Zeppelin Arrives in Bay Area – Photogs Get Ready

I previously wrote about Airship Ventures and their Zeppelin flight service that will soon be available in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Well, tomorrow is the big day where their Zeppelin arrives in the Bay Area.  I have been in talks with Airship Ventures for the past week and after some challenges with the Santa Anna winds and risk of missing the arrival window of this weekend, I just got confirmation that the Zeppelin will be arriving in San Francisco tomorrow (Saturday October 25th).

This is the first time that Zeppelin has been flown over the San Francisco Bay since 1947!  And in part due to some suggestions, Airship Ventures has realized that the local photography community can help document the return of the Zeppelin airship to the San Francisco Bay Area.  They are looking for photographers to help document the arrival of their Zeppelin NT tomorrow as well as furture sightings of the airship.  They are holding a photo contest where you can submit photos of the Airship.

(Note:  They have been very busy planning the arrival of the airship.  With the last minute nature of the photo contest, the official T&Cs are still a bit vague in order to get the contest up and rolling for this weekend.  I have been advising them on photographer rights issues with regards to the photo contents and I have it on good authority that they plan on compensating photographers whose photos are chosen to be used for marketing purposes.  So I expect their photo contest web page to be updated appropriately after this weekend.  Who knows, if you photos are good enough and get chosen, maybe you can negotiate an “exchange of services”!  😉  )

Here is the rough schedule for tomorrow (all times are estimated pacific time.):

  • 9:00 am ish :  the airship set to depart from Salinas area.
  • Noon ish: the airship to fly over the Golden Gate Bridge for first time.  There are supposed to be some other vintage aircraft that are to be joining the airship to make for an historic sight.  There is also a rumor of the San Francisco fire boats putting on a show during the fly over.  The airship will spend about an hour flying over San Francisco.
  • 1:00 pm ish – 1:30 pm ish: the airship will depart San Francisco, fly over to Oakland and down to Moffett Field for the arrival ceremony.
  • 2:30 pm ish – 3:00 pm ish: the airship arrives at Moffett field for the first time!  The public is welcome to come onto Moffett Field and view this historic event.
  • 4:00pm ish – Dusk:  the airship will be taking it’s first scheduled flight from Moffett Field up to San Francisco and back.  This is a great chance to catch the airship at sunset!

Airship Ventures has indicated to me a number of types of shots that they would like to have of the airship.  (If you submit these to the photo contest, it might improve your odds…):

  • Marin Headlands looking south over Golden Gate and San Francisco
  • Lands End looking north over Golden Gate and Marin
  • From the Golden Gate Bridge as if flies over
  • From the Bay (use a boat for the sake of your camera gear)
  • From San Francisco with various landmarks integrated into the image

If you’re looking for something photograhic to do tomorrow, take advantage of this historic event.  Get out there and make some photos!  (I will be…)

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