September 7th, 2001 - Thread Moved

[Sitarro]

I know the asswipes of the board will tear these shots apart but I don't care about them. These were shot with nearly no light from a 767 doing at least 250 knots on my way to Shannon, Ireland...... Photoshop allowed me to recover any images at all. I was pretty unhappy because I had a great seat with a brand new window and if we wouldn't have been stuck on the runway in Newark for 20 minutes I might have been able to get some really nice shots. I remember thinking....."there will be other opportunities". Four days later while I was drawing the green on the eighth hole at Doonbeg Golf Club in County Claire, Ireland.... the BBC interupted the radioshow I was listening two to say that one of the towers had been hit, they weren't sure what type of plane. I left my equipment on the green and took the cart back to the clubhouse. I was just in time to see the footage of the second tower being hit, then the Pentagon, then Flight 93. I have 3 brothers who are airline Captains, the authorities didn't know the airline at first and my country was being attacked while I watched in horror across the Atlantic. One of the worst weeks of my life.

Where were you on this day of Infamy, share your story.

[Sitarro]

One more of the Towers with a Southwest Airlines 737 that , because of an optical illusion, appears to be on a crash course with them. That 737 is in a number of these shots.

[jackass]

I was actually on a train headed for midtown NYC that morning. I still remember how beautiful the morning was. I was sitting looking out the window and saw one of the towers smoking. I txt'd Jimyc (he always arrived to work WAY earlier than I) and asked him what was going on. He said some a-hole crashed into the tower. I didnt think too much of it. Just thought that an amatuer pilot had crashed a cesna or something into the tower. Then he said there were two planes. Still didnt think too much of it...thinking 2 a-holes had done something really stupid. Arrived in Penn Station to people just stading around watching tv's. It wasnt too much after I arrived at work that the first tower fell. We all left work right after that.
The streets of NYC were very strange that day. There were reports of a shooting and some looting happening. We didnt see anything of the sort. People were very calm. Everyone was trying to get word to loved ones and to get home. They shut the trains down and a few bridges I believe. I had to take a ferry to NJ then catch a train from Newark. We were in line for hours.
The strangest part was the feeling of being in another country, such as Israel. There were fighter planes constantly overhead. There was just an overwhelming connection to how other countries go through dealing with terrorists.
When I finally arrived home I remember tearing up. It was such a emotional relief to be home.

[JohnDoe]

Matt and I were living in Massachusetts, we were on vacation that week and decided to go down to the FOXWOODS casino in Connecticut for a couple of days and stay at one of their hotels, we got a suite for the price of a double because of a mistake they made by not reserving a King room for us! :)

The morning of september 11th was a BEAUTIFUL, clear, low humidity, deep blue sky day. We stayed in the Casino late the night before and I had barely had 4 hours sleep when I got up to tinkle.... :), and for some reason I turned on the TV, then proceeded back to the bed to go back to sleep....then I heard all the commotion on tv about the world trade center being hit by a plane, then they said it was a huge air liner.....at that moment, I knew it was a terrorist attack!

....I woke up my husband.... we made coffee, then the second plane hit the towers and immediately I knew it was a terrorist attack, confirmed....

Our kitty cat was home alone. (I don't know where that fits in to the whole picture of what we did next but I remember thinking about it)

We could not pack the bag and check out and get home quick enough....at this time I thought that alot of people could have died. Then the 1st tower fell then the next tower fell then we were in our car with the headlights on, driving home to massachusetts...

I sobbed the whole way home, thinking at least 25,000 people were killed. The sky was so clear and so blue and the sun was so bright, it hurt my cryin' eyes....

We made it home, turned on the tv, matt called his mom in florida, and I called my parents in florida right after that, and then called my sister...

That day and that night I got my knees and prayed...prayed that the people left in the building would be found alive, prayed that these people looking for loved ones, would find them, prayed and thanked God for allowing me, not to be in the trade center at that time....because I did work/visit there 4 times a year during Market Shows.... prayed that God would help me change my life, covet less and need less to live, so we could "get away" from this "danger zone" that we lived and worked in.

The rest of vacation week I was glued to the tv, and then the internet and then.....the BIBLE..... I began my quest to reread the Bible, could NOT put it down...

Then, I was downsized, Matt was downsized in a couple of jobs and then we had enough.

We, put our house up for sale, made a killing, bought the home in the Maine Coast that we live in, outright, and hubby got a partime job making nil, but enough to survive on.....

All of this turmoil and hard decisions all extended from sept 11th and that prayer on September 11th....

I live in Maine...no connection to the internet other than dial up...Which gets me in to gardening more, a newly found love of mine developed the last 6 years or so! I love life now, and love smelling the roses instead of the rising dust from pounding the pavement in the fast lane! :D

jd

[darin]

Very interesting snapshots.

[glockmail]

I was at home working when my wife called and told me to turn on the TV. I told her I expected 10,000 deaths. Then the 2nd plane hit, and I upped my prediction. I remember thinking that with all that fire it was likely one of both towers would collapse. 15 minutes later, the first one did.

A week later we changed our will to make certain that if we both died and our kids had to live with Granma that she would move out of the NYC area and down here where my kids wouldn't have to deal with the sitiation when it happens again.

[Yurt]

Just woke up and sipping my first sips of coffee. My buddy, who unfortunately had a serious medical incident occur within months of his pilots license, was now an air traffic controller. He called me fairly soon after it had happened, and on the west coast, it had not started hitting the local stations. I thought he was pulling one of his favorite jokes, because he told me that a plane just hit one of the world trade centers. Uh uh. No he was serious and then he asked me what if another plane hit the other tower. I told him, now I know you are full of shit, what is the punch line? He said, you don't have cable? I said no, I have the internet. Well go and turn it on, I am NOT FUCKING JOKING JOSH.

I turned it on and we did not speak for minutes and then he had to go. I went to school, it was a dream. We were all numb. Greatest memory:

one prof, a wee guy out of SF, but IIIItalian to the core, deep force, and smooth confidence despite the "wee." He just started teaching class. Of course we all were zombies. He then raised his timber voice and said:

look, we are here, the people who can help are there. unless you can get there now and help, you not focusing on this country's future is aiding the people who caused the destruction.

I never looked back.

[darin]

Yeah…I remember where I was when it started. I was on State Route 16, just south/east of the Purdy/Key Center Exit, listening to KISS 106.1 FM Morning Show. I spent the first several hours of work in a coffee shop across the parking lot so I could watch the news.

Originally posted by dmp
12 September 2001

Beewding Fah Down?


There are times in life where we are tempted to raise our fists to the sky and shout “WHY, GOD???” We witness events happen beyond our control, imagination, and fears. We look to make reason out of insanity. (and I'm NOT just talking about Gabby's posts - dmp). We struggle with blame and cause.

Last night, while watching the never-ending broadcasts, they showed what was left of one section of the Pentagon. My thoughts drifted to MAJ Williams, a man I served in the Army with, who left Fort Lewis to work at the Pentagon. I wondered if he was safe. I wondered if his friends and loved ones were alive. I wondered if he was trapped under piles of burning rubble even I sat comfortably on my couch. As I started to cry, I lowered my head, slightly, so as not to disturb my 2 yr old daughter, Alaina. The disguise did not work. From across the living room, Alaina walked over to me and stood by me. She looked up at her mother and asked, “Daddy Cry?” I raised my head, and took her by the hand, bringing her close to me. I told her, “Yes, baby. Daddy is crying” Alaina put her arm around my neck and pulled my head close to her, comforting me with “Daddy, T’okay”.
At this point she looked up at the television to see the images of one of the World Trade Center buildings crash down upon itself. Alaina turned once again to me and said “Uh-Oh! Beewding Fah down?” I answered with, “Yes, love, Building Fall Down. That is why Daddy is crying.”
Alaina “oh Daddy…. T’okay Daddy…. I love yooo”.

With that, she released her hug and started walking towards her bedroom. I asked her if she wanted to watch more of the building. She replied, “Laina want color!” as she wobbled along down the hall to her room.

How refreshing it was to be around Alaina’s innocence, at a time like this. To hear her complete trust that, “everything would be okay”. And that even though the “beewding fah down” Alaina still loves her Daddy. Last night I couldn’t be away from Alaina more than a few minutes. I took solace from Alaina. Something about they way her little pony-tail would flop as she ran through the house helped me escape the horror of yesterday’s events, and find a still small place in my own mind. A place where I could just be 2 again. A place where people weren’t killed, planes were not crashed, and nobody hated anyone.

Alaina saved me last night. And the beauty of it is, she wasn’t even TRYING to. Once more I asked God, “Why? What did I do to ever deserve such a wonderful girl?”


My daughter is 8 years old now. I doubt very much she remembers much if anything about that day, years ago. She probably doesn’t know that one moment in time she changed her Daddy. She’ll probably live the rest of her life not knowing how I became a different person in a small way, because of her, and the events of that day. Sometimes I pray about what happened then. People tell me it’s too late – that God won’t change the past. I believe in God. I believe God can do just about anything. I believe God is not constrained by time. When I pray, I ask God to be with those people who suffered that day. I ask that God would have sent his Spirit to comfort them – provided them safety or companionship or warmth as they may have felt the cold steel and concrete fall around them. I ask that God hold them in his arms, as they passed on to the next life.

I have a son who has no concept of that day. In the last six years my life has had wild swings of 'good' and 'bad' - but through it all I've found strength in the words spoken by my little girl more than a half-decade ago.

[Sitarro]

Very interesting snapshots.

That's finny(:laugh2:), I get it, but.......these were taken from over 5,000 feet in near dark conditions through an airplane's window moving at over 250 knots with an ancient 2001 4 megapixel Olympus and they still make your helicopter shots taken from on the ground, not moving, not through a curved plexi window, in broad daylight with thousands of dollars worth of Canon equipment look like washed out drugstore throwaway snapshots. But it's OK if you like what you shot even if there is absolutely no historical significance to them whatsoever or any composition or color.

I don't mean anything bad by that.......really, I still like the merri-go-round shot.

[manu1959]

I know the asswipes of the board will tear these shots apart but I don't care about them. These were shot with nearly no light from a 767 doing at least 250 knots on my way to Shannon, Ireland...... Photoshop allowed me to recover any images at all. I was pretty unhappy because I had a great seat with a brand new window and if we wouldn't have been stuck on the runway in Newark for 20 minutes I might have been able to get some really nice shots. I remember thinking....."there will be other opportunities". Four days later while I was drawing the green on the eighth hole at Doonbeg Golf Club in County Claire, Ireland.... the BBC interupted the radioshow I was listening two to say that one of the towers had been hit, they weren't sure what type of plane. I left my equipment on the green and took the cart back to the clubhouse. I was just in time to see the footage of the second tower being hit, then the Pentagon, then Flight 93. I have 3 brothers who are airline Captains, the authorities didn't know the airline at first and my country was being attacked while I watched in horror across the Atlantic. One of the worst weeks of my life.

Where were you on this day of Infamy, share your story.

september 7th?!

well the 7th is my wedding anniversary it was our 5th that year ....

the 11th is my wife's birthday

we had just returned from hawaii on the 10th to watch buildings fall on the 11th as i woke up to wish my wife a happy 35th birthday

[Sitarro]

september 7th?!

well the 7th is my wedding anniversary it was our 5th that year ....

the 11th is my wife's birthday

we had just returned from hawaii on the 10th to watch buildings fall on the 11th as i woke up to wish my wife a happy 35th birthday

The snapshots were taken of Septmber 7th, I was in Ireland on the 11th.

[Jon]

Were these shot in JPEG, or RAW? Do you have EXIF on those, particularly the ISO they were shot at?

If you wanted to clean them up, Neat Image does a nice job.

On 09/11/2001, I was on my way to a local college and stopped at my parent's house. I thought my mom was joking when she said that planes had crashed into the WTC.

[Sitarro]

Were these shot in JPEG, or RAW? Do you have EXIF on those, particularly the ISO they were shot at?

If you wanted to clean them up, Neat Image does a nice job.

On 09/11/2001, I was on my way to a local college and stopped at my parent's house. I thought my mom was joking when she said that planes had crashed into the WTC.

JPEG, TIFF is the only other option with that camera. TIFF files take so long to cycle, even with the new fast cards, that it wasn't an option at the time. ISO was set on auto, I thought I would have more light than I did, I guess I should have tried setting it higher but didn't. I had just picked up the camera and was still trying to figure out how to get more than 40 JPEGS out of a set of 4 batteries when we got the job in Ireland. I was still shooting with the 6X7 mostly, digital was still very new to me.

[Jon]

JPEG, TIFF is the only other option with that camera. TIFF files take so long to cycle, even with the new fast cards, that it wasn't an option at the time. ISO was set on auto, I thought I would have more light than I did, I guess I should have tried setting it higher but didn't. I had just picked up the camera and was still trying to figure out how to get more than 40 JPEGS out of a set of 4 batteries when we got the job in Ireland. I was still shooting with the 6X7 mostly, digital was still very new to me.

It's funny. 2001 was really the stone age of digital photography compared to today. Either way, if you wanted to clean them up there are ways to do that. I'd be happy to play around with one or more of them if you feel like shooting the full rez shot(s) my direction.

[darin]

That's finny(:laugh2:), I get it, but.......these were taken from over 5,000 feet in near dark conditions through an airplane's window moving at over 250 knots with an ancient 2001 4 megapixel Olympus and they still make your helicopter shots taken from on the ground, not moving, not through a curved plexi window, in broad daylight with thousands of dollars worth of Canon equipment look like washed out drugstore throwaway snapshots. But it's OK if you like what you shot even if there is absolutely no historical significance to them whatsoever or any composition or color.

I don't mean anything bad by that.......really, I still like the merri-go-round shot.

What's funny is, I was serious. Those snapshots are quite interesting. You are such a turd you must turn EVERYTHING into a darin-bashing thread, eh? Ya know? If I didn't KNOW better, I'd think you were jealous of what I can do with a camera. Maybe you are?

[jackass]

If I didn't KNOW better, I'd think you were jealous of what I can do with a camera. Maybe you are?

I am off all of you! So go f yourselves!! :finger3: