A typical day of spotting..
Getting up at 5am may seem outrageous to some, and rightly so, when its bleak and cold outside why would you want to get out of a warm bed. Well…..that’s the part most people roll their eyes at, but it’s just the beginning of what can turn out to be the best days.
So up at the not even crack of dawn in mid October, it’s still dark as night. A 90 minute journey listening to various playlists and podcasts, and I arrive. Dave the burger guy and a few other like minded souls are all ready, a quick catch up, coffee and breakfast are in order , and then the first tones and howls or engines being readied and started up breaks the dawn morning air.
A full afterburner take off isn’t easily forgotten…. the pounding noise, reverberating rib cage and sight of a plane accelerating down the runway with flames out the back on purpose is quite the sight and one that always takes me back to childhood years and leaves me in awe.
Some days you can be thrilled with numerous flights and multiple launches in a short time, there are slower days that seemingly not much happens, but these are few and far between. Generally the planes are out for a while and return within a few hours, so its a quick reset of position to make sure the sun is behind me, so I can get those shots I have been thinking to get since the last visit.
But what is the allure of all this…. why do I /we do it….
The noise? the spectacle of a military warplane roaring through the sky, the challenge of getting a shot of it just so…. well yes, all of that probably more. It is difficult to define why, easier to just accept this is what i get enjoyment from so be it ..
The friends I have made at the fence line, some I have traveled to the other side of the UK in the pursuit of seeing more planes.. the knowledge I have gleaned with photography has at times been overwhelming and the progression from where I started to the shots I crave now seem two different worlds..but they are not. It’s just the endless pursuit of a plane spotter..
T