Early morning. Hordes of mosquitoes, tall wet grass, and me, frolicking with my Fuji X-Pro1 camera and a Fuji 10-24mm lens, trying to get a good angle on a beautiful Alberta sunrise. I stopped on the highway near the back of Villeneuve airport, trying the catch the Boing 737 parked there in the middle of a canola field. I really like the juxtaposition of a big passenger jet just sitting there in a farmer’s field. The whole story is that the new Edmonton Aviation Museum is going to be built on that spot, and the jet is the first to arrive at the spot. I wanted the images before any buildings or construction would ruin a beautiful view. The fog that was rolling in from the fields that morning was an added bonus. Since Fuji introduced the quite amazing 10-24mm f4 lens, it has been almost permanently attached to either the X-Pro1 or the XT1 Fuji cameras. I am primarily a landscape photographer, although I do not shy from other forms of photography. Alberta is perfectly suited for landscape photography. Not only there are flat sea of prairies, but mountains, lakes and huge huge skies. It’s a beautiful place, and living here gives me an opportunity to capture it. The added bonus of not having to travel very far, is a blessing, specially on those early summer mornings.
Beautiful photos – where did the jet come from?
It’s a bit of a long story… The city of Edmonton has 2 airports, municipal which is in the middle of the city, and international which is way outside of the city. There was a debate for about 10 or so years whether to close the municipal airport. Finally they’ve decided to close the airport. So now the Edmonton Aviation Museum is moving to the new location at Villeneuve airport. It has a few big airplanes, and this boing 737 being the biggest, they flown it last year to the new location and parked it where the new museum will be built. So it is a matter of time to catch this airplane, sitting what looks like a farmers field, before all the buildings start being constructed around it.
Hey there, Mac: Your images offer the ethereal aspect of early morning’s quiet and solitude. It’s good to see the Boeing jet – its recognizable colours and shape remind me of the Edmonton International Airport in the sixties, seventies and eighties, and my father and his business trips around the globe on behalf of C-I-L Plastics; these images also remind of those airlines from former times, no longer part of the air-business – Ward Air, CP, Canadair, Pacific Western and others. Your images capture half-light with mists that unveil airfield shapes as the sun moves towards the horizon. Colours – canola’s green and yellow, the sky’s pinks and oranges, the Pacific Western’s blues and reds – also draw out dreamy memory of being on the land in and around Edmonton – most often cycling through Edmonton’s bike trails at or just before dawn (other former times). Edmonton’s current Aviation Museum will now close, yet the opportunity is there to assemble a building (or buildings) that more adequately houses both planes and people; aircraft on display require space for interaction and to engage the imagination. Good schtuff, Mac! I would have loved to have been there snapping away, too. Take care … Ross