The size of the subject is something that I hear a lot about when it comes to aviation because everyone seems to think that the plane has to fill the frame. A lot of times that is hard to do. Even with the 200-400 VR and high speed crop, the way the airshow is setup you might not be able to get the subject full frame. Now this biplane being flown by Kyle Franklin and photographed with the D5, 70-200 VRII and TC-17EII is a great example of not needing to fill the frame.
Kyle had a great performance which included a lot of smoke. Since his plane is such a dramatic set of colors it pops out really easily against the blue sky. When I was photographing this I didn’t find the need to go in super tight because the smoke added more to the story then the plane did. Granted there are many variables when it comes to shooting ground to air the biggest is the background. This is pretty boring with the blue sky and the smoke is really making these images interesting. So keep in mind when you’re out shooting aircraft is the composition interesting enough that you don’t need to make the plane big?