The Aviation Photographer #8

p h o t o g r a p h e r

E-Magazine

A viation

The

issue Nr. 8 2018

d e a r s a n ta a l l i wa n t f o r X - m a s . . .

Top S ho t s

Tu to r i a l

c r e at i v e av i at i o n p h o t o 1g r a p h y

from around the world

T h e A v iat io n p hotog r apher

THIS ISSUE EDitorial: carpe diem

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T U T O R I A L : c r e at i v e av i at i o n p h o t o g r a p h y

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top shots

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d e a r s a n ta : a l l i wa n t f o r x - m a s . . .

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reader's e-mail

26-29

top shots

30 - 33

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EDITORIAL

Carpe diem!

The other day I met up with a fellow Aviation Photographer at a local photo event featuring a restored aircraft that’s been retired from the Swedish armed forces for a while now. It’s only through a lot of hard work by a small but dedicated group of aviation enthusiasts that the aircraft in question is now flying again, allowing us aviation photographers to take pictures of it.

Before the retirement of this particular aircraft type, about a decade ago, it was pretty much an everyday occurrence in the sky above the city where I live so you didn’t pay that much attention to it and it definitely wasn’t one of those “I must get a picture of that aircraft” type of thing. It’s not until you are faced with the realization that an aircraft model is no longer flying, that you react and start wishing that you had taken more pictures of it while it was flying.

There is, of course, a lesson for all of us to learn in this story and it is that we live in a world that is constantly changing and the things that are common and every day events today, sooner or later will become unique events and something you wish you had taken more pictures of.

So, don’t discard or forget to take pictures of what is regarded as regular or normal today, because one day it won’t be flying and that’s when you wish you had taken pictures of it.

Even if you are not in to “aircraft spotting”, make a bucket list of the different air craft types that are flying in the area where you live and make a point of checking that list off, building a picture library that will one day consist of unique aircrafts flying.

Peter Eliasson www.e-pic.se

Jörgen Nilsson www.jn-photo.se 3

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tutorial

creative aviation photography We have, on a couple of occasions, mentioned that there are two main categories, or styles, of aviation photography; documentary photography and creative photography. In this tutorial, we are going to take a look at the creative side of aviation photography.

So, what is “creative aviation photography”?

Well, it’s basically whatever you want it to be, as it all depends on your own creativity and ideas and what you can “squeeze” out of your RAW files. But if we must put some kind of label or description to it, it would be that the “creative” part means that you add something to the quality of the picture and to the viewer’s experience when looking at the picture. Just adding a lot of technical effects to try and enhance the picture quality is a type of creative photography, but it often crosses the line from being “creative” to being “ugly”, so it needs to be done with a bit of finesse.

The worst kind of ”creativity”, in our humble opinion, is adding editing effects to an image just for the sake of the editing effects, not paying too much attention to the actual end result of the editing or the object in the picture.

But It’s also a matter of experimenting and testing the boundaries of what you can do with a picture to make it look better, so over-editing an image doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but I can say from my own experience, that some pictures that I have published should have stayed on my hard-drive. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn’t, but that is the fun part of being creative; you get to play around and not be confined by “rules and limitations”.

We would actually like to divide this subject in to two types of creativity; creative aviation photography and creative aviation editing, as there’s a slight difference in how we approach these two topics even though the usually go hand in hand.

Starting with the creative photography, this is where we try to get creative when we take the pictures, based on an idea, light, surroundings, environment etc.

It can be anything from the classic water puddle reflection shot, to sunrise/sunset pictures, extreme close-ups and crew members wearing outfits to match the era of the aircrafts. The common denominator in this case is that you get creative before the picture is taken and you have a pretty clear idea of what it is you want create with your picture. As these pictures usually require some level of choreography and/or preparations and the fact that you often need access to get close and have time set up your camera correctly, these type of pictures usually require planning and coordination to come out good.

EXIF data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM, 88mm, f/4.5, 1/1000, ISO 200 4

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tutorial If you are lucky, there are museums and/or airports in your area that host these types of creative photography sessions from time to time and allows access that you normally don’t get at air shows or during normal operations.

If you can’t find any events like these in your area, well why not try and set one up?

I am sure that there are others in your area, who are in to aviation photography, who would love to have a go at this and if you talk to a museum or even a local airfield, I am sure that you will be able to arrange something.

The creative editing part is usually a matter of trying to optimize the outcome of the pictures you have taken, where you haven’t been able to choreograph the pictures, but taken them as they come. It usually not until you’ve had a chance to browse through your pictures that you can get creative and use editing to make your pictures “pop” and become more interesting.

But as you can see in the previous sample picture, combining creative photography with creative editing as a way to set a mood in the picture or try and create a vintage look to a picture. It’s only your own imagination that set the limits.

It happens quite often that I come home from an airshow with thousands of pictures that pretty much look the same or I think they look realy boring. Those pictures that just don’t look interesting enough to spend any time on, editing. My experience is that the more my own photography improved, the number of ”boring pictures” just keeps growing. So what should I do with all these so called boring pictures? Delete them?

No, not at all!

SAAB A JS 37 Vig gen detail - Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 7D - Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM - 200 mm - ISO 100 - f/5 - 1/1250)

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tutorial This is where creative editing is used!

You will be surprised of how much you can do to an image that doesn’t look all that exciting when you download it from your camera, but if you give it a bit of time and experiment with it a bit, you’ll find that there is a picture waiting to come out in most images.

Have a look at this image. A rather boring picture, straight out of the camera, of a Danish Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon that actually looks like it is a bit over-exposed. Why keep a picture like this?

Danish Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon - Photographer: Jörgen Nilsson - jn-photo.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x - 700 mm - ISO 100 - f/5.6 - 1/1600)

Is there anything that can be done to this picture to make it look a bit sexier?

Of course there is, but you need to have a bit of experience in editing and knowledge of what effects you can use, and what the outcome is when using them, to improve the image.

In this case, as the aircraft already is backlit and it will be difficult to get any detals visible on the aircraft it self due to the shadows, I figured I would use that to my advantage and try turning this image in to a sunset landing picture.

The picure on the next page is what I ended up with.

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tutorial

Since I wouldn’t be able to get much details out of the aircraft, i simply turned up the shadows and contrast to the max, when editing. Add a ”little”, actually quite a lot, of ”warmth” to the picture and you get that sunset feeling.

So, instead of deleting a picture that loked boring and hopeless, tweaking it a bit turned it in to a picture that will make you stop and look a second longer.

As we have said before, in every image, there is a picture waiting to come out.

With creative editing, you can edit one and the same image differently, and have a whole series of pictures, based on just one image. It is sometimes difficult to stop editing a really good image simply because it just keeps on providing new ideas and inspiration.

Are there things I’m not allowed to do, when editing my pictures?

Nope.

As far as I know, there is no ”editing police” out there, so just knock your self out editing your own pictures. Notice that I write ”your own pictures”...

Once you get started getting creative, you can expect comments about your pictures, both good ones and bad ones, from people looking at them. Don’t be discuraged by the negative comments. Read them, trying to keep an open mind and see if there’s something you can take on from the negative comments and use for your future creative editing.

Remember the old sayings: ”Everyone is a critic” and ”opinions are like assholes, everyone has one”.

Editing someone elses picture(s) with out their permission or ”improving” on someone elses pictures without permission is, besides a copyright violation, a big No-No as far as we are concerend. Especially improving on someones pictures, that is just rude an impolite.

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tutorial An other very common “trick” used when editing a picture is to rotate the image, to make it look different. Unless you have a horizon in your image, it can be rotated pretty much without any limitations and it will still look ok. Clouds rarely have any horizon and since clouds usually don’t have an ”up or down”, you’ll rarely notice that they are tilted or rotaded.

The one thing you need to look out for is how the light and shadows fall on the aircraft. If you rotate the image in such a way that the light and shadows on the airframe looks unnatural, then you’ve rotated it a bit too far.

The following picture is a good example of this technique.

This time we have a Belgian Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon during a display.

Again, this is what the picture looked like when I downloaded it from my camera. The only thing that this picture has, at a first glance, is a pretty good hot of the afterburner. But other than that, it’s realy not that exciting to look at is it?!

So what can be done to make it more interesting and sexy?

Lets take advantage of what we already now can see is good with this picture; The afterburner.

We can make sure that it get the optimal exposure and ends up in a place that the beholders eye will be drawn to.

There is also a hint of heat haze from the engine. That’s always nove to try and emphesize as it give tha picture a bit of action.

Last but not least, I wanted to make the angle of the aircraft a bit more interesting, by rotating the image.

You can see the result on the next page.

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tutorial

Belgian Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon - Photographer: Jörgen Nilsson - jn-photo.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x - 700 mm - ISO 200 - f/6.3 - 1/1250)

What do you think?

Is the end result sexier than the original?

Using black-and-white can also be a powerful creative technique, especially if it contrasts how the aircraft is normally depicted. This is usually done by either make the picture look more ”vintage”, like changing a picture of a warbird aircraft in to B/ W to give it that old feeling or to simply edit something different. Some (aviation) photographers have a natural feeling for B/W while others, like me, struggle with it a bit.

Keeping one or two colors, like red and/or green in a B/W picture often makes it a bit more interesting to look at than if it’s all B/W. Just experiment and have fun with it as you go and we are sure you’ll come up with some good edits.

The example I have choosen to demonstrate the B/W editing, is a picture of the French Air Force Rafale Solo Display. A modern jetfighter that in no way is vintage so a B/W edit of this aircraft is not an attempt of making it look old school, but an attempt to make it a bit different and to stand out a bit.

On the next page you can see what the original picture looked like.

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tutorial

It is a bit of an �in your face� image where the green HUD is what draws attention to it. So I wanted to keep that part of the picture and then turn the rest of it in to a quite harsh B/W edit.

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tutorial

Guard across centur ies - Photographer: Jörgen Nilsson - jn-photo.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM - 47 mm - ISO 100 - f/5.6 - 1/100)

Then we have the ”accidental creative aviation photography”, one of our favorite type of pictures.

This is all a question of luck, a vigilant eye and the ability to see the image before you take it.

The above picture, that was featured in the last edition of the Aviation Photographer, is not choreographed or staged in any way shape or form. I was just walking around the static display and this Gentleman, dressed in a French WWI uniform, was having a smoke in front of the Mirage 2000 fighter. This was just a matter of quickly taking a couple of pictures before the moment was lost.

It’s not technically perfect in any way and if I got the chance to take it again, I would do it a bit differently, but to me, it just looked like a good picture when I took it.

So always be on the look-out for these ”kodak moments” as they will appear when you least expect it.

We mentioned ”using effects just for the sake of the effect” earlier and HDR (High Dynamic Range) is one of those effects that it is very easy to get stuck in, as they provide a lot of eye-catching effects to a picture. If used properly, the effects can be really nice, if not, well, let’s just say that it ain’t a pretty picture!

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tutorial A HDR edited picture, where you have used two or more RAW images with different exposure settings, can create some truly spectacular results, but even pictures based on only one RAW image can result in some really good looking pictures.

This editing technique is one that require a lot of experimenting and testing to come out right and we can pretty much guarantee that you will get a lot of negative comments on your pictures in the beginning.

One of my very first aviation HDR picture that I posted on Facebook did stir up quite a discussion among those who looked at it. Some said it was an ugly picture and that I had ruined a perfectly good picture of an aircraft. Some said it was art.

If your pictures can stir up poeples emotions, then I think you are on the right track with your editing.

So what did that picture look like?

It looked like this: And I know, this picture is far from being ”perfect”, in soooo many ways ...

SAAB Sk 37E Vig gen - Photographer: Jörgen Nilsson - jn-photo.se (Canon EOS 600D - 18-270mm - 23 mm - ISO 100 - f/5.6 - 1/125)

Regardless of what you think about this picture, I think that you will agree that it stands out, both in a good and in a bad way. But it stirs an emotion in the beholder and it makes you have an oppinion about it and that is one of the fundamental objectives with creative photography and editing, to create emotions.

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tutorial So why do I need to get “creative”?

Well, you don’t.

If you are happy taking pictures and posting them as they come out of the camera, that’s what you do. But we are pretty sure that when you’ve been doing that for a while and seen what other aviation photographers do with there pictures, there comes a point in time when you want to have a go at it too.

And what if I want to get creative, what do I need?

I would say that the most important thing that you need, is time.

Because creativity is usually a process that require that you have time to have a good look at you image, time to experiment and test editing techniques and last but not least, time to review your work and see if there are something you can do differently or improve.

Patiance is also a good thing to have.

You know how it is, you come back home from a photoevent and you feel real good about some of your pictures and you want to edit them and get them posted on social media as quickly as possible. I have found it to be a good idea to keep some of these ”good ones” un-edited for a while and then go back, when I have more time on my hands, and have a long good loock at them before I start working in them.

The creative process usually needs some distance, in time, from the time you took the picture to when you start editing it.

This is why it’s good practice to go back to the pictures you have taken earlier, even years ago, and see if you can find any pictures that you ”missed” the first time around.

Then, of course, you need a RAW file to work with and an editing tool to work on the images with. We prefer working with Lightroom and the NIK Collection plug-in, but you can get creative with pretty much any editing software available.

Finally, you need a bit of imagination and inspiration.

This is what get’s the creative process going.

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top shot

F-18 Super Hornet - Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x - 700.0 mm - ISO 100 - f/11 - 1/320)

F-18 Super Hornet - Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x - 700.0 mm - ISO 100 - f/11 - 1/320)

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top shot

Har vard AT-16II B - Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM - 500 mm - ISO 100 - f/5 - 1/200)

F-18 Super Hornet - Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4x - 840.0 mm - ISO 125 - f/5.6 - 1/1250) 15

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top shot

SAAB Sk 35C Draken - Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM - 300 mm - ISO 160 - f/5.6 - 1/800)

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d e a r s a n ta A l l i wan t fo r x - ma s ...

It’s getting close to that time of the year, when the fat guy dressed in red is coming to town and as always, there is the question of what I should tell Santa that I want.

We figured we would help you a bit, with some ideas of stuff that will come in handy for your aviation photography.

And we have tried to stick to ”affordable” items, so you won’t find any lenses, cameras or other costly items on our list.

Memor y cards You can never have too many memor y cards for your camera.

SD or CF if they fit in your camera and prefarbly a card with a speed of 120 MB/s or faster.

What size?

32 or 64 GB as maximum.

Why not big ger?

If you drop/lose a card, you don’t lose that many pictures, as if it was a big ger memor y card.

Rain cover for your camera There will be rain and you don’t want to stop taking pictures just because of some rain.

A rain cover is a lot cheaper than having to repair you camera when it ’s full of water/moisture.

You can get differentr sizes and prices, but this is one acce ssor y where you don’t want to be cheap.

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d e a r s a n ta

Rain cover for your self Getting your camera soaked is bad enough, getting your self soaked is almost as bad.

We recommend getting a rain poncho as it ’s easy to stow away in your camra bag and you can use it to protect your camera as well as your self from the rain.

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d e a r s a n ta The mandador y ”funny looking hat ” Believe it or not, but the funny looking hat actually ser ves a purpose.

A good hat should do the following: • Protect you from the sun.

• Keep the rain fro m dripping in your face or down your collar.

• Be so ugl y, that it draws attention so pilots will look at you when you take pictures of them.

External USB back-up disc If you have experienced a hard drive crash where you have lost pictures, you don’t want to experience that again.

A stand-alone USB back-up disc is a good way to keep your pictures backed up and safe.

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d e a r s a n ta

Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Why not wish for a subscription on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop?

Visit adobe.com and you’l find some good deals on bundled packages that are affordable.

Foldable stool You will have long days at airshows where it ’s nice to be able to sit down, without having to carr y a large chair.

If it also dubbles as a step ladder, you can both sit on it and climb up on it.

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d e a r s a n ta Cup and thermos A cup of coffee, or some other hot beverage, is never wrong , regardless if you are at a photo location or in front of your computer, editing pictures.

If you are going to drink it, why not drink it in style, with a camera lens mug and/or thermos?

Lug gage scale Do you want to know hos much your lug gage weigh before you go to the airport?

Want to make sure your camera bag can be carried on as hand lug gage on the plane?

One of these small and simple lug gage scales are ver y practical when you need to re-arrange your lug gage.

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d e a r s a n ta

High Visibility Reflective Vest Regardless if you are at or on an airfield, being clearly visible to your surro undings is vital, for your and other ’s safety. A high visibility reflective vest is one of those things you should always have in your camera bag.

And if you want to make it a bit special, why not have PHOTO printed on the back of it?

Camera strap Carr ying around a heav y camera all day, in a regular camera neck strap will make you neck and shoulders hurt.

Why not get a camera strap that allows you to carr y two cameras in comfort and save you neck?

They are also available for single camera use.

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d e a r s a n ta Radio scanner Knowing what ’s about to start or land gives you a better chance to be ready to take pictures.

With a radio scanner you can listen in on ATC communication and het a heads-up on what ’s in the air.

There are several different models, from afforable to pricy, the important thing is that they can handl air frequencies.

Gloves A pair of gloves might save the day, if you are out taking pictures when it ’s cold.

It ’s important that you can grip your camera properly and still have access and control over the camera trig ger.

Thta’s why a pair of hunter ’s gloves is good for us photographers.

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d e a r s a n ta Sun protection We’ve all done it, stood in the sun all day, looking up in the sky and gotten a bad sunburn.

A tube/bottle of sun block is a must in ever y photo bag.

Dr y bag A ver y practical bag for storing thing you don’t want to get wet or stuff you don’t want to leak out in to your camera equipment.

Available in different sizes.

First aid kit There’s always someone who needs a band aid, some wet wipes or an aspirin or two. Having a small first aid kit in the camera bag will one day pay off.

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reader's e-mail We asked for response from readers who think this magazine has helped improving your aviation pictures and this is one of the e-mails we got.

Hi guys!

I encountered your magazine by clicking a link in a french modeller internet forum and your photos by searching pictures of SU 31 few days before. It’s a small world isn’t it ?

My picture : Before a Mustang at Duxford Air Show, a beautiful plane so the picture was flat ... and I don’t send you my pictures of the Cannes Red Bull AIr Race because they are ready for the trash

P-51 Mustang - Photographer: William

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reader's e-mail After a Short Skyvan at LFHJ (Lyon France), an ugly plane so the picture is ready to jump !

Short Sky van - Photographer: William

How did you help me ?

First you help me for the choice of my new APN and zoom. I buy an Nikon, not the best but not the worst a D5600 with a NIkon zoom 70-300 DX(for the lower price) VR (for the move stabilizer), it was in my budget and can be evolutive in the future.

Second you help me to have a method to make picture. What focal, what speed, what IL, how many ISO, use only RAW, how to manage the camera options, your answer are a very good share.

Third you help me by telling me how to edit my picture, I knowed Photoshop for my job but I don’t know how much this kind of app can help me to make better picture. I used Nikon apps, they are for free and look like Lightroom.

Fourth I works with my camera and my computer, speak with other photograph and slowy I make my rules and better aviation picture.

Thank you for your share I think by editing I can save some Red Bull pictures.

Best Regards William

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reader's e-mail Hello, first Congratulations for your media which I have read all the numbers.

I’m send you in PJ 1 photo of the RAFALE SOLO DISPLAY that I took at TOUL OCHEY during the 2018 Meeting.

French Air Force Rafale - Photographer: Patrick Gicquel

About me : I am a retired engineer from the French Ministry of Defense and I love airplane photos and heavier than air. It goes back to my childhood when I dreamed to be pilot or astronaut. I am also a photographer of nature and animal.

Here is the address of my dedicated website https://patrickgicquel.wixsite.com/passionspotter the meeting of Ochey is the first one to which I participated as a spotter.

The photo taken has the following exifs: Nikon D7200 Sigma 150-600 Sport 600mm 1/800 F / 8 400 ISO. post treatment by colorstrokes for IMAC for the NB version for the original color version just the Luminar 2018 AI filter for IMAC after reading your journals, it’s comforting me in my way of seeing things.

Thank you

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reader's e-mail

French Air Force Rafale - Photographer: Patrick Gicquel

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top shot

SAAB J 32B Lansen - Photographer: Jรถrgen Nilsson - jn-photo.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x - 700 mm - ISO 160 - f/5.6 - 1/1600)

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To p s h o t

Eurofighter Typhoon - Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x - 700.0 mm - ISO 100 - f/11 - 1/320)

Swedish Air Force SAAB 105 (Sk 60)- Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark iV - Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM - 400.0 mm - ISO 400 - f/5.6 - 1/1250) 32

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To p s h o t

Team Orlik - Photographer: Peter Eliasson - e-pic.se (Canon EOS 5D Mark III - Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM + 1.4x - 140 mm - ISO 100 - f/29 1/200) 33

Belgian Air Force F-16 Solo Display perfoming at RIAT 2018. Photographer: Jörgen Nilsson - jn-photo.se Canon EO S 5D Mark III - Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS + 1.4x - 700.0 mm - f/6.3 - 1/1600 - ISO 400

Fa s t & Lo w A c t i o n P h o t o g r a py S w e d e n H B Publishers:

Jörgen Nilsson Peter Eliasson

E-mail: 34E - m a i l :

jnproduction@bredband.net peter.eliasson@e-pic.se

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