Pictures from an airplane window to another airplane? Tips?

[SpiltPickle]

Tomorrow I'm going up in a small buisness jet that will meet up with another one in formation. They've asked me to take pictures.

Any tips for taking photos out the windows of the other plane?

Thanks.

[artyman]

Clean the windows :D

[macca172]

Keep your lens and close as possible to the window glass and yes, clean the external of the glass before the flight!

[aviator.4.life]

Clean the windows :D

+1, take lens cleaner or something.

[mathogre]

Take some test shots from the ground before you take off. Look at the photos before you take off. Have fun!

Btw, we want to see photos afterwards. :D

[PhotosGuy]

clean the external of the glass before the flight! All of them, inside & outside. You can't be sure which ones you'll have to use. ( Including the pilots if you want to try some dramatic shots from the rear.)

Try to shoot upsun to the other AC so your windows will be in shadow.

[FlyingPhotog]

If I were you I'd rent/borrow a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS or f/4 IS...

You're really wide and really long in your Sig.

[By-tor]

To bad you couldn't leave a door open for much better shots...

We took up a photog in one of our C-130's while in Germany to take shots of another one of our aircraft and we opened the ramp and door and put him in a harness for some great shots..

Have a good time and post them..

[FlyingPhotog]

Pics Yet?

[SpiltPickle]

I haven't been able to post any due to company policies...
Have to wait for the plane to actually be delivered to the customer, which is happening today, so should be able to post some this afternoon.

[SpiltPickle]

Ok, here's a couple of them.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_LSPx_RIbdAA/SruU24y_rbI/AAAAAAAAALw/zZFXvweohrU/s800/IMG_1828.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_LSPx_RIbdAA/SruVdmVdIfI/AAAAAAAAAL8/9EyArxAHnCQ/s800/IMG_1874.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_LSPx_RIbdAA/SruVobmCXSI/AAAAAAAAAMA/QADAA5fqklo/s800/IMG_1861.jpg

Unfortunately since the chase plane was dragging a trailing cone, we couldn't get in front of the target plane. So the only thing that really changes is the background.
We overshot them once and provided me with the only top-down banking shot possible. Unfortunately we were turning away from them quite quickly and I didn't manage to frame the shot in time. Ended up with a little airplane in a BIG sky picture.

[mathogre]

Oh man, they're gorgeous. I especially like the third one, though I'm imagining it as a crop of the same aspect ratio that includes mostly just the jet and some of the blue sky and wispier portions of the clouds.

You *did* have fun with this, didn't you? Need a second shooter on any of these? :D

[mathogre]

You have image editing on. I've done a crop to show what I meant. I also put your copyright info on your image.

[SpiltPickle]

Some ground shots...

Here's the plane I was flying on.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_LSPx_RIbdAA/SrbKnx__W8I/AAAAAAAAAGA/aBdnRzzP1TI/s800/IMG_1702.JPG

Fueling the target plane.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_LSPx_RIbdAA/SrbKmn6fjNI/AAAAAAAAAF0/CiLAA7a-KBY/s800/IMG_1698.JPG

This was my view forward in the chase plane. It only had a 6psi valve in it, so we had to be on oxygen above 30,000ft or so.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_LSPx_RIbdAA/SrbKyWc5e1I/AAAAAAAAAHY/0_2EiUI3oRI/s800/IMG_1748.JPG

The forward window was the only one I could get shots out of. (Not me sitting there in this pic)
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_LSPx_RIbdAA/SrbKrEXrHTI/AAAAAAAAAGk/Ztdm4bEefDA/s800/IMG_1718.JPG

[aviator.4.life]

Does the pilot in #1 not want his picture taken? lol

[SpiltPickle]

heh, I'm not quite sure what he was doing there. I originally though giving hand signals to the ground crew chief, but he has a headset plugged in as well.... I'll have to ask him. :)

[A2EVOMR]

heh, I'm not quite sure what he was doing there. I originally though giving hand signals to the ground crew chief, but he has a headset plugged in as well.... I'll have to ask him. :)

He could have had the preflight checklist wrote down on his hand :lol:


Excellent pics and a great looking aircraft.

[FlyingPhotog]

Given the limitations you faced, I'd say you did a fine job. Congrats.

I take it you're involved with the ongoing development of the target aircraft?