One of the greatest bits of wisdom I received wasn’t about settings at all. Once I understood what panning was and was comfortable with a certain shutter speed, I’d drop it again. Struggling slightly with my panning, I reached out to an incredible photographer about his technique. “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast,” he said. Like a quick-draw marksman, the smoother the motion, the faster one can safely be on target. So it is with shooting planes.

"I always wanted to fly fast and upside down. Combining speed and airplanes was the Holy Grail for me. Just after high school I spent a week recording some music with a band I was in. While sitting in our room one morning, I came across some videos of Rob Holland and Skip Stewart whipping their planes through the sky. “Dude.” Rock and roll, fast planes, extreme flying. That’s when it really hit me."

It was something I thought I would never experience, being so close to a Phantom that you could feel the exhaust from the two J79s powering each of them and that unmistakable smell of Jet A1 that so many fellow aviation photographers and fans love

I, for one, love it when she's mad

coloring the rivets rainbow
 

What came out of my first air show season was unexpected.

For generations now, we have collectively turned our eyes to the skies for flying machines.