All information on the aircraft can be found on the fuselage and the tail, so be sure to take your photo from the side, in a way that all titles and the registration are fully visible, and not faded by the reflections from the sun. When the plane sits on the apron area, no clutter or fences may obstruct your view of the aircraft and all doors must be closed and stairs must be removed. One good habit to get into is to line yourself up with the main landing gear and this position should yield great results for most aircraft allowing you a full view of the colour scheme and the registration.   

In order to make a good-looking photo or slide, do not use your camera in poor weather-conditions. You must have at least 'some' sun, and the sun must light up the fuselage from the side. If you take your pictures early in the morning or too late in the afternoon, the colour may be yellow. Avoid using your camera in the hours close to midday, generally the sun will be too high in the sky and the lower parts of the fuselage will not be properly lit. This inconvenience will become more troublesome the closer one approaches the equator. Also, be sure to always focus your shot perfectly and make sure that you are lined up properly with the horizon because no one likes to look at a crooked photo.  

Most aviation-photographers use a 35mm camera. For shots on the apron, when the photographer is free to move, a standard 50mm-lens is excellent. In other circumstances one needs to use a zoom that covers the range from 40 to 100 mm, in order to take clean full-frame pictures.  

As distinct from prints, which may be reproduced in unlimited ways, good aviation slides (and colour negatives) can be valuable collectors-items, especially when the depicted subject is very old or rare.  

Most collectors prefer the aircraft standing on the apron, or on a taxi- or runway, taken from a good photo-position. Others argue that only action-shots (at least one wheel must not touch the earth) are unique. The time to take landing-shots is very limited, and each photo is different from the other ...  

One word about the film to use - without giving an opinion on which slide-film gives the best results, the fact is that a large majority of photographers use Kodachrome 25 or 64. If you do use another film, understand that your possibilities of exchanging or trading slides will be very limited.