Planes at the Golden Hour
A first attempt to photograph airplanes from the sky bar of an airport hotel, relatively close to the beginning of an active runway.
My good fortune put me on a flight from Budapest to Milan a few days ago. Because my flight was scheduled for an early morning, I decided to spend the previous night at one of the airport hotels. This hotel happens to have a "sky bar", which offers a reasonably unobstructed view of some parts of the main runway and taxiways. If you have a zoom lens, that is.
That evening, outgoing traffic was using runway 13L, which means the planes began their takeoff roll at the near end of the runway. I could photograph various planes as they taxied to the runway and began to accelerate. There are no airborne aircraft on the photos – the point where they reached takeoff speed and began to rotate was too far away.
I was able to watch the traffic from 6pm till 8pm, and it was the most beautiful golden hour at summer's end. In one of the photos, it seems as if the air itself had a golden tint.
I did not take notes while taking the photos, so there is no detailed information about the departing flights and aircraft. The photos are laid out here "as is": enjoy! Or, you can run the searches yourself: look for departing passenger traffic from Budapest (BUD) airport, on Saturday, August 29, 2026, between 1800 and 2000 hours.
