All photographers are secretly plane spotters, we just don't admit it. Whilst I am not one for carrying ladders to look over the runway fence for a better shot, I do enjoy a bit of airplane photography.
Frankfurt International Airport, one of the busiest airports in Europe, is also one of the best places to spot all kinds of airplanes at a very close distance. A very quick Google search shows numerous websites dedicated to plane spotters, describing the best vantage points, providing GPS coordinates, what runways are in use, the lot.
You also have a very interesting list of airlines (commercial, private, and cargo) serving the airport. Anyone who has travelled through the airport will notice a very different destination list, from Baghdad to Windhoek, or Ho-Chi-Minh to Cuba. All direct flights, many multiple times daily. And that's not even looking at the air cargo destinations (Frankfurt airport is, I believe, Europe's busiest as it relates to air cargo traffic). So the result is lots of airplanes of very different models and sizes.
My favourite viewing spot, one that I have been to a few times before, is right next to the Autobahn that heads into downtown Frankfurt. This is right next to Zeppelinheim (if that name sounds familiar it is because it is where the infamous Zeppelin came from). Amazing to think that this place with a population of 300 in 1939 (2,200 currently) was so important on the aviation history map.
On the way to the airport via Zeppelinheim I popped in to the Zeppelin museum, talk about a museum of time gone by! Some photos below (click on the image for a larger version to scroll through)
Heading from Zeppelinheim to the airport viewing area is about a 5 minute drive. Frankfurt airport is no more than 15 mins south of Frankfurt.
The first sight you are met with is the busy Autobahn, where I managed to capture a cool video of a 747 landing. There are dual runways in use on this side of the airport (there is also another runway or two on the far side going the other way). Thankfully my geeky Flightradar 24app shows exactly what runway the planes are landing on.
For the still photographs, I shot the airplane overhead shots with my Leica and most of the front facing ones with my Olympus EM1 (with a75-300mm lens). I also used another very helpful (and super geeky too) app called Sun Surveryor, which shows you exact sunrise / sunset locations. Trying to shoot an airplane landing, perfectly aligned to the runway lights and sunset in the background without an annoying airport bus deciding to stop right in the middle of your shot is another challenge!
A selection of the favouite photos below - I hope you enjoy them! (click on the image for a larger version to scroll through)
And remember: stop reading this and go take more photographs!
Cheers, Neil
Photographs:
Zeppelin museum: shot on my Galaxy Note 4 phone
Overhead shots Leica M6 with Summicron 50mm f2 and Fuji Speria 400.
Sunset runway shots with Olympus EM1 + 75-30mm lens
