Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam), 27-5-2012

Also, having read your website, don’t underestimate your local airport Eindhoven! Get yourself an account at the local spotters forum and you can see the interesting movements at Eindhoven. For instance, most of the times the Luchtmacht have a IL76 on mondays and fridays! Antonovs (12 & 124) also visit frequently but irregularly.

Best tip I can give you is to move away from the official spotter area. Instead move to the other side of the runway. All your photos are backlit and, if I can be very honest, it spoils the set.

The other side of the runway is pedestrian only, the IJweg. Don’t park your car here cause the police check it often. Also, one of the farmers that live on this road is a bitch and she will report anyone to the police.

If you are by car I would advise parking at the parallelweg at the Schipholweg. It’s a somewhat long walk, count on 30 minutes, but it’s worth it.

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On the subject of battery grips, it really depends on personal taste. Some people love them, some don’t because they add weight. Generally speaking though when you got a heavy lense, for instance the canon 100-400L, then it might be usefull as it will balance out the camera a bit more. On lighter lenses, fior instance the kit lense, having a battery grip would probably be overkill.

Assuming you don’t shoot 10 photos of every plane, then with weather like this your battery should easily run a full day with room to spare. During cold days in winter you might need to use a second battery as batteries don’t like to be cold, but then who does?