Rydges Hotel Sydney Airport - Photography

[Grahame Hutchison]

I thought I would give the Rydges Hotel new observation deck a go, so I headed out yesterday after lunch for 3 hours of shooting between 2pm and 5pm. If you park in the Airport Car Park, Rydges will validate your parking ticket for 50% off, and it is only a very short walk to the hotel.

Just checkin with reception and pay your $10, they will give you a card for a free coffee at the cafe/bar, and escort you to the elevator and up to the Dreamliner Room and observation deck. There are toilets as you exit the elevator, and the Dreamliner room is about 15x5Mtr with windows looking out over the airport. The outside deck is small, there were eight of us there yesterday and that's about the max for shooting, but it has an exceptional view of the airport, particularly 16R/34L operations. You can shoot final approaches to 16R with the city as a background, shoot the 16R touchdown area, or shoot right down the bay for 16R departures. There is a clear view to the cargo and Qantas apron areas. You could also probably shoot Runway 25 Arrivals through to just past the Runway 25 intersection.

Runway 34L was operational initially, then they changed to 16R. Using Google earth, the distance from the observation deck to the centreline of Runway16R is approx 536Mtr, and to the 16R/25 intersection just over 1Km.

Here is a sample of the images you can shoot from this location, I was using the D300 with a Nikon ED AF-S VR 70-200mm f/2.8 G fitted with a AF-1 Teleconverter TC-20E 2X giving an effective full frame zoom range of 210-600mm.

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=A6-EHI D300-20140418-103.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=N787UA D300-20140418-024.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-VZC D300-20140418-044.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-VKB D300-20140418-054.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-VKB D300-20140418-061.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=N784UA D300-20140418-090.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-EBC D300-20140418-197.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=YJ-AV1 D300-20140418-253.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=N492MC D300-20140418-610.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-OGT D300-20140418-344.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-TQS D300-20140418-374.jpg

The aircraft range at this point is approx 1.16Km
http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=9V-SVG D300-20140418-420.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=9V-SVG D300-20140418-432.jpg

The aircraft range at this point is approx 1.2Km
http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-OGG D300-20140418-462.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-OGG D300-20140418-464.jpg


More images from the day (http://images.16right.com/?querytype=album&queryvalue=15)

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[John Thoroughgood]

Wonderful stuff indeed Grahame! You've sold me. ;-))

[Paul S.]

Based on the above photos this looks like it has a better vantage point than the old deck

[Grahame Hutchison]

Just uploaded a short video shot from the Rydges Hotel Sydney Airport Observation Deck.

60 Seconds at Sydney 20140418 (http://youtu.be/DXm4DDxkYeI)

[andrew sattler]

Very nice Grahame.Thanks for uploading it.

[Grahame Hutchison]

I received a very nice Twitter Favorite for my Jetstar VH-VKB B787 Dreamliner image taken from the Rydges Hotel rooftop.

The favorite was from the Write Brothers National Memorial, the site of the first powered flight by Orville & Wilbur Wright
on December 17th 1903 - where their dreams took to the air.

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/B787 VH-VKB.jpg


Original image
http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-VKB D300-20140418-054.jpg

[Tim B]

Great photo's as always.
The Atlas Air 747 and Singapore Airlines 777 pilots are hoons doing burnouts on takeoff. (just pretend, OK).

[Grahame Hutchison]

Interesting how your images can appear on other sites and Apps, without your permission, without attribution, and with the copyright removed from the image.

On request, the image was removed very quickly by Aircraft Retweet - Thank You

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/AircraftRetweet.jpg

[Rod Sloan]

Great photos Grahame. Not so sure on the Wright thing though...always been a Pearse proponent. :)

[Adam.S]

A great collection of photos there Grahame.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Popped out to the Rydges Hotel today for an afternoon shoot, and while the weather was reasonable to begin with, the cloud then rolled in from the
southwest, blocking the sun, and making things somewhat challenging. Here are the results ...

View All Of Today's Images (http://images.16right.com/?querytype=album&queryvalue=19)

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=9M-MTO D300-20140619-043.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=9M-MTO D300-20140619-045.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=9V-SWV D300-20140619-192.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=G-STBI D300-20140619-241.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=N783UA D300-20140619-146.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-FVP D300-20140619-127.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-LAK D300-20140619-059.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-FVY D300-20140619-113.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-LQM D300-20140619-097.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-QOR D300-20140619-137.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-QPC D300-20140619-153.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-VGQ D300-20140619-027.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-VPD D300-20140619-039.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-YFN D300-20140619-084.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-ZRN D300-20140619-073.jpg

[Todd Steele]

Exceptional photos!! Now that my Uni break has commenced, i might try and get over to Rydges to try it out!