During a day of plane spotting at Los Angeles International Airport, architecture photographer Mike Kelley had an idea.
"I've always been fascinated by aviation and one day while out at LAX plane spotting, I decided that I wanted to try capturing multiple takeoffs and putting them together into a single image to show their flight paths and the sheer volume of traffic departing LAX," says Kelley.
Experimented with his composition skills, he brought the series Airportraits to life.
There are lots of elements that go into this type of photo. Kelley says the most important factors in making the composite work are the weather and position of the sun. Each shot of an airplane has to be matched to the others so they all look cohesive. "Sometimes it can take a day of shooting and a day in Photoshop, and in some cases it took weeks of waiting and then months of tweaking in Photoshop to get everything just perfect," Kelley says.
