The new Top Gun movie has been released in cinemas, and PetaPixel is revisiting the time when a photographer sacrificed his body to recreate the iconic Polaroid scene from the original film.
Photographer Camden Thrasher was shooting a demonstration of US Navy fighter jets when he captured a remarkable close-up photo of a plane creating "shockwave lines" as it approached the speed of sound.
To honor the service of the "Legacy" Hornet jets, the Navy has released a few images taken during the commemorative final flight of the platform by the Blue Angels. In addition to the striking images, the Navy also released a short clip from the inside of the cockpit.
Robert "Scratch" Mitchell was one of the pilots who helped recreate the famous Top Gun canopy-to-canopy photo scene to see if it was possible, and explains in this 10-minute video what his team got right, and what Top Gun got wrong.
Ever wonder how head-on photos of fighter planes flying in formation are captured? All you need to do is sit on the open ramp of a military transport plane while the subjects follow close behind.
Remember in the movie Top Gun, when Goose and Maverick go canopy to canopy with a Russian jet, and Goose snaps that Polaroid? Advertising photographer Blair Bunting wanted to find out if it was possible... so he convinced a jet team to let him try it.
Capturing the supersonic shockwaves of a fighter jet going faster than the speed of sound might seem like science fiction, but NASA actually captured this phenomenon on camera. Not only that, they did it by using a 150-year-old German photography technique.
Liz Kaszynski has one of the coolest photography jobs in the world. As one of the 10 Lockheed Martin aerial photographers certified to take pictures from the back of fighter jets -- and their only female photographer for the F-35 -- she photographs and rides in some of the most advanced flying machines on Earth.
In the video above, we get to go behind the scenes with Kaszynski and see her in action.
Sergeant Larry Reid Jr. has a job many men and women in the photo world can only dream of having. He’s a United States Air Force Photojournalist... more specifically, he's the official photographer for the USAF Thunderbird squad.
The above video, which was put together by Fstoppers' Jaron Schneider, takes an inside look into what Sergeant Reid Jr. does on a day-to-day basis.
Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens was recently invited to shoot at Luke Air Force Base (again) and he didn't want to miss turning this into an educational opportunity. And so, in the behind the scenes video above, he shows you how he was able to dynamically light up a portrait that involved a fighter pilot and an entire fight jet using only four 400 Watt strobes.
We're fully aware that the term 'epic' is overused to the point where it means almost nothing. But in this case, we can't help ourselves... because if this selfie doesn't qualify as epic, then we're not sure any selfie can.
Yuri Arcurs, the world's top-selling microstock photographer, will go to great lengths to prove he's right, and the video above is a great case in point for that. He wanted to prove that he could flash freeze a fighter jet at full speed, and he got that shot. All he needed was approximately 30,000W of fill flash... no big deal.
The splendor of the white snowy peaks of the Andes mountains is one of the reasons thousands of nature enthusiasts and outdoor adventurers flock to Peru every year. A front row seat to such stunning views aboard the cockpit of a C-130, at the age of eight, is an unforgettable memory that sparked my passion for planes.
Iran recently made headlines when they unveiled their new state-of-the-art fighter jet, the Qaher-313. Touted as a cross between an F-35 and an F-22, it immediately fell under scrutiny when aviation experts pointed out that the plane that was unveiled could, at best, be only a miniature working prototype.
In response, the Khouz News website published the photo above, showing the 313 patrolling the skies over majestic Mount Damavand. Clearly this was the real deal, right? Not exactly. As it turns out, the photo is a Photoshop creation combining a wallpaper image courtesy of Picky Wallpapers, and one of the original photos of the jet from the unveiling.
Aviation photographer Justin de Reuck has an awesome job: rather than do photo …