worth pointing out as well. 

• It still excites me to catch a photo of tire smoke as an airplane lands.
• American Airline’s Susan G. Komen EMB-145 is one that I caught but, sadly, slightly out of frame.  When I shot it, I didn’t notice the pink ribbon or I would have shot another photo. 
• United Airlines has some of the dirtiest aircraft out there now and it is likely it isn’t noticed too much because they have that truly awful paint scheme to distract you from it.
• I got an AA B777 accidentally.  I literally just pointed and shot the photos without knowing what it was at first.
• The Alaska Airlines B737-900 is my family member departing.
• ATR-72 aircraft are very frequent visitors into DFW now.
• That Anubis Statue is still a very strange thing to have at Founder’s Plaza particularly since it was placed there to advertise the Dallas Museum of Art’s King Tut exhibit and it would do a far better job placed at the north or south entrance of the airport.
• DFW is still one of the more boring locations for airplane spotting simply because of the ubiquitous AA MD-80s.

So, without further ado, here are the PHOTOS.

Filed under: Airplane Spotting, Airports by ajax
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