As promised – I really did shoot some planes flying today. Everytime I do this type of shooting it makes me realize how good some of these shooters are. It is not easy. Just holding a long lens still – let alone trying to pan along with something moving is a monumental task. Try it sometime with a car driving down the road – then multiply the speed by a factor of 4 -6 times – it really requires practice to do it well. When you are shooting propeller driven airplanes you have to shoot at slow shutter speeds or the prop is standing still and it looks like the plane is parked. Take a look below to see the difference between a 1/125th of a second and a 1/1000 of a second. Easy to hand hold a lens at 1/1000 – not so easy as 1/125th.Of course the day would not be complete without an early morning shoot. Moose Peterson talked a few of the crew chiefs into pulling out three Grumman “Cats” a F8F Bearcat, a F4F Wildcat and a F6F Hellcat . Thanks Moose a really great time and some additions to my aircraft photo library.

By the way if you are into aviation and wanting to know how to shoot this kind of stuff – Moose and his team have just published a great IPad book called “Taking Flight”. It will guide you through what you need to know to get a head start on this type of work. Available at the APP store.

Now on to airplanes in flight. Not easy stuff and with some of the new rules after last years incident it is even more difficult. Needless to say safety is the primary concern. Access is further back in many cases and requires a bit longer lens selection. 

Thanks for following along – and thanks for the emails and comments.

Below is a gallery of images – many of which are not in this post.

[wzslider autoplay=”true” transition=”‘flash'” lightbox=”true”]