NZ Aviation News - May 2019

Some great news, one of our images has been featured in NZ aviation news this month. Now that the issue has come out, people have been asking how I got it in the magazine. The real question of course is how could they do it. There is no easy answer, but there is a recipe.

When people start in photography, their initial focus is all on the technical. The questions that dominate their thinking is what are the best settings, what camera and lens should I buy, how can I make my photos look like those? But once you get past those, you begin to realise that the better images come from getting to know your subject, and then finding out what is interesting to you. The image above is not the first image I have taken of a Spitfire, nor of this particular Spitfire. This image is the result of many attempts, both successful and unsuccessful, exploring what I like and how I can make that look more interesting. All of this groundwork, experience and understanding on its own is not enough, it needs something else to make the image stand out from all the rest. It needs a moment.

What do I mean by a moment, for me a moment is when the subject does something unusual or interesting. So when I heard that Brendon Deere’s Spitfire was going to do a display to celebrate its 10th anniversary I thought it would provide some interesting opportunities. Knowing how the pilot might approach the display over the location and having an awareness of what he has done in the past, helps you get luckier. Then if you are lucky enough, the moment, technique and light come together for a second or two and images like this are possible.