I flew out to Denver last week to meet friends there for a few days of R&R and snapped these photos going to and from Sky Harbor. I only took one lens and one memory card. The sole lens for my trip was a 100mm prime (non-moving or zooming) lens, which is fairly sharp for a relatively cheap $400 lens (even sharper than the much vaunted 16-35 mm L-series lens I have, which is $1,700). It also is a challenging lens to work with, as on my camera with the 1.6x crop factor, it gave me an effective focal length of 160mm, nearly telephoto range. This meant I had to work much harder to get the shots I wanted. For example, shooting out of an airplane window with this much zoom meant I had to shoot at fairly high ISOs, as failure to do so often resulted in a blurry image.
Looking down Central Avenue as I prepared to park at the Park N Ride located at 3rd Ave and Camelback last Thursday. I took the light rail to the airport...much cheaper this way as parking is free and the connecting shuttle to the airport is free as well. Only have to pay $1.75 for a one way trip on the light rail, versus the vicious raping you will get if you park at even the economy lots at the airport, which I think is now $8 or $12
per day:
The people mover at the airport is looking massive:
From Terminal 3, looking at the line-up of U.S. Airways planes taxiing on the tarmac, with the skyline in the distance. I flew Frontier as it was far less expensive than even Southwest ($140 versus $209):
We slip the gravitic bonds of Earth and touch the sky:
Centerpoint is looking just sad:
The ASU campus is looking nice:
Loop 101 looks like a model in this photo (the engine exhaust was obscuring the bottom portion of some photos):
Downtown Mesa aspires to be a village in Utah with 15,000 people, not a giant suburb of a sprawling sunbelt city with almost half a million people:
Trailer parks dot the landscape of east Mesa, which attract geezers by the tens of thousands every winter. Why, I have no earthly idea, but my mind is onto other things by now:
These were taken on the way back to Sky Harbor on Monday. Note there were some mean thunderstorms over by Four Peaks as we made our way back, resulting in a bit of turbulence and cool clouds:
You can just make out Roosevelt Lake as we descend through the maelstrom:
Roosevelt Lake is almost full again:
Four Peaks up close and personal. These are the tallest major mountains relatively close to Phoenix, reaching about 7,500 feet at their highest craggy peaks. There are pine trees on the ridges here, and Four Peaks often has snow in the winter:
Superstition Mountains can be seen here, just east of Apache Junction. They reach over 5,000 feet and are the second tallest mountains that are fairly close to the Phoenix metro area. On the left is Weaver's Needle, famed to be within sight of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine:
Canyon, Apache and Sahuaro Lakes northeast of Apache Junction:
The Superstitions again:
East Mesa sprawls before us once more:
Loop 202 bends around northeast Mesa:
Houses nestled in orchards. I've been in this area and it is noticeably cooler than the surrounding neighborhoods, especially at night:
"Downtown Mesa" once more:
The tallest building in Mesa looms in the back:
Loops 101 and 202 in Tempe:
ASU's SunDevil stadium looms as we angle down towards the runway:
The next three are all of downtown Tempe:
Enjoy.
--don
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can i see some of your work?! I just love to design skyscrapers for downtown phoenix, i look up empty lots and then measure and just design away!
haha but im only 15 so like all the lots i planned for are prob going to be take by the time i graduate...
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