Photographing Airliners High in the Sky

Russ Heinl is an extraordinarily experienced photographer with a specialist interest in aviation.

His two decades in aviation photography has seen him spend 7 years as the aerial photographer with the Canadian Snowbirds aerobatic team, not to mention thousands of hours of photography from helicopters and his numerous books and videos.

Russ has recently turned his talents to photographing aircraft at high altitudes from the ground, perfecting his technique to acquire some stunning images.

This is an area of aviation photography that has interested me and many other aviation enthusiasts in recent years, and it is amazing to see what can be achieved from so far away with modern camera equipment.

We present to you here some of Russ’s aviation photograph of airliners high in the sky. He’s added some details about the aircraft and its route and speed on each one.

If you’re interested in trying it out yourself, he has included some of the technical details about his camera equipment to give you an idea of what is needed to achieve this kind of picture. They are:

Nikon 500mm f4G ED VR II lens, Nikon AF-S TC-14E III teleconverter, Nikon D850 camera, Wimberley gimbal tripod head, Gitzo G315 tripod.

Russ runs his own aerial photography business. You can find out all about him and what he does here: https://www.heinlaerialphotography.com/

For those living in North America, you can also purchase Russ’s prints on Etsy and Amazon. Try searching for ‘Boeing Canvas Prints’ or ‘Airbus Canvas Prints’ and you’ll see some of his works.