Peta recently won the "Other" photo category in the first round of our Hot Shot or Not competition. You can see all winners here.

She kindly shared the story and technique behind her winning image "Action at Avalon Air Show"

Peta Writes:

When I booked my tickets online for the 2007 Airshow, I was initially disappointed that I could only get seats in the top row of the Grandstand. I wanted to be down by the runway so I could get some high speed shots of the big jets before they took to the air. On the day however, I changed my tune. I found that my seats up high gave me a unique perspective I had not seen before from other photographers at Airshows. As the planes left the runway, I felt like I was up there with them (briefly). Many that have since seen this shot asked what plane I was up in to get the shot!
 
I shoot with a Canon EOS 5D. My trusty Canon 70-300 IS was my lens of choice that day for obvious reasons. I used a circular polarizer to help improve contrast and pump up blues and greens, on what was a very gloomy day. I was shooting mostly on Shutter Priority, with my ISOs up around 500. I also changed from single shot mode to continuous. This shot was 2000 @ f7.1 at 300mm focal length. I chose to crop to a panoramic format in post production, as well as making some slight adjustments to the curves to improve contrast.
 

Peta’s tip for other photographers:

My tip: Dont be afraid of negative space in your compositions! I find they give context and in this case, room for the subject to move further into the frame.