Flight Delay Companions – Houston, Texas

I was thinking back to the trip I made to The Netherlands in the May of last year. It was during a particularly busy time at work but I was looking forward to the trip. Photographically, I wanted to shoot the great architecture in Europe, which I haven’t visited for over 25 years.

My flight from Austin to Houston went without a hitch. I was buckled in and ready to start the long flight to Amsterdam when an unexpected announcement forced us to de-plane.

Outside the gate, I was shooting architecture with my stylish Fujifim X100S when a fellow passenger stopped me. He saw my X100S and we jumped into camera talk. The Fuji does that — people notice its retro good looks. It turns out that Peter was also a photographer and carried a big backpack of gear along with his Canon 5D Mark II or was it the III? I forget.

A few minutes later Jovita and his girl friend, also on the same flight, jumped into our conversation. Jovita worked for Microsoft and he was sporting the new Nokia Lumia 41MP phone. He was especially proud if its capabilities and more photography and gear talked ensued.

After standing around for 30 minutes and with the plane not going anywhere fast, we retired to the United Club. Peter and his wife, Jovita and his girlfriend and I plunked down at the club and continued our photography conversations. The drinks flowed continuously and the talk drifted to technology and other fun topics. We all enjoyed ourselves so much, no one was particularly concerned about our flight delay. We only looked up at the departures board, so we wouldn’t inadvertently miss our flight.

I shot the first photograph, at the top, as we finally left the club and headed toward the gate. I am actually kind of happy that it came out so well. You see by then, I had thoroughly enjoyed the drinks during our stimulating conversation that I wasn’t entirely steady. Oh, and the Fuji X100S doesn’t have image stabilization either.

We had no idea how much time had passed. It was one of those memorable gatherings. After checking the EXIF, I discovered our flight was delayed 3 1/2 hours. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon or start an intercontinental flight.