Monday, June 27, 2011

Eye Inbound I - IMRAN™

Eye Inbound I - IMRAN™ by ImranAnwar
Eye Inbound I - IMRAN™, a photo by ImranAnwar on Flickr.
One final look at a stunning sunset painting the cockpit & Long Island Sound golden to my right, my home & the Great South Bay pink to the left; before turning full focus on landing.

I set up final approach, destination KISP.

Pink skies filling my eyes, Pink Floyd's words in my mind's ears....

"Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky, Tongue-tied & twisted, Just an earthbound misfit, I"

... my spirit silently calls God in control from heavens above, my senses call Air Traffic Control in towers below.

"New York Approach, Skyhawk November-Two-Four-Three-Eight-Siera inbound for landing, full stop Islip, is at 2000 feet, 8 miles Northeast of you, with information Zulu."

Radio 118.0. Altimeter two-niner-niner-two. Transponder squawk 4377 & ident. ATC controllers Eye Inbound I as I light up their radar scopes.

"Three-Eight Sierra, Radar Contact. Maintain altitude at or below 2000. Number 2 for landing Runway 24 following Southwest 885."

"Three-Eight Sierra is number 2 following Southwest. Traffic in sight."

Before landing checklist. All items check. Reduce airspeed 120 knots to flap deployment range. 110 knots as ground passes below at 120 mph. Mixture Rich. Fuel Tanks Both. Landing lights On. Strobe on. Adjust course to port, correct for wind. Heading south-west, following Southwest.

Start descent. Speed down to 90 knots. Descent rate steady, ground rushing up 500 feet per minute. Apply rudder. Nose pointed to landing spot. Line up Runway 24.... Runway numbers on spot.

Wind updrafts assert themselves. Adjust power. Adjust attitude. Wings level. Stay in control. My plane, I tell the wind. Wind calms. Adjust trim. Looking good. VASI Red Over White; We're Alright.

"Three-Eight Sierra, you are cleared to land. Caution, Wake Turbulence."

Maintain glide slope. All instruments green. Throw in full flaps. Reduce power. Field is made. Pass last obstacle. Power idle. Hand on throttle, ready to go-around.

Right on the numbers. Maintain centerline. Ground effect. Ground effect. Ground effect. Back pressure. Rudder. Centerline. Back pressure.Back pressure. Stall Warning horn whistles. Back pressure. Stall Warning horn louder. Three feet, two feet, one foot… Back pressure. Main gear touch down. Wheels kiss the runway. Bleed speed. Nose wheel is down. Hello, solid ground.

A squeaker! Thank you, God, for the gift of flight and the bounty of a safe return to earth, as stationary runway lights fly past.

Not done yet. Flaps up. Motors whirring. Switch Comms. Strobe Off. Transponder Standby. Pass runway 33L. Expect exit Taxiway Bravo.

"Ground, Three-Eight Sierra is on Two Four, taxi to Mid-Island."

"Three-Eight Sierra, welcome back. No delay. Exit Bravo-Charlie-cross runway 10/28-Sierra-Whiskey to Mid-Island. Southwest 1673 is pulling out and holding for you."

"Three-Eight Sierra, no delay. Bravo-Charlie-cross runway 10/28-Sierra-Whiskey to Mid-Island. Thank you."

New York Home, I'm coming home!

© 2011 IMRAN™
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PS I post very few pictures of myself here. For that I use FaceBook (feel free to connect facebook.com/IMRAN.TV ) but posting this at the insistence of my good friends there that are also friends here on Flickr. I hope you enjoyed this summarized memory of a recent flight.

Friday, June 17, 2011

A Star(Gazer Lily) Is Born - IMRAN™

SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera!! No filters. No tricks. NO editing, tweaking, of ANY kind. 14MB original Nikon image only framed in Photoshop and saved at 4.6MB.

StarGazer Lilies have always been one of the most beautiful flowers in the world to me. They were literally the first that I planted when I was blessed to build a home on the South Shore of Long Island.

Not only does the name evoke that romantic fool spirit of childhood innocence and an unbelievable confidence of reaching for, and goind past, the stars... it also has the most stunning set of colors I have seen on a flower.

Here's the cool thing. This photo was shot, with NO filters, with NO backdrop, outdoors in bright sunlight. The black background with spectacular foreground was simply achieved by an unusual set of shutter speed and exposure control. (Note: I do not even own a macro lens).

What takes my breath away is the range of colors, and the breathtaking detail, even in a merely 4.6MB small version. (Click to see it larger and see the universe within one flower, like the galaxy clusters that are the nurseries of stars in the heavens above.

I gaze at these stargazer lilies in the day, until it is night, and I am one withe universe, gazing at the stars from where I came, and to whence I shall one day fly away.

© 2010-2011 IMRAN™
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Monday, June 13, 2011

Bring Kissable Tulips To Lips - IMRAN™

SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera!! No filters. No tricks. NO editing, tweaking, of ANY kind. Only framed in Photoshop..

Though most people associate Tulips with Holland, the flower actually originated in Central Asia. A national flower of Turkey, its short lived life is nevertheless one of delicacy, color, splendor and uniqueness.

The bulbs that I planted in a cold winter of 2010 burst forth in bloom in the wet, windy, cold and damp spring of 2011.

The Red-Yellow-Green traffic light colors of the photo are forgotten seeing the luscious pink with speckled white and ivory tones of the subject of this photo.

© 2011 IMRAN™
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Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Cold Beautiful Sky On Fire - IMRAN™


SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera!! NO editing, tweaking, of ANY kind. Only framed in Photoshop & saved image as 4.2MB JPG.

The end of April, one of the rainiest I have ever lived, in 2011, possibly the windiest cloudiest year I have lived on Long Island, gave just enough cloud cover to make the sunset, finally visible after dozens of sunsets burnt to dull nothingness by wet dark clouds.

In the words of Jefferson Starship,

Will you light the sky on fire?
Will you light tonight like
You did the night before?
Hey, you could take me higher
Than the diamonds in the sky


As this day was coming to an end in New York, the last day of the life of a once freedom loving later genocide-inspiring terrorist was starting.

Within about 24 hours this photo, Usama Bin Laden, whose desire to teach America a lesson led to the policies that set fire to the Middle East and rained death over Afghanistan, whose henchmen and hell-bound dogs of urban war unleashed the fiery torrents of suicide bombings on innocent Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Jews everywhere....

As Bin Laden's last 24 hours of raining death on fellow Muslims in the name of Islam, and on democracy lovers in the name of freedom, started, .... I saw the promise of a cloudy night of uncertainty, and, before a bright new dawn could rise, the symbolism of this peaceful, cool, beautiful Sky On Fire.

May Peace Be With You.

© 2011 IMRAN
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Untouched, unedited, unmodified Nikon D300 photo ISO200, 300-450mm, f/5.6. 2.3eV, 1/125 second to compensate for nasty Nikon bug that makes Nikon's own lenses show up as "Non-CPU" unrecognized lenses with no way to change aperture. Nikon makes great cameras that always have manufacturing defects. Shame!

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Blessed, Beach - IMRAN™

I do not fancy myself a poet. And, though challenges remain in my life, as for most of us, the blessings that abound cannot be counted.

I could not resist tapping this out to my friends and followers from my iPhone on a (chilly) night, standing at the beach of my blessed home at Heron Pointe, New York....

Walking along the rippling waterline on my beach. Definitely not T-shirt temperature. New Moon a thin orange sliver, perched atop the horizon, wants to get cozy under the (cloud) covers - but they're nowhere to be found. Shiny stars glint in the night's cold eye, as dark skies silently hear the wind's sighs. I stand still, on my own will, humbled, as I realize again - How Blessed Am I !


June 4, 2011 − 1145 PM via iPhone

© Imran Anwar

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