By Mike Davenport, Vancouver, British Columbia
This column is about air-to-air photography for both fun and fortune…well for fun anyway.
It is impossible to put too much emphasis on safety. The most important task to be done before the flight is to hold a thorough safety briefing. This must cover among other things, separation, direction of flight, altitude, speed, and “what to do if.” This must be discussed, reviewed, and agreed to by all involved: pilots, observers, and photographers.
In a perfect world, your camera airplane will have a door that can come off or a window that will open to give a clear view of the subject. Since there isn’t such a thing as perfect, real life says you will be shooting through the window. While it will keep the breeze out, it does present its own issues. It may show some effects of age such as scratches, bugs, and haze. Not much can be done about the first but a soft rag and a can of Pledge can work wonders on the other two. Just remember to clean both inside and out. Recently I’ve been invited to shoot from a friend’s Cardinal. I like the back seat because there is a lot of room to move around AND it also has a back window.
Let’s get this out of the way. Any camera will do.
The current crop of cell phones take a great snapshot and you probably have yours with you whenever you go flying. All are good for static shots at airports, fly-ins, and air shows. Some even have a telephoto function that helps to maintain that all important safe distance between the camera plane and the subject. But be aware, using a cell brings with it the dreaded curved prop syndrome, unless you use a specially designed filter to combat the rolling shutter artifacts
If you want to make your life more complicated, a DSLR with a telescopic lens should be in your plan. I like a 55 to 200 mm telephoto that is small enough to use in the close confines of the cabin. However, these lenses can get a little silly in pricing. I know of some setups costing $5K and more. On the plus side, the longer lenses make it easier to keep that all-important safe distance between both airplanes.
Select a shutter speed slow enough to give you that nice, blurred prop that editors seem to like and definitely not so fast that it freezes the prop. My thoughts are that nothing looks dumber than a stopped propeller on an airplane that is clearly in flight.
Do bring the cell phone, it can come in handy to back up your fancy DSLR – I know mine has. One last hint, keep the sun at your back. Otherwise you get nice sharp photos of black silhouettes against an even nicer washed-out sky.
Last but not least, have fun and be safe.