Oh, no! ANA Retires Star Wars R2-D2 Boeing 787 livery 😢 I'm so grateful that I had a chance to see and capture it.

There haven't many Sky scraper-related updates for a while, mainly because it's summer, and I prefer to spend most of my spare time chasing airplanes. But the weather during last two weeks of July wasn't exactly conducive to any sort of outdoor activities, so I took the opportunity to work on improving Sky scraper.

I went for an overnight trip to FRA. And it goes without saying that I spent Sunday afternoon and Monday morning at Zeppelinheim capturing airplanes. The light was meh, but I did manage to catch a handful of interesting machines, including an Airbus A320-200 (reg. YR-SEA) operated by an unfamiliar (to me) Star East...

Last weekend, planted firmly on my regular spot in NUE, waiting for something to capture, I was wondering about a sudden, and seemingly inexplicable, increase in number of blurry frames. To paraphrase: We have met the culprit, and he is us. I glanced at my lens and noticed that the VR switch was set to OFF. 🤦‍♂️ No...

Last night, when I learned that Ozzy had passed away, I listened to Black Sabbath. It felt like I was back in my uni days, smoking, drinking, and discussing whatever deep shit we thought we were discussing with my mates. Thank you, Prince of Darkness, for making this world a less gloomy place!

I've recently started using Kleinanzeigen, and I was pleased to discover that there are plenty of enticing stuff at prices that are often lower than those on eBay. Long story short, I've down-upgraded my photography setup: I splurged on a backup Nikon D810 and a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens.

With a heatwave making an appearance in our part of the world last week, we decided to escape to Frankfurt am Main and work from a pleasantly cool room in the Staycity aparthotel — with a bonus of capturing airplanes in my spare time.

Here's the latest addition to my modest library of aviation books: Airbus - von der A300 bis zur A380 und A350 By Norbert Andrup. I managed to snatch it from a third-party Amazon seller for a paltry sum of €20.54 + shipping.

My plan to spend the entire Monday in NUE capturing airplanes was in motion way earlier and in a more hectic fashion than I expected. I checked Flightradar24 the moment I woke up (as I usually do), and I could see that a German Government Bombardier BD-700-1A10 (reg. 14+02) was scheduled to arrive in less than two...

There is a pond not far from my favorite spot in NUE. The pond is part of a nature reserve around the airport, and it has been taken over by frogs. I can't tell you how much I enjoy listening to them croaking all day long. It's a soothing sound that never fails to calm me down, and it always makes me smile.

Before you proceed, read the following warning carefully:

This summer, we decided to do a week-long vacation in Frankfurt am Main. It is after all our favorite city in Germany for obvious and not so obvious reasons. We booked a room at Staycity close to the airport, and my vacation plan was pretty simple: 1) capture airplanes, 2) eat good food.