To all who wield a camera for General Aviation News and Living With Your Plane:
We should have at least six photos, and hopefully eight, of any airplane we shoot. First we need the left and right front 3/4 shots that show the entire plane from nose to tail. Then we need shots of the nose and tail. And finally, we need at least two shots of the cockpit, one showing the seats and the other focused on the panel. Additional shots that are nice to have are profiles of the plane from the left and the right and close-ups of any part that might be referenced in the article. If you are shooting a person in front of the plane, please try to shoot in at least three different locations, on either side of the airplane and either in the cockpit or standing next to it. Also, shots of aircraft owners working on their airplanes or doing preflight checks or anything that has action in it are better than the “grip and grin” shots of a person smiling in front of their airplane. And please do not limit yourself to six shots. Get creative and shoot from below the wing down the fuselage toward the tail, or from the tail along the fuselage toward the nose, or get down on the grass under the nose and shoot up towards the propeller.
A few more suggestions:
When you are shooting warbirds, please get shots of any nose art and make sure to get overall shots as best you can dependent on the crowds surrounding the airplane. Also please take photos of any crew members explaining parts of the airplane (ball turret, rear gunner’s position, etc.) if you are writing an article about that specific warbird.
It is also helpful to take a shot of the tail number if possible so that we can identify an airplane if we somehow misplace the notes or don’t have time to write down information about a plane’s make, model or owner.
Try to shoot with the sun at your back if possible.
If you are talking with an owner, ask if they have had professional in-flight photos taken of their plane. It would be good to have as many photos of the airplanes in the air as possible. If those are not available, try to get a shot of the airplane taxiing on the runway so that we have some action shots with the pilot doing something more than standing and smiling next to the airplane.
Technical Aspects:
For a full cover shot (preferred) we need the image to be 11.3″ x 14.3″
at 300 dpi. Our logo occupies about 3.5″ at the top.
For a centered photo we need 10″ x 8.25″ 300 dpi.
We can work with JPEG, EPS or TIFF formats.
Please email General Aviation News Editor Janice Wood when you are ready to upload photos.
We also accept cd, zip or e-mailed files.
Thank you,
Janice Wood,
Editor
General Aviation News
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