Safety is the number one rule when doing Air to Air photography. This shot was not made by accident. When we visualized what the shot would look like, the planning began.

This shot was made over the Oshkosh airshow. The image took coordinating with a number of people to create it. We were flying in the photo plane so there was that pilot and a safety observer in that plane. There was Sean D. Tucker flying the Oracle plane. Because it was immediately after the airshow completed, we had to coordinate with the Air Boss who also had to coordinate with the FAA controllers.

After coordinating with all of the different people we discussed in detail what the shot was, angles, SAFETY, background, SAFETY, positions, SAFETY and post shot. Do you see a common theme there?

Once we got airborne, everything almost was second nature as we all had prepared for and planned for everything that we could think of. All of the planning was critical because the entire time of the shoot was maybe about 10 seconds. When you are flying at 125 mph or more, it does not take long to fly over your background. Fortunately, everything worked as planned and this image is the result.

Image Courtesy of:
David Carlson
dcarlsonphoto@gmail.com