TRIP REPORT Airplane Art Extra from the Holiday Inn/Staybridge Suites, Rosemont

Airplane Art Extra from the Holiday Inn/Staybridge Suites, Rosemont
There and Back Again

At the time of publication, it’s Thanksgiving Thursday. It must be time for some Airplane Art… Extra! 

In this adventure

• Let’s have a Melancholy Introduction
• To the 2:40 Coach and Heathrow Terminal 3
• Lounging in Terminal 3 with Cathay Pacific and American Airlines
• AA99 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare (Main Cabin)
• Into the USA and The Holiday Inn/Staybridge Suites, Rosemont 
• Airplane Art Extra from the Holiday Inn/Staybridge Suites, Rosemont
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Airplane Art Extra from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• An Unveiled Bean
• Did I mention I hate suitcases?
• Exploring The Loop from Above.
• Random Food Adventures
• Off to O’Hare Terminal 3. Wait. T3? With the American Airlines Flagship Lounge
• BA296 Chicago O’hare to London Heathrow (World Traveller)
• Coffee and the Coach
• One step forward

It’s time for the first dose of Airplane Art Extra for this trip. For those who don’t turn up to this blog too often, Airplane Art is our weekly dose of Airplane Pictures, with a little commentary which we syndicate on Sundays.

This variant of Airplane Art is much more of “shove photos onto a page, make sure I get the right model of aircraft and comment about the location where I’m shooting” as opposed to the usual in-depth research. Thus, it’s a little more gentle on the brain.

This Holiday Inn/Staybridge Suite dual property had two room view offerings when I booked – with Airport Views charged at a premium.

For me, I paid for it – an extra £10 on the base price of a pre-paid advanced booking rate.

The location you are looking for is south of Runway 10R/28R – one of the northmost runways at the O’Hare Airport Complex. And near the north cargo terminals.

Mapping – OpenStreetMap and its contributors. Google Maps here  

As you can see, you’re on the Northeastern end of the O’Hare Field, so, even like the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, you are in the hands of the air traffic control deities and winds to which way the aircraft is landing or taking off.

Therein the risk.

Thankfully, on the night I stayed, aircraft were making their approach directly from Lake Michigan, with three runways being used for arrivals.

The only fly in the ointment is that on a very sunny day, you can be shooting into the sun – so you’ll need to ensure that you are compensating for that. That and how dirty the windows are.

For this experiment, I’m using my usual beast of burden – a Canon EOS R. Whilst the Mirrorless Camera was an impressive start to Canon’s migration to mirrorless cameras, it is starting to show its age at this point. This is paired with something a little different – an EF 70-300mm DO IS f4.5-f6.3 Lens.

70-300 DO lens in the front, RF to EF adaptor and an EOS R

Lens extended. It’s short in length and light. 

DO in Canon pearlescence is Diffractive Optics, where two diffractive lens elements are used to reduce flare, but also reduce the length of the lens. There were only two types of DO lenses released – A 400mm lens and a 70-300mm (which is the one I have here on the test bench).

As such, it wasn’t a great success – mainly due to the lens being a lot softer than its contemporaries when shooting wide open. There are also other issues like odd bokeh too.

Now, a lot of you will know that I hulk around a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-f5.6 IS L  Series as my primary telephoto lens – and it’s starting its age at the moment (and I think some of the elements are out of alignment I suspect). So I’m interested to see how this DO lens can keep up – and if it can lighten my travel.

She biigggggggg – Canon EF 100-400mm IS, RF to EF adaptor and the EOS R in the air. 

I purchased this lens on the cheap – as there’s an issue with it at the short end of the focus barrel, where the lens won’t lock – thus the minimum focal length is about 75mm. For an experiment, I’m not moaning.  Certainly, a smaller zoom lens with a good 300mm throw isn’t a bad thing. Least of all that 100-400 gets heavy. Whilst RF lenses are a little lighter – they sadly come with the nasty side effect of being expensive as hell.

We run a budget ship here.

So, let’s see how this thing performs, over a couple of sessions when I was awake.

Let’s start with an American Airlines Boeing 787-8 on finals to O’Hare, whilst something takes off from another runway. Clarity is fine, but it’s sadly too soft to identify a registration on the side of the aircraft. 

Where the wide 747s still roam – mainly relegated from passenger service, the 747 still has a good use for cargo, with a Kalita Air 747-400F on finals.

The urban view as this United 737 Next-Gen comes in for landing.

But don’t estimate the newer narrowbodies too – such as this Air Canada Airbus A220-300. Airbus might have paid some very pretty pennies for the CSeries, but it’s paying off, with multi-country product lines and airlines ordering them in spades. 

A morning arrival with an Etihad Airbus A350-1000 heading for the runway.
Oooh. Air Canada using something other than CSeries or Embraer at O’Hare – It’s a MAX!

Followed by one in United colours…

And a classic American Airlines 737-800 Next Gen.

The early London (AA99) flight arriving early again.

A United Boeing 767-300ER coming in to land to wrap this up.

Overall

For a photography location – it’s not bad at all, given you are shooting through some rather thick layers of glass, and sometimes rain-stained windows.

Worth the extra £10 for an airport-facing room? Absolutely, especially, if you need to chill and enjoy watching aircraft land. As for the lens, it works, and that’s the main thing.

Just hope the winds go your way, to get the views and images you want.

Next:

Time for an Economy Class and Beyond classic – The Hyatt Regency O’Hare

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