The Photographer

Neil Jones was born in West Wales back in November 1975. His passion for military aviation began at an early age when his father would take him on numerous occasions to the RAF Brawdy airshow, where he saw a number of classic aircraft types like the Lightning, Phantom, Hunter and Buccaneer fly. Living in the country's busiest low flying area (LFA7) also ensured that Neil got a daily intake of fast jets to look at too.

Throughout the nineties, Neil lived and breathed aviation, and in 1998 he attended the Royal International Air Tattoo for the first time where he used his father's Yashica SLR camera to good effect. By the following year, Neil had bought his first SLR, a Minolta 505Si and a Tamron 300mm zoom lens and started to learn the art of photography.

After getting his camera, Neil attended as many airshows as possible, and in 2004 he made the decision to turn 'digital' when he bought a Canon 10D digital SLR plus the Canon 100-400mmL IS zoom lens. Since then, Neil has travelled the length and breadth of the world in pursuit of photographing military aircraft. He is often found on top of a mountain within the low flying areas in the hope of photographing fast jets doing what they do best. His current camera setup includes the Canon 1D MkII and Canon 40D digital SLRs plus a variety of lenses including the Sigma 120-300mm f2.8, Canon 500mm f4.5L, Canon 400mm f5.6L, Canon 70-200mm f4L, Canon 24-105mm f4L and Canon 17-40mm f4L.

Neil's photographs and articles have been published in numerous publications and books such as Aircraft Illustrated, Airforces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, Air International, Flight International, Royal Air Force Aviation Society Journal, and on various webzines including Air-Scene UK, Milavia Press and U.S.Navy newsStand. His first article about air to air refuelling was published on the popular 'UK Airshow Review' website and can be found here. Throughout 2008, Neil has steadily built up his flying hours doing air to air photo-shoots from fast jets for a number of Royal Air Force squadrons. These include the C-17A Globemaster III's of 99 Squadron and the 2008 Display Hawk of 208 Squadron.

View the photos by Neil Jones on Airliners.net!