The majority of the time when I shoot, I level the camera to the subject and not the planet. There are times you have to level to the planet but more often then not, titling the camera makes life so much more interesting. Photographing planes in flight is no exception.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dappofm0484.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
So after the first couple of passes and seeing what we were and weren’t going to get, I decided to completely change up my grip on the camera so I could change the angle of the flight relative to the viewfinder then the earth.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dappofm0498.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
During the presentation, they talked about the differences between the F-86 and Mig 15 with one being the F-86 smokes on take off, the Mg 15 doesn’t. Well I hopped it did because I thought it might be something that would add interest in an otherwise “plane on string” photo. It did smoke but the amount got less and less the more it flew so soon, that little extra was no more.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dappofm0583.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
So with the loss of smoke I went to shooting simple, clean graphics. The swept back wings of the F-86 are really quite striking so making a clean shot really took more than to think about it and hold the camera accordingly, panning with it as it flew overhead. As we like to say, making lemonade out of lemons.
Photos captured by D3s, 200-400VRII on Lexar UDMA digital film