So, how many aviation photos have you taken?

Do i share that feeling with just myself?

I know that feeling. But practise makes perfect, take the right eye on the viewer, and the left on the plane. You’d think it would not work, but it does! After all, an Apache pilot looks with one eye outside, and one eye into his/her eyepiece-gadget-thingy.

Well said Paul!

Do i share that feeling with just myself?

Not at all, Adam. I know exactly what you mean. It’s actually very rare I don’t see aircraft through the viewfinder (unless I’m actually on one), and sometimes I do regret that. On a recent trip to LHR I was stood right at the perimeter fence at the end of 27R and a BA 747 was on finals. I was messing around trying to put the wide angle lens on my camera it time and I just thought “forget the camera!” I put the camera down and watched in disbelief and awe as several hundred tons of beautiful engineering sailed majestically right over my head, and it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed. I’d have completely missed the impact of that moment had I been trying to photograph it.

Then again, I love taking photos of aircraft, so I never really consider it wasting time or missing opportunities as such. The best airports for me are places like LHR, where the movements are so frequent you can actually put the camera down and enjoy the action with your own eyes and know there’ll still be plenty more to come!

Paul

I didnt start the thread to make a ‘i’ve got more than you’ competition. i want to see how far peeps on here take their hobby.

It makes me wonder; we visit airports quite frequently, judging by the number of threads in this forum, but what do we go there for? To take pictures, or watch planes? If we spend the hours staring down a viewfinder, then we miss out on just being able to stare at and admire the aircraft as they go by. But, don’t get me wrong, i love photography.

An example was when i first saw the An124 at East Mids. It came down the taxiway that was no more than 50 metres in front of us. This enormous aircraft rolled past, and i spent the time photographing it. 66 photos of this one aircraft – trigger happy but it was the first time i had seen it. I realised that i had actually missed the aircraft. i was looking at it through a screen/viewfinder and not with my own eyes. So i felt like i had missed out.
Do i share that feeling with just myself?

Paul, Sorry if I gave you that impression, I never have and would never consider turning it in to a form of “competition” there is no competetitvness in this game, just you and YOUR camera…

Cheers mate
Mark

My thoughts exactly, mate!

Paul

Paul, Sorry if I gave you that impression, I never have and would never consider turning it in to a form of “competition” there is no competetitvness in this game, just you and YOUR camera…

Cheers mate
Mark

Lets put something into perspective here folks, without subtracting from the original post…..in my own personal opnion its not just how many you take, but what you take, and how well you take it. Following on from that, learning from the mistakes you make (as we all make them) in order to correct the problem/mistake next time. The end result being, less bad/poor images and more good ones and there fore saving precious tme to go out and take some more….

Remember, just a point of view…….and lastly, remember the image is in the eye of the artist, there is no right and there is no wrong, if it comes out as desired/designed then its a result.

Nope, if A.Net reject it, then you’ve totally wasted your time and brought your nice DSLR a few hundred clicks closer to the end of its life for no good reason…

I am, of course, joking! Fair point you have, Mark, but I don’t think Adam was asking the question to turn it into some kind of competition. For many of us taking so many shots in a short period of time has simply been part of the learning curve, and I think for many photographers on this forum that certainly shows. I can think of a good few photographers on here whose work has improved dramatically, even over just the last year (and I’d like to consider myself in that group as well). The more experience you have, the less you need to experiment, but to get the experience you need to experiment!

Paul

Lets put something into perspective here folks, without subtracting from the original post…..in my own personal opnion its not just how many you take, but what you take, and how well you take it. Following on from that, learning from the mistakes you make (as we all make them) in order to correct the problem/mistake next time. The end result being, less bad/poor images and more good ones and there fore saving precious tme to go out and take some more….

Remember, just a point of view…….and lastly, remember the image is in the eye of the artist, there is no right and there is no wrong, if it comes out as desired/designed then its a result.

Well seeing as I started at the end of 2003, going through all my images from back then, to know, I have counted (Or should I say my computer) 43,752 images 😀
I got nearly 1000 at Farnborough this year and I also take a lot more than what I should at BHX! On average I get 200 shots per visit. That equals to like….10 per aircraft! 😀

Have currently on my hard drives 51,389 original pics (before paintshop) and another 9,150 post paintshop, also have 9 full dvd’s no idea how much is on them. I shoot silly amounts each time i go somewhere, at Zurich earlier this year for 2 days for example, shot 4,778, LHR for 3 hours last week, 960. as i travel a fair bit and visit airports a lot with my cam i easily shoot a few thousand a week average(very rarely delete, no matter how terrible they are!!).The magic of digital!!

I’ve got around 1100 on my PC that I’ve kept, but usually quite a few I take get deleted so in reality the true figure is around 2000-2500:).

No more than 500. 😮

I keep on having to empty an 80gig drive onto DVD’s! Don’t know how many photos, but I reckon its quite a few!

well, this is slightly embarrassing, and something I have always kept a tab on…..here goes…..since starting in 1984 I have 17,833 slides, negatives (as I cant calcualte the prints) 8 binders each containing 6,000 negs…..err, and digital well, Im up to 12,800 aviation photos this year, so probably including all my other stuff over the last 3 years I would say nearly 70,000 images….

Sad eh?

Since I started a little under 10 years ago I acumulated roughly 10’000 photos of which most are digital. However, I never kept track of the photos I deleted so odds are that the number of shots I made are double or tripple that.

Since getting into photography early last year I’ve taken 21,957 aviation images. Some call it being trigger happy… I call it hard practice!

The total number of photos I’ve taken seems to be 40,339. A nice almost 50/50 split between aviation and non-aviation shots!

Paul

Hmm on my PC (all backed up) about 10,000… All together since 2004 i’ve took around 35,000 😮

Im sure you have…. but make sure they are backed up!!

Rickt

Wow, you’ve certainly been busy with the camera.
The aviation albums on my website contain in total about 250 digital photos.
I also have a few vintage ones scanned in to a photopic site, and probably about another 200 or so old traditional photos of aircraft which aren’t good enough quality to be worth scanning in, so in round figures my total would be around 500. I save them to Yahoo Photo Albums (if for my website) or to Photobucket (if for private viewing or for posting on forums) and I don’t retain copies of them on my computer as they take up disc space.