Please remember to read the notes on contents and copyright if you have not.This article was last updated on: October 2020
Este artículo también está disponible en Español.I don’t have any formal training in photography or writing. I don’t presume to be a professional photographer, nor writer, nor anything like that. I like these things quite a lot, though.
Whatever I may know about photography, I have learned it as I go. Thanks to my curiosity, liking the subject, and having internet and reading tutorials and articles. Also, by reading the camera’s manual when I bought it (RTFM).
Whatever I may know about writing, was taught to me by my teacher Gloria (“goblins like pickles”) in the first grade of elementary school. It was never my purpose to be published anywhere.
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Nevertheless, some publications have seen photos that I have taken. And they have deemed my work good enough to be shown on their pages.
Some others have even thought that whatever I may know about all this, is worthy enough to be transmitted through them. They have allowed me the pleasure of writing twaddle twice or thrice.
I don’t make a living out of this. And I don’t know if I will continue to have these opportunities in the future, but what I have achieved makes me happy.
Here are some samples of what I’ve attained in that field. I got in not really having set myself to do it in the first place, but I don’t care. It’s been nice!
Without further ado, let’s begin.
Airline – Japan.
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In the magazine Airline, published by Ikaros in Japan, they have published materials from me three times. The first time, on issue 400, it was a whole article about my trip to North Korea. They published a full article of 6 pages, and lots of photos. I just hope it was properly translated! (Most likely it was).
Apparently they liked the article quite a lot. This is an email the editor sent me some time later:
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That magazine has very good quality on its format and materials. It felt very good to see something made by me there, more so, when it was them who contacted me first.
Besides, it’s quite nice because it’s published the Japanese traditional way. Which is from right to left, and from top to bottom.
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Other images:
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Airline – Japan.
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The second time I was published in Airline was on issue 407. It was an article they made, apparently, about some McDonnell-Douglas Aeroplanes, and the impending retirement of the MD-11 from passenger services.
It’s the last wide-body designed by them, and one of my favourite Aeroplanes of all times. When the last flight actually happened, it broke my heart.
I had made a flight on the MD-11 (the one and only) on purpose, just to be able to fly on it. I was in Europe, and having more direct and perhaps cheaper options, I flew Amsterdam-Oranjestad-Willemstad-Medellin.
I did it only to be able to fly on the MD-11 on the Amsterdam to Oranjestad leg, on KLM. They were the only airline that still had passenger flights in that Aeroplane at that time.
Obviously, I took a lot of photos, and some of them ended up appearing in Airline some time later.
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Airline – Japan.
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The third time I was published in Airline was on issue 419. It was an article they made, apparently, about Aeroplanes used by heads of state of various countries.
I had some photos about this topic lying around, and they used two I took:
-One of the Chile Boeing 737-500.
-One of the Colombia Boeing 737-700 BBJ.
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Das große Archiv der Airlines – Germany.
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In Germany, GeraMond was making a kind of collectable series of articles of airlines around the world. They called it Das große Archiv der Airlines, and the editor contacted me about a photo.
We talked casually, and I ended up writing the whole article when the turn came for Avianca. I also collaborated when the turn came for Satena.
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They published an article of mine of about 4 or 5 pages. The full article was like 8 pages, but some were graphics and tables they added. They used some of my photos on this, as well.
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Below is my photo used in the Satena article. In this case, I didn’t write the article, but I helped the person who wrote it with information. Also, I helped him clear up some things that he was having misgivings about.
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Airlines – The Global Collection – United Kingdom.
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The German Das große Archiv der Airlines was taken by Key Publishing in the United Kingdom. There, it became Airlines – The Global Collection, and they published the Avianca article and the photos some time later, now in English.
The Satena article with my photo was also translated there, but for some reason, I can’t find it now, hihihi.
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Flap – Brazil.
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Flap is a very well-known Brazilian Aviation magazine. They make two specials a year about Aviation in Latin America, one about the military part and the other one about the civilian part.
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They were having issues finding materials about Colombia. So, they asked me to be their correspondent in this country.
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It says:
-“Dear Andrés,
Our magazine FLAP INTERNATIONAL is the most important Aviation magazine in Latin America.
Besides its monthly publication, we also publish two specials every year, one about the Latin American Air Forces (in July) and another one about commercial Aviation (in August) of the same region. Nonetheless and especially in Colombia we still haven’t been able to get a good correspondent which causes us issues including delays in the publication.
I am attaching you the samples of the specials of 2010, with the articles about Colombia, so you can form an idea about our work and for you to examine them so you can tell us if you have interest and availability in collaborating with our magazine as our correspondent in Colombia.
I will get in touch with you in the coming days to speak about it.
Meanwhile, if you have any observation, please let us know at the email @revistaflap.com.br.
With my best regards, I thank you for your attention.”
I accepted, and was their correspondent for about 3 years. From the time they contacted me, until I went to live in Australia.
During these 3 years, materials made by me were published several times. Here’s one example of one of the military specials.
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There in Australia, I wasn’t going to have time to keep being the correspondent, and I don’t think I would have been in a position to have updated materials. So, I stopped.
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They used photos I took for both specials. For the military special, the text was almost fully mine, and they translated it into Portuguese, of course. Also, at times, they would acquire some photos that I wasn’t able to get somewhere else.
Flap – Brazil.
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For the civilian special, I took almost all the photos. The text was mixed, I wrote part, and they wrote part. Or it was written by them, and complemented by me.
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Here’s an example of one of the civilian specials in which I was published.
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Small air forces observer – United States.
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Someone was making a historical article about North Korea’s military Aviation in a small magazine called Small air forces observer.
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He asked for authorisation to use one of my photos in that number’s cover, and we spoke long time about other things. He turned out to be a FedEx Boeing 777F Pilot (few jobs better than that one, in my opinion), and we kept on contact from there.
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The physical magazine is in black and white, but the digital one is all colour.
Airports of the World – United Kingdom.
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Airports of the World is a British magazine.
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They did an article about Bogota on issue 31. In this article, they used a photo I had taken of a Satena Embraer 170 and an Avianca Boeing 767-200 right there.
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Credit in my photo used for the Bogota article in Airports of the World.
Scramble – Netherlands.
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Scramble is the magazine of Dutch Aviation Society, pretty well-known in this geeky little world.
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A Piper PA-34 Seneca belonging to Aexpa sadly crashed. And I had a photo of the very exact Aeroplane that was in the accident.
They illustrated the little note about what happened with that photo, on issue number 355.
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Embraer 190/195 Regional Jet en Sudamérica – Argentina.
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Gonzalo Carballo and Juan Carlos Rodriguez wrote a little book about the Embraer 190 operations in South America (as can be told by the name).
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In this book, they used a photo I took of a TAME Embraer 190 in Quito, Ecuador.
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Aero International – Germany.
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On Aero International, issue 9/2013, two photos of mine were used.
The first one, double-page (so much so that it didn’t fit my scanner and I had to take a photo of it) was of an Etihad Airbus A340-500 landing in São Paulo. I took it during the inaugural flight of the Abu Dhabi – São Paulo route.
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I was in São Paulo, and by chance I ended up taking that photo. Later, it appeared in the magazine.
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The second photo was smaller, in a little note announcing the news of the, by then, Avianca’s new colours.
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I have a German friend called Lutz who lives in Berlin. He saw my photo in the magazine and wrote to me about it.
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Aero International – Germany.
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On Aero International’s issue 3/2020 another photo I took was published.
When Wingo started flying with Boeing 737-800s I took some photos. For them, it was industry news that warranted a small note on the magazine, and used my photo to that effect, as can be seen above.
Heathrow – From Tents to Terminal 5 – United Kingdom.
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Heathrow – From Tents to Terminal 5. It’s a book that a British engineer called Ian Anderson wrote.
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He lived many years close to Heathrow. He combined his engineering knowledge with his passion for Aviation.
He wrote a book of the history of the Airport since it was put to service in 1946, up until the book’s publishing time.
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The book is full of very technical details about structures and akin topics, and is very interesting. I had the honour of having two of my photos in the book’s pages, taken in one of my visits to Heathrow.
Noti Fenalco – Colombia.
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On issue 229 of Noti Fenalco, they used a photo I took of a Satena Embraer 145 on the cover.
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FAM – Fuerzas Militares del Mundo – Spain.
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In FAM – Fuerzas Militares del Mundo I had a little collaboration and a brief stint as correspondent in Colombia.
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I had a double spread photo published there in number 68. I also had other photos in that issue, when they made an article about the Colombian Kfir Aeroplanes. It didn’t fit my scanner, so I had to take a photo of it.
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Other photo used in the same article, now single page. Below.
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And here below, the credit for those pictures.
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Latin American Fighters – Austria.
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The book Latin American Fighters is published in Austria by Harpia Publishing. It’s a very complete compendium of the fighter Aeroplanes in different military forces in Latin America.
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In this book, I had the honour of having published a photo I took of a Cessna A-37B Dragonfly of the Colombian Air Force. I took it in Rionegro, and it appeared in the article that the author wrote about that Aeroplane.
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One day, I was casual in Amsterdam taking a leisurely stroll around the Luchtvaart Megastore. There, I found the book with my photo! It was cool as hell!
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AeroERMO – Colombia.
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AeroERMO is a Colombian magazine.
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A USAF F-16 made a demonstration in Colombia, and they wrote about it. I had witnessed it and taken some photos, and one of those was used in the article, double-spread.
This was on number 1.
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Airbus A380 Superjumbo on World Tour – United States.
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The book Airbus A380 Superjumbo on World Tour shows the Airbus A380 before it entered service with the airlines. Published in the United States by Zenith Press.
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One of the phases before entering service was carried out in Colombia in early 2006, in Rionegro.
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Obviously, I went there and took many photos at the moment. Two of them were used in this book.
CNN – United States.
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One day, CNN showed a note about Conviasa, and how “difficult” it was to get a ticket there. They talked about how that generated “suspicion” in view of the flight the airline had between Caracas, Damascus, and Tehran.
For that note, they used photos of a Conviasa Airbus A340-200. That’s the Aeroplane they used on that route. I had taken photos in Rionegro of it.
I took a photo of the TV when I was watching the note (as you can see), and the video of the note can be seen below. The photos appear in second 25, and at other points.
ABC News – United States.
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ABC News had a note about an incident in New York with an Aerogal Boeing 767-300. I had a photo of that Aeroplane that I had taken in Rionegro, and they asked me for authorisation to use it in the note.
Like CNN, I also have the video of the note, you can watch it right below. The photo appears at second 22.
Airliners.net – United States.
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Airliners.net is one of the most well-known sites of Aviation photography (“spotting”), it was one of the pioneers.
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The system there works by uploading some of your photos. Then, a group of “screeners” reviews them, and decides whether they’re published or not.
They’re curators of sorts, and they reject them for maaaaaany reasons.
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The system is polemic somehow. I keep participating, my photos are still there, and I don’t intend on removing them. But I am not as enthusiastic about it right now as I once was.
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Nonetheless, in these years of being there, photos that I have taken have been chosen as the day’s top 1. This can be either by views, or by votes from the other photographers.
And here’s record of the fact.
Jetphotos.net – Sweden.
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Jetphotos.net is another one of the well-known sites of Aviation photography (“spotting”), it started not too far from Airliners.net. My opinion about it is the same than of Airliners.net.
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The dynamics are pretty much as I described before. Submissions, “screeners”, acceptance, and rejection.
I have also been top 1 in this website. And here’s for the record.
Farnborough Airshow – United Kingdom.
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I was part of the camera crew, with the team that made the official DVD of the Farnborough 2010 Airshow, in the United Kingdom. Screenshot from the credits in the DVD below.
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Santiago Airport – Thailand.
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This is one of the DVDs I edited when I worked as a freelancer in Thailand. This particular DVD is about Santiago Airport, in Chile. Screenshot from the credits in the DVD below.
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Jetliners of the Red Star – United Kingdom.
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Those who know me are well aware that I like Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian Aviation very much. The book Jetliners of the Red Star written by Charles Kennedy shows the history of passenger jets in the Soviet Union, a topic I’m fully interested in.
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In the chapter concerning the Tupolev 204, they used a photo I took of a Cubana Tu-204 freighter. I took the photo in Quito, Ecuador, and I love the fact that it’s on that book.
Este artículo también está disponible en Español.