Dear fellow photographers,

a question that got to me today; what was the "hardest" picture for me to get into the A-net data base?
No, I`m not talking about the strict screening rules, causing me to re-edit a picture like 20 times; because that is an entirely different matter.

I am talking about creating the image, what did you have to do for it?
What did it take?

Examples:

-You had to walk 5 miles with aggressive dogs chasing you before you managed to grab the image in question.
-You had to pay $1.000,- to a chopper pilot enabling you to take that one particular shot.
-You spent a night in jail because of a certain photo.

Although not as extreme, the 3 images that come to mind for me at the moment always bring back memories:



Boring, right??
I took a 45 minute taxi ($$) to this remote airfield which was supposedly full of planes (or so I was told in the nearby town).
When I got there, all I could see was an airstrip through a fence.
I nearly climbed the fence but luckily I didn`t because shortly after security arrived.
I had to move heaven & hell to enter the fences and at least remotely approach the airfield.
After shooting this image, I was asked to leave by the boss of the guy who gave me permission to enter.
There was a plane due to arrive but I was not welcome to stay and photograph the approach.
I spent the 45 minutes on the way back in the taxi praying that at least this image would be accepted!



This image of "El Guapo" (meaning the handsome one) landed me in a bit of trouble with security guards.
Later on, I was given permission to shoot whatever I wanted on this airfield; but there were serious issues in the beginning.



Upon landing on this remote airfield, police approached us on a motorbike with a gun drawn.
They wanted to know everything about us and our intentions.
In total they must have kept us there for 2,5 hours with the immigration officers and a special drug agency checking literally every nook & cranny.
5 cars arrived with a total of 20 people. All taking forever to get there, of course.
We had nothing to hide, but still; it was a long time waiting just to take 1 particular shot. (Hindsight).
Happy it was accepted in the data base though!

I am sure some of you have way better stories!

Cheers,

No Tax On Rotax

Hi Sir Hofma,

Nice topic, let's see if we can get some life into this forum. I'm not sure anyone can beat your dedication though.



The story behind this one is at least a little odd. I was at the RAF Cosford airshow, which was backlit, and I noticed some people standing on a plateau near the runway threshold who seemed to be enjoying much better light than I did. I wasn't sure how to get there, so I headed straight into a patch of forest and crossed a little stream. I then hit a kind of meditative park with Buddha sculptures and wind chimes - rather odd on a military base, I thought, but okay, this was England after all. I then hit a public road and realized that I had exited the base - there were no fences at this point!

I joined the spectators whom I had seen, and at the end of the flying program I headed back the same way I had come. It just got a little nasty when I was confronted not by security, but by the lady who owned the place, and who demanded to see my ticket - not my official airshow ticket, but one of the tickets she had been selling to watch what she called 'my airshow'!


By the way, sorry for not having followed up on your invitation to visit. I should have dropped you a note at least, ny apologies!

Peter

ptrjong wrote:

The story behind this one is at least a little odd. :

A little odd, indeed!
You don`t expect a Buddha at a Western airfield, I guess.

Cunning woman though, selling tickets for "her" airshow at the non-sunny side!

ptrjong wrote:

By the way, sorry for not having followed up on your invitation to visit. I should have dropped you a note at least, ny apologies!

Peter

No worries, we´ll be in touch.

No Tax On Rotax

Thank You for an interesting subject!

Perhaps I dare to participate although I have nothing very brave or exotic to add.

But this aircraft is very difficult to spot since it is used only indoors for teaching purposes at Flygteknik Technical School at NYO. This afternoon I could see it parked outside, but had to climb a rusty evacuation ladder outside a building far away to avoid that the perimeter fence be visible. Long telezoom was needed and a steady hand in low light. Today I would never have taken such a risk, having added many kilos in weight...


This waiting Boeing above I managed to catch in the middle of a heavy snowfall. And when I was on the bus to the airport, before this photo, I met the Spanish co-pilot, who was very friendly and told me about the extra challenge when taking off in snowy conditions. He is here seated in the cockpit.


Here on the contrary it was a wonderful and sunny lunchtime arrival, cold but no heathaze, otherwise it would not have been able to use 600mm tele and a distance of some 800 metres to the landing aircraft. Heathaze is one of the most ruining factors I think when flight spotting.


The four SAAB aircraft above were difficult to find in perfect diagonal line and then frame them nicely. And this year we were very lucky to enjoy a deep blue sky and no clouds at all during the annual autumn air show.

My first time to see an Active DC-3... well the hardest thing should be the process that i took this one. It landed in Macau but i was a Guangzhou Spotter it cost me a lot of time to get there also expensive transportation cost. And.... it was raining for a long time before it arrived, i stood there with rain for more than 6 hrs.



This is also my first time to see a Passenger version 747SP... and was my last time to see. I spent more than 2000 RMB to fly from Guangzhou to Beijing and in order to wait its departure and pushed back i have no choice but to stand outside the terminal building for more than 6 hrs with cold weather ( Maybe about 5 degree C and strong wind ) . It was delayed for 2 hrs that day , but anyway got it !

Not as extreme as your examples, but I fell off my bike before (nothing broken back then, but quite a few scratches) and was still significantly blooding when taking this shot.




Ironically I am currently out for a few weeks with a fractured / broken wrist....from a bike accident (not at the Airport though this time )
but luckily these two were my only bike accidents in the past 15 years or so..

JKPhotos wrote:

Ironically I am currently out for a few weeks with a fractured / broken wrist....from a bike accident (not at the Airport though this time )
but luckily these two were my only bike accidents in the past 15 years or so..

Get better soon, Julien!

Here are two of mine:



It was a very windy day and I was bouncing all over the place and being lifted out of my seat while trying to take this one. Luckily, I ended up with a few frames that were sharp and centered.



For the Miracle on the Hudson shot, I had been following the convoy from NJ into Delaware, and had scouted this location out on Google Maps the night before, as it was one of the few overpasses that didn't have fencing and had the right angle for good light. I missed an earlier photo op further north in Delaware, and raced to get to the overpass. I had to park and run about a quarter of a mile to get to the spot, which I did with seconds to spare.

frippe wrote:

Thank You for an interesting subject!

Perhaps I dare to participate although I have nothing very brave or exotic to add.

But this aircraft is very difficult to spot since it is used only indoors for teaching purposes at Flygteknik Technical School at NYO. This afternoon I could see it parked outside, but had to climb a rusty evacuation ladder outside a building far away to avoid that the perimeter fence be visible. Long telezoom was needed and a steady hand in low light. Today I would never have taken such a risk, having added many kilos in weight...

Thanks for participating in this thread!
That is pretty brave, if you ask me; climbing that rusty ladder!
Your story is exactly the type of stuff I meant with this thread!
A pretty "common" shot has got a lot more than meets the eye, sometimes!

HarryLi wrote:

My first time to see an Active DC-3... well the hardest thing should be the process that i took this one. It landed in Macau but i was a Guangzhou Spotter it cost me a lot of time to get there also expensive transportation cost. And.... it was raining for a long time before it arrived, i stood there with rain for more than 6 hrs.

Wow, 6 hours waiting.
Shame that those hard pics don`t get the attention and clicks they deserve!
Still, you must feel good about this shot having been accepted in the data base.

JKPhotos wrote:

Not as extreme as your examples, but I fell off my bike before (nothing broken back then, but quite a few scratches) and was still significantly blooding when taking this shot.

.

You were bleeding while taking this shot, it doesn`t get a lot more dramatic than that!
If only people would know the "pain" we go through to get our images accepted!
Keep up the good work, and get well soon!

planespot wrote:

For the Miracle on the Hudson shot, I had been following the convoy from NJ into Delaware, and had scouted this location out on Google Maps the night before, as it was one of the few overpasses that didn't have fencing and had the right angle for good light. I missed an earlier photo op further north in Delaware, and raced to get to the overpass. I had to park and run about a quarter of a mile to get to the spot, which I did with seconds to spare.

Excellent prep-work, excellent shot!
The A320 truckin´down the road actually appears in my screensaver on my laptop, very cool to know the background story behind it.
Many thanks!

Please keep those stories coming.....folks.


No Tax On Rotax

Nowhere near as epic as others, here are two shots with some background story.



By dumb luck I was in Tokyo on the day that the wonderful ANA BB-8 flew for the first time from Osaka to Haneda after being painted. There was a myriad of spotters waiting for it on the JAL side of the domestic terminal in Haneda, when some fifteen minutes before the landing time a guy comes around the terrasse shouting "three-four-right!". Obviously that meant a last-minute runway change. It was a sight to behold. Twenty-something adult guys, running camera in hand through the tunnel that connects the two sides of the domestic terminal. We arrived with a couple of minutes to spare, but some other spotters that took the bus weren't that lucky.



For this one, there was less sweat involved, but the same amount of tension. I found out that the retro 748 was arriving from Haneda on the same night that I was flying out of Frankfurt, so I had a chance at a shot that I wanted for a long time. After asking a couple of ground agents on a boarding gate, I found out where was it supposed to park, and I shot another 748 that was departing an hour before the retro arrived on the very same gate. A second before removing the camera from the tripod, I thought "hold on, you have nothing better to do than to be prepared for the Retro, so don't touch a thing". Said and done, I left the camera pre-focused and pre-framed on the 748, and waited there.
Lucky for me that I did so, because once the Retro stopped at the gate, the first cleaning truck popped by door 2L some ten seconds after! I could only shooot a five-seconds exposure, and then that was it.

No blood involved, though

planespot wrote:

JKPhotos wrote:

Ironically I am currently out for a few weeks with a fractured / broken wrist....from a bike accident (not at the Airport though this time )
but luckily these two were my only bike accidents in the past 15 years or so..

Get better soon, Julien!

For the Miracle on the Hudson shot, I had been following the convoy from NJ into Delaware, and had scouted this location out on Google Maps the night before, as it was one of the few overpasses that didn't have fencing and had the right angle for good light. I missed an earlier photo op further north in Delaware, and raced to get to the overpass. I had to park and run about a quarter of a mile to get to the spot, which I did with seconds to spare.

Thanks Cary & Notaxonrotax. I am doing my best.

The Miracle of the Hudson shot was definitel worth it. One of a Kind, great stuff.

Proooooooobably this one:


Took me a couple of evening of trial and error and I only had 1 chance every evening. Eventually, a bit of luck and skill/practise worked out great. And I got lucky that A.net was actively advertising that they wanted more creative photos. I still consider this one to be one of my (if not the) best image on A.net. I hope I can perfect it and try with other subjects as well in the coming winters.

A good second may be the elusive Peter Max. Back when I was young and without a car, I chased this bird for months. An A.net user kept a thread in civ.av current with the whereabouts of the bird, but I always seemed to miss it. But on this gorgeous January day, I finally got it. Had to take a bus from the airport train station and then still walk for 20-40 minutes, but I made it just in time. And it seemed as if the whole spotting community was out there on that day, you will find plenty of photos from this location and day in the DB

airkas1 wrote:

Proooooooobably this one:

Took me a couple of evening of trial and error and I only had 1 chance every evening. Eventually, a bit of luck and skill/practise worked out great. And I got lucky that A.net was actively advertising that they wanted more creative photos. I still consider this one to be one of my (if not the) best image on A.net. I hope I can perfect it and try with other subjects as well in the coming winters.

A good second may be the elusive Peter Max. Back when I was young and without a car, I chased this bird for months. An A.net user kept a thread in civ.av current with the whereabouts of the bird, but I always seemed to miss it. But on this gorgeous January day, I finally got it. Had to take a bus from the airport train station and then still walk for 20-40 minutes, but I made it just in time. And it seemed as if the whole spotting community was out there on that day, you will find plenty of photos from this location and day in the DB

Interesting background, Kas!
Thanks.

No Tax On Rotax

Nice stories and interesting to read! For me it`s probably this nightshot with a thunderstorm. Never maneged to get a night shot accepted before. I was on my way to Kathmandu when somewhere above India I saw this storm with lightning out of my window. I remember trying lots of different settings on my camera and new it would be hard to catch the lightning and I did not have much time. I used an acceptable shutter speed in the end (1/13s) so it was doable heldhand. Also used low aperture (3,5) a high ISO (3200) but not too much because of possible quality loss. Than I just tried a lot of shots (around 35) so I would get a lightningstrike in one of them. I finally succeeded and afterwards had to do a lot of editing too. I was rewarded with an acceptance and with one of my personal best photos. I am very into extreme weather and stormchasing so this is for me the perfect combination!

spompert wrote:

Nice stories and interesting to read! For me it`s probably this nightshot with a thunderstorm. Never maneged to get a night shot accepted before. I was on my way to Kathmandu when somewhere above India I saw this storm with lightning out of my window. I remember trying lots of different settings on my camera and new it would be hard to catch the lightning and I did not have much time. I used an acceptable shutter speed in the end (1/13s) so it was doable heldhand. Also used low aperture (3,5) a high ISO (3200) but not too much because of possible quality loss. Than I just tried a lot of shots (around 35) so I would get a lightningstrike in one of them. I finally succeeded and afterwards had to do a lot of editing too. I was rewarded with an acceptance and with one of my personal best photos. I am very into extreme weather and stormchasing so this is for me the perfect combination!

Beautiful shot, indeed!!
Congrats!

I am digging for another story myself.......maybe I´m forgetting something.

No Tax On Rotax

Definitely a cool topic! Two of my shots come to mind as being the most challenging for me to take.

First was this shot of an AeroUnion P-3A Firebomber in California. The whole story would take way too long to relate here, but amidst a camping trip, a forest fire, and an eventual evacuation, this shot was quite hard for me to pull off, especially as I had only started shooting about 3 months prior. That being said, I think I can live with it and not kick myself for doing something differently with the benefit of 7 years of hindsight. Between the backighting, smoke, wind, poor visibility etc.. I am still amazed it actually came out.




Second would be this night shot of the Flying Hospital L-1011. We had been driving all day from Dallas, and it was a cold night in December by the time we got to Tucson. Despite being exhausted, I decided I wanted to try and find the (then) derelict L-1011 I had heard about and seen photos of. I was unprepared for how dark it was going to be in that corner of the airport, and how high the fence would be. There was literally no light on that ramp. This shot wound up being somewhere between a 6 and 7 minute exposure... which was completely new territory to me. The airport fence was so high that I basically had my tripod at max height, leaned against the fence to shoot through barbed wire... all well above my head. Autofocus was completely impossible, so I had to manual focus trying to use my car high beams to get enough light to even see the jet. Of course that eventually caught the attention of the police, who were actually surprisingly pleasant about the whole thing.

In the end, it turned out, and remains the only L-011 I have ever seen or shot since I started this hobby.

Very cool, Nicholas.

In excitement, the Firebomber takes the cake of course!
Amazing shot.

Your L-1011 is once again a typical example in which the end result does not really tell the whole story.
Cool shot, but I would not have imagined you went through this much trouble.
Quite a result though, you wouldn´t say it was that dark at the time.
Kudos! To you and the police!

No Tax On Rotax

Ah,

just came across another one which was not difficult as such, but more like dangerous; from the hindsight.
I did not realize I was THAT close to the wing as she screamed passed me:




Granted, I knelt down so the wing probably would have gone over my head (in this case I cleared it by a few meters), but I´ve got to be honest:
When I moved my Nikon and 400mm lens away from my eye, the plane was a little closer than I had anticipated!


No Tax On Rotax

Well, this is my luckiest shot till now.

It was a lazy Sunday. I woke up in my countryside house and went right out to get sun and fresh air. A few seconds later I heard a heliopter sound, it was the local firefighting helicopter. That made me fully awake haha. I grabbed my camera and I stormed into a nearby beach, no time for bathroom or breakfast of course. Meanwhile it was a dull , partly cloudy, summer day without winds (once per summer maybe). So the sea was really calm letting the CLs that came later to fill their tanks easily. This was the only sunny frame out of 8 CL passes right in front of me.

Had to fly to Belize from the States. Rent an SUV. Drive six miles up a dirt/gravel road into the jungle. Walk about a half-mile through the jungle. Cross about a 50-yard wide creek and then take a decent enough shot in poor lighting while being ravaged by mosquitos.

canyonblue17 wrote:

Had to fly to Belize from the States. Rent an SUV. Drive six miles up a dirt/gravel road into the jungle. Walk about a half-mile through the jungle. Cross about a 50-yard wide creek and then take a decent enough shot in poor lighting while being ravaged by mosquitos.

Nice to have the story behind that photo. Did you specifically set out just to get this photo or was it an added benefit of a booked tour/accidental find?

canyonblue17 wrote:

Had to fly to Belize from the States. Rent an SUV. Drive six miles up a dirt/gravel road into the jungle. Walk about a half-mile through the jungle. Cross about a 50-yard wide creek and then take a decent enough shot in poor lighting while being ravaged by mosquitos.

Very impressive one, when i first time saw it i was thinking that this one just like a movie !

It was part of a planned vacation, but it was still quite a trek. It did kind of remind me of the scene in the movie "Romancing the Stone" when Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are marching through the Columbian jungle when they come upon a drug plane that crashed years before.

canyonblue17 wrote:

Had to fly to Belize from the States. Rent an SUV. Drive six miles up a dirt/gravel road into the jungle. Walk about a half-mile through the jungle. Cross about a 50-yard wide creek and then take a decent enough shot in poor lighting while being ravaged by mosquitos.

Cool story!
Makes my detour that I had to make in order to find this thing sound pretty minor!



No Tax On Rotax

That fire bomber is amazing.

Ah,

just came across another one.
We were approaching the runway "Guarumal", a small rural strip; in a fixed wing.
As we reported to the tower in control of that area, we heard a chopper calling in with the same destination and a similar ETA.

Well, they beat us to it by a minute or two; and they landed right smack in the middle of the runway; effectively blocking us.
We did 2 or go 3 spins around the airfield and then we were about to continue our voyage.
No way we could land there!

However then the chopper called us on the frequency of the tower, asking our intentions.
We explained we wanted to execute a brief technical stop (read "to pee") and they decided to clear the way.

After landing, they landed too and we chatted for a bit.
They were busy crop dusting the area.
Upon their departure I was happy to shoot this pic:




No Tax On Rotax

I'll choose this shot:



My father and I went to the Gosselies airshow for only one reason, this A340 would do a few flyby's. A few years earlier we witnessed the Ramstein disaster and really had no love left for airshows. Yet for this A340, not yet in service at the time, we made and exception and went anyway. But arriving at the airshow, after we bought the tickets, it was clear that the action above the runway was backlit, ruining our options for a good shot. So we left and made a long hike to the other side of the runway, where I made this shot.

Then, happy with the shots we walked back to the car. And again it was pointed out why we don't like airshows. A few minutes after we passed the end of the runway, a C130 was supposed to demonstrate an air drop of goods, but dropped it too late. Bags of sand and earth (I think) ended up behind the airfield where we walked moments before. They also ended up on the highway and a nearby warehouse. Luckily we were perfectly fine and nobody else was hurt either.

I visited just one more airshow after this one. We had permission to go to Ostend airshow the day before the actual airshow. I felt good about that because thought nothing would by doing dangerous flying. And we could camp at the airfield. Then, when I was setting up our tent the Russian stunt team took off to practice. I couldn't resist watching it though. Then, at one silly moment, the fighters made a simple looping in group and at split second, high in the sky, they appreared to be pointing at me. Fear fell over me and I ducked away instantly. That moment it was clear to me what the word "trauma" means. I never again went anywhere near an airshow after that.

Yet this summer, I finally managed to go spot military planes again, going to the Mach loop in Wales
5 hours on the hill (Cad West I think), 2 C130's and 1 Hawk. Despite so little actionI enjoyed it enormously! So perhaps now, 29 years after Ramstein the trauma is fading... .
Perhaps I should try to upload one of my C130 shots, but I doubt quality is sufficient. This is probably the best one (unedited):

Cool C130 shot!
Give it a go on A-net.

Another difficult one for me!
This one was a pain in the sense that it was difficult to get permission to land at Guayaquil international airport:



And it was difficult to leave too, South American paperwork; you can`t beat it!


No Tax On Rotax

I have a few that were difficult in different ways:

This one (and many more from these flights) took me about 4 years to finally get all the clearances, many meetings, lot's of study and preparation work, and a 3 hour briefing prior to the flight! But it was worth it


Only one time so far all conditions were perfect for getting this result (weather, flowers blooming only one week/year, aircraft movement), and the runway has since been paved so no more flowers:


Let's just say here that I wasn't suppose to be there...and afterwards I was escorted out by a couple of rather angry looking MPs:


Again long coordination needed to get this "seat", very difficult working conditions inside the helo and tough to coordinate our flight with the formation:


I know it doesn't look that extreme but we were really almost exiting the runway and crashing here, no idea how I was able to focus and take the shot:


Well, there are many more on Anet with a story behind, which is probably the result of many years in this hobby .

Cheers!

acontador wrote:

[...]

Hey Andres! Long time no see Hope all is well!

All good, thanks Kas, hope all is good with you, too.
Cheers,

acontador wrote:

I have a few that were difficult in different ways:

This one (and many more from these flights) took me about 4 years to finally get all the clearances, many meetings, lot's of study and preparation work, and a 3 hour briefing prior to the flight! But it was worth it


Cheers!

Wow.

My hat is no longer on my head, and is to be found somewhere on the floor.


No Tax On Rotax

Not too exotic,but there's this creapy road you have to walk down,then along a fence. And Maxton is in the middle of nowhere . On the weekend,there is nobody around.

United_fan wrote:

Not too exotic,but there's this creapy road you have to walk down,then along a fence. And Maxton is in the middle of nowhere . On the weekend,there is nobody around.

I love this trips to the middle of nowhere.
How many aircraft are out there?


Cheers,


No Tax On Rotax

No Tax On Rotax,when I went, there were 2 727's ,2 DC-10-30's and 2 747-100's . There were also 1 my Travel 757 hiding. I read the 727's were scrapped. I think there is a WN 737 there now according to Google Earth. This was last October . Nice people. If you go on a weekday,ask to go on the ramp for pictures. Charlotte Aircraft Co. I have more pictures from there on the 'other' picture site. It's cool to see the red paint bleach out over the years,there .

United_fan wrote:

. It's cool to see the red paint bleach out over the years,there .

Yeah, would be a cool experience.
Unfortunately, I don`t have any direct plans.

I came across this pic:



This pic was not easy to shoot.
Crashed aircraft are a sensitive issue, and it took a LOT of persuading the security guards to shoot this image.
I did it through the hinge of an (ever closed) door!


No Tax On Rotax

Ah, just came across another one:



It wasn`t easy to get into the international airport as a humble LSA.
Paperwork, paperwork....and more paperwork.



No Tax On Rotax

Just came across this picture:




I had to sneak around the back to shoot this pic, Hit and Run....and get the h#ll out of there.
I guess the average guard wouldn`t have been happy, although I gained legal access to the premises.


Cheers,


No Tax On Rotax

Hello there

Travel across the world to Argentina. Travel to a remote place at the feet of the Cordillera. Find a nice guy to drive me up then walk to this abandoned bird:



Travel to the opposite spot on the planet from home. Get membership in the aéroclub, be checked out by the instructor and then fly with friends to Bora Bora...



Flying from Lézignan Corbières to Ziguinchor, we made a stop deep into the Saharan desert in Mauritania.



And finally, out from Henderson for a two weeks flying trip in the US, had this memorable view.



Nice topic