I’m mentally getting prepared for next month’s photo missions. Even though there is every reason to think the weather will scrub them, I do my homework now. The place I start is with previously taken photos. I look at what I like and don’t like, and most importantly, what did I miss I want now. You might be saying that’s great but you’ve not done an A2A photo mission, you have no library to take a loan from. But you do, you have everyone else’s photos to look at, take notes and learn from. You have my KelbyOne classes on this subject and others on aviation to draw on. It’s upon you to be the professional be it your first or hundredth A2A. It all starts with a search of your library of knowledge!

One of our challenges in photographing aircraft in flight is, saying they are in flight. Beyond just getting the aircraft sharp, prop blur, and the other aspects of the photograph, we need to speak about what the airplane is doing. These two photographs are from the same series, the Spitfire was launching from Duxford grass strip. In the top image, the camera is level with the earth, in the bottom photo, I turned the camera body as I panned to level the Spitfire in the frame. While Charlie was flying, I turned his flight from a climb to level flight, I changed the story to the one I wanted to tell. It is something always going through my mind photographing planes in flight. To turn, or not to turn?

It’s real simple, when you have amazing clouds, make them the star of your photograph as much as the aircraft. How do you do that? Less plane, more clouds. When you finish the photograph, give the clouds as much care as the plane. It’s really just that simple, clouds man, clouds!

Big skies, big blue skies, that’s where planes fly. When we look up, it’s where we see them and most of the time they are pretty small. When we have them in our viewfinder we like to see them big because we normally see them, small. You might find it a challenge to have them smaller in the frame but still grab the viewer’s attention. At the same time when they are smaller in the frame, they are technically easier to photograph. When they are smaller in the frame, you have to look at more elements to tell the story making the photograph more of a challenge. You might wanna consider the challenge, a smaller plane and giving them space.

I never go to The Hangar for breakfast without my camera, I learned my lesson. I had it with me the morning we first saw the Pietenpol and we meet Gary. Our last breakie of the year, the Pietenpol was on the ramp, and Gary had just hopped into the seat. The prop wasn’t turning so I went over as we talked, wished each other seasons greetings, and then after a short time, off he went. He knew I was going to be there shooting, he was good with that. The light and skies were much, much better than the first meeting earlier so this time, I sent him a couple of clicks including the one above. And with that, we’re now talking further by email and working on getting together once the weather warms to get in the skies. I can deal with that, and progress in less than a month.

Way off on the distant horizon is Steptoe the only recognizable feature on The Palouse when it’s covered in a blanket of snow. The photo mission wasn’t the background but rather, the pair of 450 Stearman. We had already made one orbit and my attention was on the subject until the end of the pass when the vastness grabbed my imagination. What was it like a hundred years ago when the lonely pilot launched and as far as they could see was an open landscape? No real maps, no weather forecast, no search and rescue, just the pilot and the heavens. I wanted that feeling in a photo so we made another pass, arranging the two Stearmans further apart and further from the photo platform. As you look over the photograph, I wanted you to feel the long and lonely run.