“Oakland Center are you talking to that traffic at our 9 o’clock position? We got a yellow light out there and it’s coming up pretty fast.” This unusual radio transmission to Air Traffic Control from a Southwest Airlines jet caught our attention on an otherwise routine flight between New Orleans and San Francisco.
One of the most frequently asked questions I get is how I shoot long-exposure photos from the cockpit of an airliner and how they end up sharp, despite flying at roughly 950kmh/590mph/500kts through the air. I will try to answer that question in more detail, going through the process and challenges step by step. Hopefully it sheds some light (pun intended) on the techniques I use and for the pilot-photographers among us some valuable and easy-to-use tips for your next night-flight.
By day, Christiaan van Heijst is an airline pilot who flies 747 jumbo jets around the world. By night (and often by day as well), Van Heijst is a talented photographer who captures breathtaking photos from his seat in the cockpit.
Pilot and photographer Martijn Kort is able to capture a vantage point on the world that most of us simply don't get. Every week, he's up at 38,000 feet, shooting the world below from the cockpit of the commercial airliner he helps fly all over the globe.
Ever wonder what it's like to fly with the Blue Angels? Well, this photograph, taken from inside one of the planes during the Blue Angles' practice last Thursday in Chicago, should give you some idea.
Karim Nafatni has a view of the world that most other photography enthusiasts don't have. When he's not scouring the Dubai landscape for sweeping architectural photographs, Nafatni is often tens of thousands of feet in the air, working in the cockpit of large jetliners as a pilot for a major airline.