I seem to have become an expert at doing this since I’ve spent evry weekend up STN for 6 months messing around with my crappy £200 camera just to produce some good shots. I gave this same advice to Andy (A330 Crazy) and I think he’s beginning to see it works too. My camera has terrible lag between pushing the button and taking the shot, but I think I’ve mastered it now! The main problem is that these cheap(er) cameras have trouble focusing on an object that (appears) so small in the frame compared to the acres of sky around it. The method I’ve adopted is to stand behind an object, facing the aircraft coming towards you (for example something like a tree, a set of lamposts, a fence).
Then you wait til the plane is half in the shot, with the object (whatever it may be) in the other half, and focus it. The camera will find it much more easier to focus on the object you have infront of you with the plane just in the top of the frame. Once it has focused, you can then take it off the object, follow the plane until it is where you want it in the frame, and then take the shot! It can be quite funny to watch I would imagine, many times I’ve found myself in trees and having to jump out at the last second to capture the plane!
It does take a bit of time to master, but you should get there in the end. Below we have 2 shots, the first was the first shot I ever took, about 6 months ago. The next was taken last week, notice much difference?!
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