That must have been a blast. Im thinking about seeing if the areas real estate and apartment owners would be interested in getting some aerial shots. Get some nice low level shots with the mountains in the background. People pay extra to live in the heights because of the view, being so close to the Sandia mountains, and its away from the majority of the traffic. I pay because the best mountain bike trail around here is right down the road, and every morning there is a awesome view on the way to work. Like right now with the snow on the peaks. Speaking of which, I should get ask a friend to see if he wants to go flying so I can get some aerial shots of it. Its a lot easier to shoot when someone else is flying the plane. Yeah, low wing planes are bad for aerial. Id like to get a ultralight, then you can really slow down and take your time. Cessnas are definitely slow, I guess that is one advantage of them over another plane with a higher stall speed.
Regards, and keep the rubber side down... at least when you are on the ground.
I love Aerial photography! I am a pilot and most time is in Cessna's high wings. They seem to be a great photo platform. You can get them low and slow and the window stays open for shoots. I work in the construction aggregates business (stone quarries) and often go out to shoot pics of the competition and our locations. My initial instructor is a senior staff member of Private Pilot magazine so I had opportunities to go with him to shoot aircraft for articles.
After I got out of the AF I moved back home in Vermont. Beautiful place but way too cold for me so I moved back down here. I love the northern part of NM, and around Cloudcroft and Ruidoso is grand too. I have some pictures on my website I took a while ago around the Jemez I'll eventually get posted on here, kinda slow with one pic a day. Should give a donation so I can at least do 3 at a time.
If you get a chance, if you havent already, go do some aerial photography. Its a blast especially if you can either remove a door or pop open a window all the way. Shooting through the plexi stinks.. While at Holloman a company hired us at the aeroclub to shot 3 pictures of each golf course hole. Nothing like circling a few hundred feet up above people that are trying to play golf. Shooting the White Sands park is cool as well, you can hardly tell its sand because it looks like a bunch of waves. I bet you can talk some pilots into giving you a ride if you shoot their house, just hang out at the local FBO and ramp. Its a great community, for the most part.
Thanks for the tips! I am new at this hobby and I do love mechanical things such as Aircraft. Will try your suggestions. You are correct about how tough it is to catch fast moving aircraft.
Your name caught my attention, and I had to check out a picture of a airplane. Nice shot of catching it in flight on approach, little blur of the props to give a sense of motion. Since the plane is the subject I would recommend a tigher crop, too much sky surrounding it.
Planes are sometimes a hard subject to shoot considering they are always moving throughout the sky. Except on overcast days the direction you have the meter pointing will create either under or over exposed frames. Black aircraft such as the F117A Stealth bomber (er.. fighter) is particularly hard since its all black and the meter will want to underexpose when the plane fills most of the frame, where you cant even read the tail number or see the panels. First thing you want to consider is if you are using a shutter speed fast enough to catch the plane, which of course depends on the planes speed. Second thing is you want to be sure to correct for the massive amounts of light coming from sky. If not the plane will be underexposed, no matter what its color is. Id recommend after setting the shutter speed that bracketing with aperture is used. I have many photos with a AE1P (fastest shutter is 1000) that are blurry, but have decent color, especially those of a close fly by. With a MEP 1000 is fine but not for a F-18. I have yet to use the F5 for airshows..
Looks like your exposure is good or close enough for this size image, could use some extra brightness.
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{K:88111} 2/2/2004