Aviation Photography is probably one of the most difficult and sometimes most frustrating! types of photography to get right, especially the photographing of Military Aircraft.

Just getting near enough to photograph them is hard enough, and when we do, for example at an Airshow, their invariably surrounded by cones, ropes or barriers, not to mention a considerable number of people (Why so many people want to spend all day in the sun looking at and photographing aircraft is a mystery to me!!)

Photocalls and Base visits are another source (Much harder to find but more likely to provide results) for shooting aircraft. But even these good events can bring problems, Light towers and cluttered backgrounds are some of the problems likely to be accountered, not to mention the weather (Don't start me on the weather!!!). Good photo opportunities can not only be found inside airfields but also outside. The majority of airbases in Europe are quite accessible, by either shooting on the approaches or taxiways (this type of photography isn't as easy in the United States because of the size of their airfields, neither is it advisable to try it in such countries as Libya, unless of course you're happy to spend 25 years incarcerated or worse...)

Throw in the small problems - such as weather (Don't start me on the weather!!!), what film/lenses to use?, correct exposure, what to do with the pictures, after all that trouble you've been through to get them? - and you can see that aviation photography can be, at times, a right pain in the ass!

So welcome to Photo School, where we hope the following pages will provide some light hearted advice/information for budding aviation photographers. Most of the information has been said and published before...So we've decided to do it all over again!!

All views/comment/opinions/mistakes are entirely the authors and we apologize if they don't correspond with your opinions......
also as stated above a sense of humour is not optional!

Camera Equipment
In this section we look at the equipment required for aviation photography (Like a Camera for instance!) and also some of the optional extras, that can help make the photographers life a bit easier ( i.e. The new Kodak Portable Sunlight & Coffee Maker!)

Film Choice
Mainly concentrating on Kodak's Kodachrome range of slide film, we also have a look at the other main types of film available.

Trading & Selling Coming Soon
You know them A-1H Skyraiders you shot on that sunny day at Miramar in 1967 on K25...Well I'll trade you some RAF Hawk T.1A's (circa 1999) for those... Yep you guessed it, here we look at trading and selling your slides and some of the pitfalls to be avoided.