Aircraft Photography

Approaching aircraft make better subjects than departing aircraft, just like birds. Absent the ability to shoot from an aircraft, shots of aircraft will almost always be from below. Care must be taken not to under-expose the aircraft against that bright background. Compositions where the aircraft is banked, climbing are generally better than those where the ship is flying straight and level. Shots where the top of the aircraft is visible are preferred, which means such shots are usually only possible when the aircraft is banked. Head-on or side-on shots are also less interesting than oblique angles. But, you have to take what you can get.

Airplanes in a Dive at the Air Show at EAA Airventure

Airplanes with Propellers are generally slower than jets, but the trick with them is to be sure to shoot with a shutter speed that is just too slow to freeze the propeller tips, but still fast enough to freeze the rest of the aircraft.

Fat Albert

The wing of an aircraft creates lift by creating a low pressure area above the wing. When air pressure decreases rapidly, moisture in the air condenses. This makes for mist trailing away from the aircraft, especially when it's maneuvering.

F-16 Climbing and Turning

Large aircraft are easier to shoot. They don't move very fast, and they are easy to spot. It doesn't get much bigger than this.

NASA Delivers Discovery to the Udvar-Hazy Center

Jets, especially the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels, present some specific photography challenges. They're fast. They're loud. They come from unexpected directions. They start out too small in the viewfinder, then they grow rapidly, then they're too big to fit in the viewfinder. Fast shutter speeds are crucial, with continuous focus mode. There's no moving propeller, but the heat mirage and jet blast can make for some interesting shots.

Blue Angels Take-Off

Helicopters are easier to photograph than fast-movers. They don't generally make violent maneuvers. I like to try to freeze the fuselage but get some motion blur in the rotors. The main rotor spins more slowly than a propeller; slower shutter speeds are needed to blur them.

Helicopter at EAA Airventure

Here's a shot from a crappy overcast day at EAA Airventure in Oshkosh in 2014. This is not a flipped photo; the helicopter is actually upside down at the time of this shot.

Helicopter doing a Back Flip