Aviation Photography

[Expired]

or Plane Spotting basically.

Apart from a few airshow threads I haven't really seen any other aviation related topics.

So do we have any other plane spotters here or is it just me?

Always had a love of aviation thanks to my late grandad and love getting as close as I can to the action however I don't go as often as I used to.

Heres a select few from my trip to Manchester Airport on 23/07/12

My equipment is: Canon 50D body with Canon 70-200mm F2.8 USM IS lens

American Airlines Boeing 757

British Airways Airbus A319

Rolls Royce powerplant on a Jet2.com Boeing 757

Virgin Airbus A330

Ryanair Dreamliner Boeing 738

Comments appreciated.

Anyone got anything to share?

Chris.

 

[eugegall]

Guilty.

Heathrow for a Mcflurry every couple of weeks.

Got hooked when I was 13 and a friend took me to Heathrow and sat me directly under the flight path for Concorde's regular arrival. Miss it so much.

 

[Jonny1*2]

nice images mate. Could they not be made a little more interesting by panning? I always find aerial shots hard due to lighting, especially on sunny days.

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

As someone who flies a lot, I regularly see bunches of photographers near the runways. And pretty much everytime I go past I cant help thinking.....why?!

Probably me being ignorant, but I just dont get photographing the same planes over and over again.

 

[eugegall]

As someone who flies a lot, I regularly see bunches of photographers near the runways. And pretty much everytime I go past I cant help thinking.....why?!

Probably me being ignorant, but I just dont get photographing the same planes over and over again.

Its always hard to understand another's passion.

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

To a certain degree yes, but there are many many things that others do for hobbies that I don't get.....but I can understand why a lot of other people do it, but this type of photography I just don't get. Period.
It's like standing by the side of a motorway snapping all the cars going past.

Dont mean to sound criticising, just trying to understand

 

[MicKPM]

When I took the wife to the lakes in June there were loads of guys with cameras hanging around which made me wonder why. Then, around 4pm in Windermere I got an answer... x2 F15's, a some Typhoons hugging the hillsides. Apparently the Longbows use the route to but we didn't see any (probably a good thing cos they make me rapey)

 

[Saner]

As someone who flies a lot, I regularly see bunches of photographers near the runways. And pretty much everytime I go past I cant help thinking.....why?!

Probably me being ignorant, but I just dont get photographing the same planes over and over again.

Surely the same could be said of people who take pictures of cars at shows, or out on the road? i.e. Fezza's or any special, performance car.

 

[eugegall]

To a certain degree yes, but there are many many things that others do for hobbies that I don't get.....but I can understand why a lot of other people do it, but this type of photography I just don't get. Period.
It's like standing by the side of a motorway snapping all the cars going past.

Dont mean to sound criticising, just trying to understand

I understand that its odd mate and a lot of people would agree with you. Personally the only aviation photography I take is Air Shows.

I think people enjoy the passion of aviation itself, the fact that such a large object flying just fascinates people and they try to capture their passion with a picture. Usually doesn't work.

Sometimes it does work. Here are a variety of shots I like which I've stolen. Now tell me non of these do it for you?

 

[couzens]

A380 2 by couzens1989, on Flickr

 

[The Boosh!]

Looks safe :S

 

[Addicted]

Some of those photos are crackers eugeall!

 

[Brazo]

I think you can have arty plane shots and I would count some of those above as just that. I did an sir show recently and loved it. Only thing I would say is that a lot of the shots are very samey. I saw a stunning plane shot taken at riat of al furzan but tbh the same shot has been taken before and will be taken again. Much like motorsport photography.

That isn't to say you can't be arty and produce a stunner though.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Got hooked when I was 13 and a friend took me to Heathrow and sat me directly under the flight path for Concorde's regular arrival. Miss it so much.

I've sat at the end of the runway there and been obliterated by that flying beast .. what a noise !!! It also nearly knocked my Dad off the roof of my Aunts house in Reading once too haha !

My Grandad used to take me to Gatwick too, in the days when we could sit at the start of the runway and get face-fulls of turbulance as the jets took off. F**king awesome

Not really taken any images of planes though.

 

[eugegall]

To be fair to myself. I did go and get a pilots licence too. I'm not a total geek.

 

[Expired]

nice images mate. Could they not be made a little more interesting by panning? I always find aerial shots hard due to lighting, especially on sunny days.

Indeed they could and panning did cross my mind but for some reason I didn't try. There were a couple of reasons though. In peak times Manchester use two runways, now my spotting location is pretty much as close as you can get to the departure runway, where you see the American 757. And is right at the beginning of the runway where the aircraft are turning onto it so there low speed isn't ideal for pan shots. However on my next visit I could go to a spot that is a little further down the runway and try there.

The second problem is when they start using just a single runway for landing and departure they use the one that is further inside the airfield, the Virgin A330 shot for example, this then makes it a whole lot harder to get the aircraft sharp because of the distance to the object and the heat haze aswell on the day. However it is something I will work on as you are right it does make them more interesting.

I have done a few a panning shots in the past:

Heres one I took when I bagged a £5 flight from Leeds to Dublin.

Hmm now to try answer some questions and aviation and plane spotting. Its hard to describe why and this may sound a little odd but I actually find flying quite boring. When im on a plane as soon as the take off is over with (everyone loves that part right?) then I just whack on my headphones and go to sleep.

But plane spotting is different. Like I said earlier my grandad used to have a PPL and took me to the airport all the time when I was a kid. There is just something about getting as close as you can to the action (obviously without climbing over the security fence) and watching such beasts take to the skies with a roar or alternatively watching them settle back onto the ground after hours of flight. Sometimes I don't always stand there taking photos but its nice sometime to take a camping chair and relax and watch the action in the sun.

As said before though, its a hobby and other people enjoy different hobbies. Could you compare to a car show for example where somebody takes a picture of a LY 182 and then a picture of an Inferno 182, they are the same car right? That would be like me taking a picture of an American 757 and a Thomas Cook 757?

Aviation photography has changed of the years quite dramatically though, It's all about finding the best places, the best times, the best angles and so much more to compose a unique shot and some people dedicate a lot of time to it. I am very much just an amateur though, working full time. However I do aspire to use my equipment for what it capable of and eventually get out there and explore photography more with some landscape shots etc. Now I have a car and can find some exciting places.

Anyway the point of my thread was to find out if we had any more plane spotters here and for them to share their photos but its always nice to have a debate.

Chris.

 

[.Simon]

I'm a bit of a "spotter" too ...

Some of my images are here:

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?photographersearch=Simon Nicholls&distinct_entry=true

Currently have 276 photos on the site with 916'000 photo views!

 

[Tigger]

Looks safe :S

It's really a Clio in the twisties - pure flying machine

 

[ElusiveHB]

I'm surprised you can rock up to an airport with a load of camera gear and not get any hassle from security these days!

 

[Daverb]

Ive had that photo as my desktop for a while. Couldn't really find out much about it.

 

[Leeshez]

Wow what cracking piccys .

 

[Kris86]

i flew from manchester on the 23rd mate, tookoff at about 12:45pm in a thomson 737 if you have any photos?

 

[Expired]

i flew from manchester on the 23rd mate, tookoff at about 12:45pm in a thomson 737 if you have any photos?

Unfortunately not mate, at that time I was waiting for the Ryanair Dreamliner to depart so I could go home so I wasn't snapping every plane.

 

[Kris86]

Ah well cheers anyway. Glad you had a good time, im often up there watching the planes and going for a blast around the roads round there..im not sad writing down the callsigns etc but theres something about passenger planes that amazes me, never get bored of watching them lol

 

[timuss]

Big aviation fan myself spend most weekends throughout the summer at airshowstake way to many pictures easily over 1200 over a two day show, but that number deceases quite dramaticlayy once i've deleted the duff ones. Here's one i took at Duxford last year of the awesome F-15 creating some serious vapour in the damp air:

B&W Eagle by Tim Spicer Photography, on Flickr

Then a different era of aviation from Flying Legends last month the beautiful Red Bull owned P-38:

Polished beauty by Tim Spicer Photography, on Flickr

Flare's away! by Tim Spicer Photography, on Flickr

Taken with a mixture of my Canon 40D, Canon 7D and my 100-400 L

 

[eugegall]

How cool is this?

 

[Andy.]

Some of my snaps from an open day at work (8 years ago!).

I got a go at flying a 747 in the simulator. I could have happily stayed in there all day playing!