Thematic Photographic 234 - Speed

Close enough for me
Somewhere over Western Canada
February 2013

Sitting by the window on a cross-country westbound flight - WestJet Flight 509 from Toronto/YYZ to Vancouver/YVR, if we're being picky - you eventually run out of things to do. Sure, you can keep cycling through the programming on the seatback entertainment system, but staring at screens or pages for too long in moving vehicles makes me more than a little queasy. So the window offers a welcome break from the monotony.

When you're winging your way across the country, it's easy to assume you're all alone up there. Canada's a big place, after all. That assumption, however, would be wrong. As I sat by my window, an Air Canada Airbus A-320 flew by in the opposite direction so quickly that I barely had time to aim the camera, set it and shoot. I racked off four quick frames before it was gone.

The math is easy: with each plane doing a nominal 800 km/h, the 1,600 km/h relative speed was more than impressive. Still, sitting there watching this thing fly by, it was even more visceral than that. I was blown away. I scanned inside the cabin afterward - nope, no one else had seen it. Well, except for the pilots, I'm sure.

Thankfully air traffic control knows well enough to keep oncoming planes properly separated on different vertical planes. And thankfully we still live in a world where wonders like this are literally just outside our window.

Your turn: Thematic Photographic's new theme, speed, should be a fun one for us all. Take a pic that evokes the theme and post it to your blog or website. Leave a comment here so folks know where to find it, then drop by other participants to share the joy. It'll be on all weeks, so feel free to return as often as you wish: multiple submissions are always welcome. Click here for more background on how Thematic works. And have fun, because that's why we do this!