Please take at least eight photos of any aircraft you shoot. We need at least one photo of the left front and another of the right front. Please take these photos at a 3/4 angle that shows the entire plane from nose to tail. Then we need one photo that features just the nose and another that features just the tail. Finally, we need at least two photos of the cockpit. One of the cockpit photos should show the seats and the other photo should be focused on the panel showing as much of the controls and instruments as possible.
Always take a shot of the tail number 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.
Additional photos that are always nice to have are profiles of the aircraft from the left and the right and close-ups of any specific part of the aircraft that might be referenced in the article.
If there is interesting nose art or tail art, please be sure to get a photo that features just that artwork. If the plane has an interesting interior, take photos that feature the interior decor as well.
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. As often as possible, take photos with the sun at YOUR back and shining into the subject’s face if possible. If this causes discomfort for your subject, move them into a shaded area but please try to keep the sun at your back as much as possible.
Photos 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” pictures of a person standing and smiling in front of an airplane.
Get creative and take pictures 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. Find angles that are interesting to you and they will likely be interesting to others as well.
WARBIRDS
When photographing warbirds, please get pictures of any nose art and make sure to get overall shots as best you can while working around the crowds surrounding the airplane.
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.
ASK ABOUT IN-FLIGHT PHOTOS
If you are talking with an owner, ask if they have had professional in-flight photos taken of their aircraft. 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, taking off or landing so that we have some action shots with the pilot doing something more than standing and smiling next to the airplane.
If an owner does have professional in-flight photos, be sure to get the name and contact information of the photographer. We will contact the photographer to ensure we have permission to run the photos.
SENDING PHOTOS TO THE EDITOR
Always rename your photos with descriptive file names. It is very hard for us to wade through 20 photos with filenames like IMC456.jpg to figure out which ones are most important to the story.
Put the name of your story in the photo filename, along with your name as the photographer.
For instance, if the story is about FIFI, the photos would be slugged FIFI-1-right-front-Janice-Wood.jpg, FIFI-2-left-front-Janice-Wood.jpg, FIFI-3-cockpit-Janice-Wood.jpg, etc.
If you did not shoot the photos, put the name of the photographer instead of your name.
Include captions for all photos.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
Original files are always better than reduced size versions. We can always make files smaller, not bigger.
All image files should be a minimum of 1640 pixels wide or 1 MB in file size. A full page cover image file (preferred) should be at least 3600 pixels wide or 5 MB in file size. Photos that are 5400 pixels wide or 8 MB in files size are even better.
We can work with JPEG, JPG, EPS, TIFF and Camera Raw formats.
Files can be submitted via email, Flickr, or Dropbox.
Thank you,
Janice Wood, Editor
General Aviation News
800-426-8538
janice@generalaviationnews.com