Wingwalker

St. Louis, Missouri. July 4, 2010
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Probably the most important decision you can make when taking a picture is where to place the camera. Obviously, where you put the camera determines what the camera will "see." At the air show in St. Louis on the Fourth of July, I decided to shoot from the middle of the Eads Bridge (instead of along the riverfront). That put the camera directly in the middle of the air show. The planes flew right over--and sometimes right at--the camera. For fast-moving shots like this a high shutter speed is also needed, in addition to manual exposure to compensate for the bright sky. Using auto exposure would have made the plane in this photo a silhouette. (By the way, the wing walker in this picture is Teresa Stokes.) Shutter: 1/1250; Exposure: f/7.1; ISO: 400; Focal length: 200 mm.