Never saw this thread!

Achievements for 2006:

-Upgraded from 350D to 400D
-Visited PMI, DUS and AMS specifically for photography (along with 20 or so smaller trips such as DUB, MAN, SNN etc.)
-A photographers choice on jp.net
-A top of the day on a.net
-Brought total on jp.net to over 940
-Brought total on a.net to nearly 200
-Had several photos published at significant profits, including Airliner World, and an A3 Poster of one of my shots in a big German magazine. Also sold various photos to private buyers, and have made a very good contact in the German aviation magazine sector.

Goals for 2007:

-Take lots of photos on my upcoming trips, namely Hahn in 2 weeks, Lanzarote in February, and Geneva/Zurich in April flying Swiss from LCY-GVA-ZRH-LCY on 146’s/A319. Spending two days in ZRH, that’s gonna be the big one!
-Get more photos published (maybe have one lined up for March so far)
-Visit MAN again, and I quite fancy a few others such as CPH, MUC, INN and AMS again would be great.
-Get many more shots on a.net and jp.net. Hopefully an SC on jp.net and a top of the day on a.net.
-Do my best to get more cockpit visits and wingviews on a few different aircraft types
-Buy a fisheye lense for something a bit different. Maybe the Sigma 10-20mm.

Lets keep my fingers crossed and see how they go!

Adam, f6.3 at full zoom is as fast as you’ll get, if your lense is f3.5-6.3. However, I would think that such a wide aperture is un-necessary unless it was a very cloudy day or low-light conditions.

What I’d do is set it on aperture priority, start at f8 ISO 200 (unless it’s a really sunny day, go for ISO 100). Take a few shots and then in the review mode, look at what shutters you were getting. I’d say anything in the 1/125th-1/400th is fine, depending on how good you are at panning and whether you are zoomed a lot (obviously at high zoom you might want to be aiming at the faster speeds, 1/400th or so). If you are getting speeds above that, then increase the f number (ie. make it narrower, and therefore increase the depth of field)! Upto about f11 is great, after that they can start to get a bit soft.

That’s some very good work there Adam, very promising! One thing that maybe I’d recommend…try to use a slightly higher aperture number and pan the shorts. Several of them seem focused in the centre, but out of focus at the front and/or back. With a higher aperture you’ll get the whole aircraft focused as it comes towards or away from you. Do you have any idea what you were using? I’d usually go for f10-11 if weather permits, f8 on a bad day.

Great selection there! I am beginning to get quite tempted about heading upto ABZ. Is the ‘farm road’ in walking distance from the terminal, and is it in the right place with the Sun for most of the day? And by ‘official viewing area’ is it actually a terrace or anything, or just somewhere that security etc encourage people to gather? Is it mainly just ramp shots available from there?