Both my most viewed and most loved shot:
I'd been out a week or so before and almost had the shot line up, so tried again a few days in a row and finally nailed it. Between the barbed wire, the industrial-strength mosquitoes, and the vicious horseflies, I paid for it.
And ever since, I've wanted to do a spotting-almanac app, combining sun and moon position with arrival and departure feeds to help calculate when you're most likely to have things lined up. Like I'll ever get time for that...
A different kind of suffering with these two, but again I think it paid off:
The approach shot was the first time I'd ever tried anything like it, the northern lights played ball (sort of), and it all came together. I disappeared up to my balls in a snow drift, so I'm glad I got something out of it. While scouting out locations, the Arctic Airlink was on a visual approach and asked for the runway lighting to be turned up. I was treated to the full glare of the approach lights for a few moments. Apart from the snow, it felt like I was in - no, let me rephrase that - it felt like a scene from
Heat.
The Embraer shot, that was painful. It was well below -20C, he was an hour late, and even through two pairs of gloves it hurt to hold the metal lens. Whatever lubricant is in it didn't like it much either, and the batteries only worked because I stuffed them in my armpits while waiting for this guy - the only flight all afternoon - to show up. You can just see some pinkish light at the top of the trees; it was agonising, watching that creep across the runway and up the trees while Finnair sorted their lives out. All things considered, I'm pleased with the result.
Personal favourites, both mediocre shots where I got lucky on the edit:
For the Concorde shot, I had to "borrow" a traffic cone and stand with one foot on that and one on a convenient planter, just to get the damned lamp post out of the way. Now, of course, you can't get near her.
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.