Plane Spottin! with Mark Lawrence

NOTICES TO AIRMEN:

It’s published!

THERE I WUZ—ADVENTURES FROM 3 DECADES IN THE SKY

is now available on ebook via Amazon or Kindle app (print version releases 7/18!)

Direct link:

http://www.amazon.com/There-Wuz-Adventures-Decades-Sky-ebook/dp/B00L2SHOSU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403240289&sr=1-1

 

And speaking of the book, allow me to introduce the man responsible for the gorgeous photo on the front cover!

 

Over the past year, Mark Lawrence has become a very dear friend of mine. An avgeek, plane spotter and photographer, he also happens to be the Producer of the excellent aviation website www.NYCAviation.com.  He makes his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his wife and son.

  Today, the master photographer and plane spotter extraordinaire shares with us pearls of wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of photographing our favorite subject. Enjoy!

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Aircraft – Some Fly Them, Some Spot Them

by Mark Lawrence, Photographer and NYCAviation.com Producer

If you’ve ever been to an airport or been a passenger on a flight, you may have spotted some people that seem odd or out of place. They’re always standing outside the buildings, alongside the edges of the runways or lurking outside of perimeter fences.  They scribble in notebooks and point cameras at every aircraft that comes by. Sometimes these mysterious humans will even wave your direction—and then point their camera right at you.

Are they really waving at you? Just who the heck are they? Sky cops? Burglars casing the joint? And just what in blazes are they doing?  Are they nuts?  Why are they there?

Not to worry. You haven’t spied Sinister scouts for the latest Al Qaeda wannabes. You’ve just spotted “Plane Spotters.”

What are they doing? Are they nuts?  Why are they there?

From the first time that Orville and Wilbur Wright took to the skies, aviation buffs have taken to their cameras.  For a small group of people, plane spotting is actually a hobby, a pastime, a lifetime passion.

Some people go about their normal day without even looking at those things in the sky. But for a small group of people like us, those things in the sky are our joy.  Phrases like “Delta SkyTeam”, “Habitat” or “An American Triple” are not just gibberish – they have meaning.  To those few, they have a lot of meaning.

While anyone can go out and take pictures, enjoy the time out and enjoy the aircraft, for the serious spotters, photo hobbyists & professionals, there are some critical issues that, if not met, will often cause the pressing of the delete button on the camera.

 Tips n Tricks to a Good Plane Spottin’ Shot

For starters, always try to get in the best position where the sun is at your back. The reason is you get the best light reflected off the aircraft directly into your lenses.  For night photography, there’s no sun of course, so just go for the best angle for the best shot.  However, for daylight photography, this implies that you’re out in the best of weather.  That of course can change – there have been many occasions where we start with the bluest, clearest of skies, and then those nasty sun-blocking things called clouds start to build and get in the way of perfect shots.

But that is not to say you can’t go out in nasty weather to get some amazing shots.  At times, there are stunning scenes when full powered engines generate a great rain spray behind a very special piece of equipment.

Make sure to be in a location where there are no obstructions between the camera lens and the aircraft.  The thing we hate most is shooting what we think is the perfect shot, and then only after we start viewing the shots, there is a huge pole in the middle of the shot – what some of us in the photography world refer to as “epic fail.”

One of the photographer’s worst enemies – heat haze!  To best describe it – you can be looking at a road, and you see that shimmering rising up from the black top – that is heat haze.  Now, one fallacy that goes with that term – it doesn’t have to be generated off heat.  I have been in spotting locations in the New York area, temperatures in the 30’s shooting across a body of water – and – when you look at the pictures – there is haze everywhere distorting lines of paint schemes, distorting the outlines of the aircraft.  Whenever it happens, it is something that upsets photographers.  Sometimes you don’t even see it until you get back home, download the pictures to the computer and start editing with great gusto – only to encounter – distortion.

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Equipment, equipment, equipment.

There is plenty that can be said about equipment.  Digital SLR cameras with zoom lenses are the staple of an aviation photographer’s existence.  Of course, that said, the standard package Digital SLR camera that can be bought at places like Sams Club, Costco as a bundle will work perfectly well.   However, there are some of us that will go and spend above that to get the best pictures that we can get.  Purchasing of things like “prime” lenses, lenses that give extra quality because they are manufactured to higher specifications.  Purchasing things like ultra zoom lenses that give incredible close-ups or can take shots of aircraft higher in the sky or further from the airport.  Camera bodies that can take fuller definition pictures are preferred.  There are all the types of equipment that the serious aviation photographer will take into account.

One last thing that we all take into account when it comes to those special schemes—Shamu on the side of a Southwest Boeing 737, Philadelphia Eagles insignia all over the side of a US Airways Airbus A319, depictions of the city of Hong Kong all over the side of a Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-8 freighter . . .

Tracking sites like flightaware.com, flightradar24.com and flightstats.com are great resources to hunt down that special bird, or even just your run of the mill aircraft arrival and departure times.  That will allow you to get to the specific airport in time to catch it before it flies away.

Local knowledge is also a great help.  Whenever you go to an unfamiliar airport, you can often find locals that been spotting for quite a while and know the lay or the land. Invariably, there is an internet or Facebook group that you can join to get the local knowledge as well.

So, while all of the above is a guideline for you to enjoy aviation photography at an airport, there is nothing like getting out, finding an airport close by and going out to have a look –

You never know what you might find.

Mark can be contacted at:

email:  mark@tavustheman.com     site: http://www.tavustheman.com

blog:  http://amateuravphoto.blogspot.com     portfolio: http://marklawrence.zenfolio.com

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Lined up & Waiting

Departing June 26

Are you Really the Best Pilot you can be?

A Game-changing new book by People of the Sky’s JD Marcellin!

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Taxiing for Takeoff

Departing July 1

Blogging in Formation—MY TURN!

July’s Subject: Is a “Pilot Shortage” really Looming?