Airbus A300F4-600 —

I was near the south end of 17R just a few feet south of the 8000 foot marker (the runway is 11002 feet long), so I was roughly 6500 feet away. It was dawn light but the hills were still quite dark so arrivals were difficult to see as they were coming low over the north boundary. I tried to get this same type click with an inbound CRJ but it was too small an aircraft and the low light combined with the mile-long distance and the dark background behind the CRJ meant that it was beyond the reach of my 70-300 so I could not get a good focus on it. But this big bus was much easier to focus on so all I had to really concentrate on doing was holding the camera steady.

Gary:

One way to find your equipment's reasonable limitations. Ground lights and signage are not blurred so as good as it gets.

Hey, howdy, Rich. (Wave) TYVM for the comment. This was an experiment because in a few days we'll be out for around 14 hours solid (6 AM to @ 8 - 8:30 PM) and several of those hours will be in nighttime light. On this morning, I knew that in the early dawn conditions the a/c I was clicking were beyond the legitimate reach of my glass. AND since I only shoot handheld (using a tripod and a remote shutter is the same as using PS to create fake puddles, etc. = phony photography), I also knew I wouldn't be able to use a slow shutter while panning the aircraft because it is impossible to successfully "pan" an aircraft approaching almost headon that far away (over a mile) in heavy darkness. I also knew it was approaching landing so it had to be moving toward me at at least 150 MPH (130 knots). I set the ISO and f-stop to allow a bit more light but my attempt with the CRJ was a dismal failure so for this one I kept the shutter open a tad longer and tried my darndest to hold the camera steady. I fired twelve times and this was the best of a mediocre series. In fact, even after it landed and turned off right in front of me I had to use an even slower shutter to get a crisp click. But I learned from this and that was my intent. (Thumbs up)

Copy all of that Gary. Hopefully clear skies for that marathon outing.