I’d always had an interest in aircraft but never really had the equipment or platform to do anything with the few photos and videos I’d taken on my phone or basic digital photos at airshows, covid last yet year presented Bournemouth with the opportunity to host a lot of the BA fleet and took the chance to update my camera equipment to document what hopefully will be once in a life time event, my Instagram page was set up more as a folder for me to be able to dump my photos in to, I never really had any expectations of visions of follower numbers, just if a few people enjoyed them that would have been nice. My early photos maybe had 30-50 likes but as my following increased so did my interactions. my 1st trip to Heathrow and learning to take better photos really launched my page to a new level when I got 500 followers, I didn’t think it would get much better at that point !! I then decided to upgrade my equipment again and after a few more A340’s a B747 and another trip to Heathrow my Instagram page went crazy and almost over night went seemingly from 500-3000 followers ! It did occur to me the camera I’d bought whilst an upgrade had its limitations so I cut a deal with my brother and went full DSLR, I think everyone who plane spots has found these lockdowns particularly hard if you live close to a small airport you’re going be churning out the same content, with the odd special visitor. I was lucky I managed a trip to Heathrow start of December knowing it would be a while until we’d get back out photographed absolutely everything to try and keep my content fresh, which seems to have worked as I’ve picked up a lot of followers since that trip.
digital highlights a comment or like from a large company such as emirates on a post is always nice. I’ve had 4 or 5 pictures used by planefinder and I think my real digital highlight was Aer Lingus using one of my photos for their St Patrick’s day post that single day I picked up 50+ followers
non digital highlights, getting to know some followers either through messages and recently
meeting a couple of followers, it’s great to see younger people have an early passion in flight which will hopefully stick with them for life. I love seeing others photos and it inspires me
to want to go out and take more of my own. If your reading this and want my advice on taking aircraft photos it’s this “there’s no such thing as a bad photo, if you like it that’s all that matters”
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