This Air Canada Airbus 319 came to my airport as a charter, bringing back forest fire fighters from BC. Talked to the Captain, to make sure he was ok with me being on the runway during take off...he was fine with that. I was actually laying on the edge of the runway.
Focussed on a ILS building (off frame, to our left), then placed it on manual focus as I knew the focussing would be a problem during this shot. I am literly laying on runway, on the very edge. I can also say, I was really really happy to see this bird leave the ground...
Still not exactly what I envisioned, but probably the closest I'm going to get to what I want. (I would have liked to have seen the nose up a little more, as I wanted more belly)
This is the nice dramatic angle and you went to some trouble (and risk) to get it! I think the plane needs to be a little larger in the frame. As long as you're there, you would probably want to make a sequence of photos, although with the buffer of digital cameras, it is sometimes hard to make multiple images. I second the thought that the saturation could be better. Another idea I have (having shot thousands of aircraft images)is to move a little to one side of the runway. This has two advantages. Your composition becomes a diagonal, which is usually more interesting, and you take your body out of the flight path in case the pilot's ground roll is more than planned!
Hi Derek, I shoot a lot of aircraft photos with my EOS 30 (7E on your side of the globe), and have ALWAYS shot with AF ON, and never missed a shot out of focus, even when shooting military a/c in airshows at quite high speed! According to adverts, the 10D has the same AF as my camera, so do not go to MF as I think it would give you sharper results. I would have gone for a vertical composed shot for this though....just my opinion. Keep it up.
Marti: Actually, it is here too...the aiport manager wasn't around, and there wasn't anyone around to really stop me. The pilot was the only one that knew I was going to do this. The manager has no problems allowing my to go at the end of the runway, but at the SIDE! But, he wasn't around. I wanted the nose up more, but reading your comment about the cockpit windows - makes sense to me, and now I'm glad I got the shot that I did. I will try to adjust levels as you suggested as well.
Have you tried adjusting the contrast and balance? It is a very nice shot with good composition but seems that the color could be a little more saturated to bring out the clouds. I'm glad you didn't get the nose up higher as the cockpit windows add personality to the aircraft. (You must be in Canada I take it. Laying on an active runway would be forbidden in the US.)
Much better shot than your last upload. The sky is more blue and much more dramatic with the runway in the foreground. It was a rush wasn't it? Is it going to take off, oh, shit...ahhh...take off...haha. Next time, put your camera on consecutive focus and high speed so you can take as many shots as possible while it's coming at you. The nice thing about your lens is you can pull back to 28 mm for the overhead shot. If you can try again with a circular polarizer to make the sky a deeper blue. Congrats.
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