The Peak of Action
Smoke trails and afterburner effects are great additions to an aviation image. Be
ready for them, as they happen quickly. The trails of white smoke are actually created
by pumping oil into the exhaust pipe. This is particularly interesting when used by an
entire formation of planes. The patterns of sm oke can be used to make for a more
artistic composition. In addition, it adds a bit of contrast to the otherwise plain blue
sky. I also look to capture the interaction between two planes. When pilots are flying
side by side with their wings nearly touching, a great deal of tension is introduced to
the photo. By freezing this moment in time you are also showcasing the precision, and
skill of the daring pilots.
Enough Memory
With all of this fast-paced action, you will likely burn through many memory cards
rapidly. I used to bring a portable hard drive with me and download the contents of
the card while continuing to shoot. This is no longer necessary as large capacity cards
of 32GB are now very reasonably priced. I like to shoot in RAW format whenever
possible. However, if you are short on memory cards, you may want to consider
shooting in the Large/Fine JPEG format. This will allow you to fit more images on the
card than RAW.
PicsArt Monthly | 35