Plane spotting

M

Mike150

Senior Member
pedroj said:
Get a lot of spray paint cans and do it at night...
Click to expand...

Just remember, it's easier to tag them while they're still on the ground.

Seriously... Marcel is right. Hang around the airports. Observe the flight paths into or out of the airports. Find a parking lot along these flight paths. Easiest shots are of landing aircraft.
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
Wow, you guys are helpful, lol. Most major airports have a website that has been built by spotters. On the website, you will find good advice where to take pictures from. You will also get advice on when and where the heavies will land, radio freqs, which runway will be used when wind is bowing in a certain direction and so on. You may need a ladder of some sort so that you can get your viewfinder over the height of any fence. You can check flightaware.com to see exactly what flights are expected to land and takeoff, then you can get to the airport when ur favourite airline or airliner is coming in. Try ur best to go during the day - using flash is kind of frowned upon and it won't do all that much good when your hundreds of fett away from the subject. Anything else?
 
M

m4ilm4n

Senior Member
I strongly second AC016's post about looking up the airport's planespotter's group and follow their recommendations. For example, the Baltimore-Washington group put together a guide for Dulles International:
http://www.washbaltspotters.net/files/iadspots.pdf

If you don't shoot from the areas they list you can expect a visit from airport police.

I also recommend FlightAware - it's an awesome resource for aircraft photography, as is WeatherSpark, which can show you projected wind patterns.
 
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