This is a perfect example of social media propagation: I saw this first on reddit , then on the flyer forums , someone sent me the link via Facebook, then it was on the PPLIR forums, now here…
I understand this all started when smugmug made a video! – Jessica’s website uses smugmug.
Incredible pictures, and the flying involved looks like enormous fun!
Yes, fantastic pictures. I am sure I am saw an article about shooting the bizjets in this collection in one of the recent GA or Photography mags. It is interesting to guess whether there has been a bit of photoshopping applied (why not, these are commercial photographs after all) – maybe adding more interesting skyscapes. I actually dont think the closeness of any plane with respect to another plane has been photoshopped, rather it is a slight optical illusion due to the angles they were shot at, though some of the aeros probably were that close. These are my two passions, and I would love to take these kind of shots.
A professional photographer friend did ask if I would assist him with some commercial air to air shots, but I declined as the PA28 is not fast or aerodynamic enough to start getting into that game, there could be no profit for me, and besides the plasticy windows are not good enough to shoot through. It would be interesting to see some behind the scenes footage to see what went into taking some of these shots.
Yes, very good pictures!
I used to do Air-to-Airs professionally (“www.airwork-images..com)":http://www.airwork-images..com*) – and I can tell you it’s not so easy to set up a flight for such a photo session the right way. My best experience was with test, aerobatic and military pilots, while typical private pilots rarely have the skills to fly a tight formation… Search my website for “Cloud Dancer”, a P-51 I once photographer. Now that was an air racing pilot who had no problems.
By the way: In my other plane, the PA-28-151 Warrior I have installed a sliding window for pictures. Those are available as kits, for example form a company called WEISS in Munich (Plexiglas Weiss). They work pretty well but if they’re enot isntalled perfectly you always have a noise from the window.
I also used to do pictures through the little storm window of the Piper – and I actually did a while book about Munich like that (Called “ABOVE MUNICH”). That was 25 hours of circling the city while doing the pictures :-)
Some more of my pictures here:
http://www.posterlounge.de/page.shop.search.php?PHPSESSID=71586744b779c2370c8d393e40b67a5e&action=search&query=alexis+von+croy&gosearch.x=0&gosearch.y=0
This is a perfect example of social media propagation
I think that applies to 99% of aviation knowledge these days 
I posted that because I thought they were good pics.
There is no doubt that with the vast costs involved in getting planes in the air and the various pilots who in many cases are going to be paid for the flying, one is going to be using high grade gear and not a 100 quid pocket camera. From what I have read, a lot of this work is done in free air (not through a window of any kind) and the photographer even wears black clothing, black gloves, etc. Even in normal GA aerial pic taking, wearing dark stuff makes a huge difference, and that assumes the windows are not scratched.
By the way, Peter – how can i delete a posting i made?
You can’t delete as such but you can replace it with nothing, and if I see that I delete the posting if/when I get around to it.
After the 2-hour edit window you can’t do anything, but I can delete it for you if you email me with the details.
Pretty strict policy :-)
Fantastic air to air photos!
A video on how the shoot was done here:
