Wings Over Houston Airshow 2008 by Barry Jackson

To start this article off, I need to introduce myself. I’m Barry, and I’m an aviaholic. Ever since I’ve been old enough to walk, I have loved airplanes and the aviation industry. From playing with models and toys in my youth (my favorites were the ERTL Force One series, especially the F-15) to spotting at bases and airports around North Texas today, I’ve always loved being around planes. More recently I’ve taken up photographing them as well.

I have shot at my local bases for about a year. Spotting, I’ve found, is much like fishing. The question is always, what will bite today? Will I see an F-15, F-16, F-22, B-52, or B-17? Am I in the best spot for takeoffs or landings? Will I see jets in the break over the field or will they fly straight-in approaches? Spotting at bases and airports is a test photographically: the pilots aren’t paying attention to you and the aircraft aren’t being flown for your benefit, so you have to make sure you are in the right spot.

Every visit to a military base is interesting, but each is also a little different I have had my share of action-packed days, and my share of boring six-hour sitting sessions where nothing moved. Likewise with my photography, many days I have nailed props hitting the runway at 1/125 with full prop blur, and others I couldn’t get a steady shot wide-open.

I joined Fence Check in April 2008 as a “rookie,” and began to post a few photos here and there to my local base threads. After meeting and talking to other local FC members, I decided to give airshows a try. Having seen many other members submit articles and reports, I thought, “Hey, I can do that.” I contacted the Fence Check editorial team, and, to my surprise, in August they gave me accreditation to cover the Wings over Houston airshow in October of 2008.

If spotting is like fishing, then shooting an airshow is like fishing in a stocked pond. Instead of wondering whether anything will happen, you know who the performers will be and the schedule provides almost a play-by-play script of what will happen. I thought I had it made, picturing all of the fine aerobatic and military machines that would be playing directly in front of my perch at show center. All I had to do was shoot away and then write about what happened at the show.

That good feeling lasted about 20 minutes after the action started. I discovered all kinds of challenges that I don’t encounter when I’m out spotting. Things happened in many places at once, the planes moved in ways I couldn’t always predict, the sun was sometimes in the wrong position, the smoke from Tora! Tora! Tora! didn’t blow away fast enough, and on and on. These challenges forced me to do things I don’t normally do when photographing, and some bad results ensued.

When I started down to write the show report, I was rather underwhelmed with myself. This was my first airshow, and shooting for a media outlet had added to the stress of shooting the entire weekend. Now I had to describe my experience to readers, some of whom have photographed hundreds of shows. But everybody has to do something for the first time, and I can’t be the only person starting out in airshow photography. So rather than talk about the show, I want to share what I learned with other newcomers to the hobby. I could go into great detail about the excuses and bush league mistakes I made, but I will keep it short, draw on my inner Mike Huckabee, and share with you four STOPS – not steps, STOPS – to shooting an airshow. I hope these tips will enable other first-timers to enjoy the show and have success with your photography.

1. STOP “spraying and praying.” One of my biggest mistakes at Wings over Houston was that I shot over 7,200 photos over the weekend. I discarded most of them because something was off, usually focus or composition. While the action does come quickly at an airshow, I found that when I steadied myself and took my time to plan the shot as the planes approached, my composition and focus were much more accurate. Shooting less also saves batteries and CF card space.

2. STOP sitting in one place for the entire airshow. Walk the grounds, see the statics, shoot the crowd, talk to the pilots, and shoot the performers from other angles. This is particularly worthwhile if you attend a show for multiple days. After all, if you stay in one spot, your photos each day will look pretty much the same.

3. STOP trying to leave immediately when the show is over. Most of the spectators will try to do the same thing. With the crowds thinned out, other photographers were able to get great evening shots of the statics while I was out sitting in traffic on I-45.

4. STOP shooting once in a while and enjoy the show. I figured this out toward the end of the second day. I relaxed for a bit and considered what I had taken in: a great tribute to our nation’s military, as well as some outstanding displays by the best civilian performers in the country, in front of 100,000 attendees. Besides, most of us liked watching airplanes before we started photographing them; who said we can no longer watch them? Just take 10 minutes from shooting and appreciate the show. It will remind you why you (and I) love sitting outside the fence for the other 51 weeks of the year.

Acknowledgements

Latest Articles