Built To Fly
There is something particularly fascinating about photographing an aircraft that has not simply rolled out of a factory as a finished product, but has instead been built by the very person who intends to fly it. There is a different story behind an aircraft like this, because beneath the paint, polished aluminium and carefully shaped surfaces is something that has required an enormous amount of patience, skill and determination to bring into the air.
That was very much the feeling behind a recent aviation photography commission I undertook involving a Van's RV-10, an aircraft that sits rather neatly between engineering, aviation and a very personal form of craftsmanship. For anyone unfamiliar with the RV-10, it is a four seat aircraft produced by Van's Aircraft as a kit, allowing the builder to construct their own aircraft rather than simply purchasing a completed production aeroplane. It is designed to offer the sort of practicality that makes it genuinely usable as a four person aircraft, while retaining the performance and handling characteristics for which the RV family has become well known.
But photographs of an aircraft like this should really be about much more than simply showing what it looks like, for me, that is one of the most enjoyable aspects of aviation photography.
Looking Beyond the Aircraft
Over the years I have had the opportunity to photograph a remarkably varied collection of aircraft, from small light aircraft through to business jets, vintage warbirds, helicopters, search and rescue aircraft and fast jets, and one of the things I have always enjoyed about aviation is that every aircraft seems to have its own character.
Some are visually imposing, some are technically fascinating and some have a history that almost seems to make them larger than the physical machine itself.
The RV-10 is slightly different again because of the story behind how it came to exist.
This is an aircraft that can represent a considerable personal commitment from its owner. Building an aircraft from a kit is not simply a case of opening a box and assembling a few large pieces together over a weekend. It is a project that demands time, patience and an enormous amount of attention to detail, and that sense of craftsmanship is something I wanted to bring into the photography. The aircraft itself has a lovely visual quality, with the clean lines and relatively uncluttered shape that make the RV-10 particularly attractive from a photographic point of view. Vans describes it as a genuine four person aircraft rather than simply an aircraft with four seats, with the cabin designed around four full sized adults, while the aircraft's clean airframe provides a useful combination of speed and economy.
But specifications only tell you part of the story. That is where aviation photography becomes much more than aircraft photography.
Photographing An Aircraft with Character
One of the reasons I enjoy commercial photography so much is that I have always believed the camera should be used to communicate something rather than simply record something.
An aircraft can be photographed from the side, from the front or sitting neatly on a runway and, technically, you may have a perfectly good photograph.
But that does not necessarily mean you have created an interesting photograph.
The challenge is to find the angle, light, composition and environment that tell the viewer something about the subject.
With the RV-10, there is a wonderful balance between its practical nature and its sense of purpose. It is clearly an aircraft designed to be flown and used, rather than simply admired from behind a rope at an aviation museum, and I wanted the images to retain some of that feeling.
There is also something quite satisfying about photographing an aircraft that has been constructed by an individual builder because you begin to notice the smaller details. The surfaces, the construction, the cockpit, the way the light travels across the airframe and the little elements that reveal the human involvement in creating the aircraft all become part of the story.
It is those details that can easily disappear when an aircraft is photographed simply as an object.
For this shoot I wanted to make sure that the resulting imagery worked both as a collection of photographs of a beautiful aircraft and as a visual record of something that is very personal to its owner. That distinction matters.
Aviation Photography Is About People Too
Although aircraft are obviously at the heart of what I do as an aviation photographer, much of my work within aviation has actually involved photographing the people and organisations behind them. My aviation photography covers both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft and has taken me into some very different environments over the years.
I have worked with many aviation clients from private jet charter companies such as TAG Aviation, photographed aircraft and aviation projects for BBC Productions, worked on heritage aircraft projects and spent considerable time documenting helicopters and the people who operate them. That variety is one of the reasons I enjoy aviation photography so much.
One day the job can be about creating polished commercial imagery of a private aircraft, where every detail needs to communicate the quality of the operator and its brand. Another assignment can involve standing beside a beautifully restored historic aircraft and trying to capture some of the atmosphere and history that surrounds it.
Then there is the completely different world of operational aviation.
My work with Air Ambulance organisations has taken that considerably further, because I became CAA approved and qualified as a HEMS Technical Crew Member so that I could work alongside the crews during live operations. That experience changes the way you look at aircraft.
A helicopter is no longer simply an interesting photographic subject when you are standing beside it as a medical crew prepares to respond to an emergency. It becomes a working machine, an essential part of a much larger operation, and the photography has to respect that environment. It is one of the reasons I have always believed that good aviation photography comes from understanding the environment in which the aircraft operates.
You need to understand how the aircraft works within the scene, how people interact with it and, importantly, when to step back and simply allow the operation to happen.
The Importance of Light
Photography has always been an obsession of mine, and particularly the relationship between light and the subject.
An aircraft is a wonderful canvas for light because of all those different surfaces and materials. Aluminium, paint, glass, rubber, carbon fibre and polished components all respond differently, and even a relatively simple aircraft can become incredibly complex when you start looking carefully at how light moves across it.
This is where my approach to aviation photography has always been influenced by my wider commercial photography work. I do not simply want to find the aircraft and photograph it.
I want to create an image around it. Sometimes that means making use of the natural light and location exactly as I find them. Sometimes it means carefully controlling the lighting, positioning the aircraft and working with the surroundings to create something that feels more cinematic.
My aviation work has often involved this approach, particularly when photographing private jets, heritage aircraft and commercial aviation clients, where the final images need to do more than simply document the aircraft. They need to communicate something about the organisation, the people and the brand behind it. The RV-10 provided a slightly different challenge because the aircraft itself already has a very strong visual identity. The trick was not to overcomplicate things.
Sometimes the best photographs are created by simply allowing the shape of the aircraft to do the work.
A clean background, beautiful light and carefully considered composition can be far more powerful than trying to manufacture something unnecessarily dramatic.
From Kit to Aircraft
There is something quite wonderful about the idea behind the RV-10.
You start with a collection of components and a set of instructions, and eventually, after a considerable amount of work, there is an aircraft sitting in front of you.
That transformation is fascinating.
Van's describes the RV-10 as being conceived to take the company's established RV philosophy into the four seat market, with the aircraft designed around carrying four adults while retaining the performance and handling characteristics associated with the RV range. The first RV-10 flight took place in May 2003, beginning the story of what would become one of the company's four seat kit aircraft. But from a photographer's perspective, I find the human side of that story far more interesting than the numbers.
Someone had to build it. Someone had to spend the hours working on it. Someone had to look at the finished aircraft for the first time and know that something which had once existed as a kit had become a functioning aeroplane. That is a very different relationship with an aircraft to simply buying one. And I think that sense of ownership and achievement is something worth trying to capture within the photographs.
An Aviation Photographer with a difference
Every aviation assignment presents its own challenges, and that is probably what keeps me interested after so many years of working professionally with a camera. I have photographed aircraft in hangars, on airfields, in flight and in some extremely demanding operational environments. I have worked around helicopters, emergency medical crews, search and rescue operations, private jets, historic aircraft and some remarkable machines that have very few opportunities to be photographed properly.
The RV-10 sits at a very different point within that spectrum, but that is precisely why I enjoyed photographing it. It is a reminder that aviation is not only about airlines, military aircraft or multimillion pound business jets. There is another side to aviation that is built around enthusiasm, engineering, experimentation and the simple desire to build and fly something of your own.
And perhaps that is ultimately what makes an aircraft like the RV-10 so interesting. It is an aeroplane, but it is also a project, an achievement and a very personal expression of the person who built it. For me, the job of an aviation photographer is to recognise that story and then find a way of translating it into photographs.
Sometimes that means capturing the drama of a helicopter operating over the sea. Sometimes it means standing beneath a historic fighter aircraft and thinking about everything it has witnessed. Sometimes it means working alongside an emergency medical crew where the aircraft is an essential part of a lifesaving operation. And sometimes it means simply standing beside a beautifully constructed RV-10 and appreciating the fact that somebody started with a kit and ended up with an aircraft.
That is what I enjoy about aviation photography, every aircraft has a story, the challenge is making sure the photographs tell it.