Travel Day again, heading westward for another week of work in Portland, Oregon. Took the early bird 6:15 KLM flight from Nuremberg to Amsterdam, where I had enough layover to do some shooting in the terminal before continuing on a non-stop Delta flight to Portland’s PDX airport. To join me for for a stroll through Schiphol Airport and for a sky view of the Shetland Islands continue reading after the jump…

The images in this post are just a few random shots I took out of the planes and on the ground while connecting through Schiphol Airport. The flight from Nuremberg arrives at the B gates, and I came across a few interesting scenes on my way to the F gates and the KLM Lounge I visited for a coffee and to do some quick e-mails. Camerawise I took my OM-D E-M1 on this trip. The wide angle shots from the airplane are taken with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom, for the compressed shots I took in the terminal I used the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. For sure a bit of photo gear to carry around, but leaving it unused at home doesn’t make sense either. And in airports there is always something to shoot.


In the terminal area between E and D gates is this giant clock that is essential a video screen, with an animated worker cleaning the clock face from behind and drawing the minute pointer. Fun to watch! I saw it already during my previous visit, but never had the right lens. This is why I packed the 40-150mm for this trip.
The lights in the terminal make for some nice high contrast monochrome shooting opportunities.


The final shot below shows the Shetland Islands from 37.000 feet, the final land mass before heading out into the Atlantic. Routing today lets us pass north of Iceland, crossing the mid of Greenland, then across Northern Canada down to the Pacific Northwest. Forecast calls for cloudy skies and rain in Portland, so it is doubtful to capture some more of the Cascade’s volcanoes upon arrival into PDX. Having inflight Wi-Fi helped getting this post out somewhere across the Hudson Bay.

You all have a great week !
Marcus
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We love the clock at Amsterdam airport, me and my son we stand and watch it at least for 5 mins. My husband likes to take non stop flights while going to India, but me and my son we always like to break our journey so we get to see other airports. When my husband saw the clock for the first time he could not believe it to be a video, he thought there was some one standing in between erasing every minute and redrawing it.
Thanks so much for taking the time to visit and comment and leave your own impressions about Amsterdam airport. Love it!
Marcus – fun images from your trip west to Portland! Great stuff – you never know, might see you there in September.
Thank you so much, Kirk, much appreciated! Yes, maybe it will work with a meeting in September 🙂 !
Amazing shots!
Thanks, Tiffany, so much appreciated!
Ja, ich finde deine Bilder sehr schön. Ich bin Künstler und Pilot und ich habe ein halb meiner Kindheit in Deutschland gewohnt. Meinen Website ist ganz neu und ist nicht fertig aber die meisten meinen Bilder sind von fliegen,Deutschland und Radfahren beeinflusst . Du bist willkommen sie zu anschauen. Hoffentlich ist mein Grammatik nicht zu schlecht für US Amerikaner.
Deine Grammatik ist sehr gut und deine Bilder sind sehr schön 🙂 ! Thanks for taking the time to visit and comment! Marcus
Some great captures. I don’t think I’ll be able to captures such shots here in India. People gets apprehensive when they see you capturing pictures, especially when you have a DSLR in your hand. I have never used a mirrorless, which is less intrusive and compact. I do use compact zoom, quite a lot but in terms of optics it’s no match. It just falls flat in low light conditions.
Yes, nothing beats a compact for people Street Photography. This is where I use my PEN-F with a small prime (17mm = 35 mm full frame) or my Ricoh GR II with the 28mm prime lens. Even though you need to be close to your subjects, people seem less intimidated when you shove a small cam in their face ;-)! Thanks for taking the time to comment, this is so much appreciated. Marcus
Marcus, I love reading your posts. There’s always something for me to gain. 🙂
Thank you so much, your feedback means so much to me! Marcus
Happy to connect, Marcus. 🙂
Like wise 🙂
Great shot, you capture the moment very well…
Thanks so much for taking the time to visit and comment, this is so much appreciated! Marcus
Wundervoll! Gerade der Mann in der Uhr und das Bild ganz zu Beginn sind in meinen Augen ganz ausgezeichnete Fotos. Klasse!!
Dankeschön 😊😊🙏🙏!
Love the “different ways” picture!
Thanks, Vicki!
Love the clock picture!
Thank you so much, very much appreciated! Marcus
All great shots, yes. But what I also love about some is the context and how it describes a scene. To me that is very interesting, and very cool 🙂
Thank you so much for your very kind words, this means a lot! Have a great week! Marcus
I love that clock shot, very well spotted!
Thanks. I saw that during my last connection through AMS, but didn’t have the right lens. This is why I brought my 40-150 😉
Excellent shots 🙂
Thank you so much for your comment! Marcus
Marcus, I agree with Janet on great shots and the clock.
I’m not sure if you’re posting these as you travel or after you have landed in Portland. That might be an interesting thing to include in your postings. What a great flight to go directly to Portland. Hope your flight was non-eventful.
Too bad for the wet weather in Portland. I still look forward to seeing some photos from Portland.
Thanks, Tim, much appreciated! Actually I posted during the flight, somewhere over the Hudson Bay. PDX has only one direct connection to Europe, which is the Delta flight to Amsterdam. For me this is the best route to Portland. Unfortunately its frequently fully booked. So for my return flight on Thursday I need to fly down to Los Angeles and from there back to Amsterdam. This adds 4 hours of flight time plus the layover at LAX. There will be Portland photos, I promise. I’m here for two weeks in he second half of March, so there will be shooting ops and hopefully some sunshine 😉
You’re welcome.
It is difficult to get an exact time but don’t they have maps of the progress of the aircraft you’re on? I guess you could do it in GMT but that might be even more confusing to us who don’t think in those terms.
Good to hear you’ll be in Portland longer. I would guess that doesn’t make your family very happy. Are you planning to be there between July 23-26? My wife is scheduled to teach a class at the Sitka Center for the Arts and Ecology near Lincoln City, Oregon during that time.
Ugh on the return flight. Four hours when your tires seems like an eternity. We used to stop in Japan for a 3 hour layover to and from Taiwan. We don’t do that any more. Too hard on the body and mind. More power to you for all the air miles you are racking up. I hope the frequent flier miles are part of the bonus you receive. I guess miles is a misnomer. It is now currency spent. Another UGH!
Actually they do show local time on the progress map so next time I post from the skies I will give location and time. I’ll let you know if I’m here those days in July once I’ve firmed up my schedule, I put a note in my calendar. Would be nice to meet when there is the opportunity 🙂 ! Yes, I do get to keep the frequent flyer miles and can use them for private trips as well. But this is really hard earned currency with all those hours in the air and away from home.
Thanks for putting the July dates on your calendar. I would be nice to meet.
It is hard to be away from the family. Traveling like that must get old fast. Hang in there.
Beautiful!
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment! Marcus
Great shots. Didn’t think that an airport can offer so many interesting motives/themes. Good reminder that no matter where you are, you have to “see” and be aware and you can find images everywhere….I will try to remember when I am next time at an airport and instead of getting mad about the bad air or diving into the laptop to look for images. Very cool pictures you made!
Thank you so much, Claudia, this is so much appreciated! Have a good week! Marcus
Wow. Great shots!! And that clock is crazy cool! There are really really nice to look at and interesting! Glad you are using your travels as more opportunity. Makes me want to go visit the Burbank airport nearby. 😄 might just do that. ✈
Go for it 🙂 !
Looks like a J flight. In Y, I never have both easy access to my camera gear and a window seat.
Do people at the airport get a little jumpy when they see you scoping out the joint?
I remember on my last flight, things went smoothly until I saw an old friend sitting on the far side of the plane. I waved at him to catch his attention and when he looked my way, I yelled, “Hi, Jack!”.
After that, things didn’t go so well.
Actually it’s Z class 😉 and plenty of space. So far I had never issues photographing inside a terminal. Infact, today a security guard was standing next to me, no objections.
I’ve got an upcoming Emirates Z flight. Fourteen hours or so, and I’ll have no problem getting to my kit. Been mulling over what to take, because at some stage I’ll be handing a camera to a flight attendant to take a picture of my wife and I enjoying the seats.
Sadly, no windows for us, not if we want to sit together.