Plane seconds after taking off from Washington National Airport.

I decided to sit and watch the planes take off from Washington

National Airport today... This was the result. Please actually

provide some feedback on this photo, none of my previous postings

have resulted in any comments. Thank you! -David,

href="http://shutterline.com">Shutterline.com

It's a great shot technically, but may have limited appeal. try shots like this in different weather, or at sunset/sunrise.

Yeah, not very exicting. You should go back at night when the planes are landing in the opposite direction. Set up your tripod right in the landing path just off the trail and do a 30 second exposure just as you see the plane turning to the right. I believe there is a tree as you look at them comming in and as soon as they come from behind it click the shutter using a wide angle lens. I haven't tried it yet, but when I was there, that's what I thought of doing.

I've shot a few rolls there myself. I tend to agree with the above comments, there isn't a lot of drama in a high noon shot like this. I've had some good luck with late afternoon, running a nice long lens and compressing everything down. Night time time exposures can be dramatic too (although the Park Police frown on folks being at the Point after dark -- forewarned :)

i love to photograph aircraft also so I know how hard it is to get a good shot and a good vantage point. the lighting here is dull, and you need a longer lens and/or better vantage point. see my color folder for one good and one could-have-been. and keep shooting.

i love to photograph aircraft myself and done what you have done at different airports. the effort and patience it takes to do it is quite a bit. so please do take my critique with a pinch of salt. besides the timing of the photograph, there is one more thing which makes a difference. This is purely from my experience. your subject is one of the smallest things on the photo :-(. You might want to use a different lens. crop out all the water and part of the grass from the front too, otherwise, it starts looking like a nature photo (almost). Personally, I would love to see the photo of the aircraft somewhat bigger. Sometime, including airport equipment (lights, strobes, ILS beacons) help quite a bit. you might want to check out some of the photos on airliners.net

Another thought...

I know its not as fun as shooting a major airport, but set up at a small local airport where you can get much closer "better seats" and shoot some other smaller planes. Maybe you can find a medium sized airports with something like a Learjet flying in and out. They're big enough to be interesting.