Maneuvers at Mach Speed

Jose Ramos has been captivated by the thrill of flight since childhood. An ‘80s kid inspired by Top Gun, he dreamed of getting close to fighter jets—a fascination that eventually led him into his niche of aviation photography, where he combines his airborne passion with the technical mastery required to capture high-speed maneuvers, intimate pilot portraits, and awe-inspiring aircraft in carefully choreographed formations.

Nearly four decades after he first witnessed Maverick, Goose, and the gang “turning and burning” through the skies in their F-14A Tomcats, Jose now documents that adrenaline rush from the up-close vantage point of the cockpit that he dreamed of. “It’s a very dynamic and noisy environment when you’re up there,” he says. “In warbirds, you’ve got nine cylinders in front of you firing and reverberating throughout the aircraft as wind whips around you while you’re trying to compose the shot. In jets, you’re strapped into an ejection seat, shooting through scratched plexiglass, as the g-forces try to crush you.”

Jose has recently begun to weave Tamron lenses into his aviation workflow, which began at Florida’s Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo in April, where Tamron is a sponsor. Shooting an event like Sun ’n Fun requires a lens that can adapt instantly—and for Jose, the Tamron 35–150mm F/2-2.8 Di III VXD hit the sweet spot. This superfast, supersharp, versatile all-in-one-zoom is wide enough for environmental shots and static displays, yet long enough to isolate aircraft in flight without constantly swapping lenses.

“Not only is the 35-150mm F2-2.8 the ideal portrait lens for photographing pilots,” Jose says. “Shooting air-to-air in the open cockpit of a T-6, this lens has a ruggedness to it, which is really important when taking pictures in this kind of extreme environment. I captured so many more keepers with this lens, in this environment, than I had with other options.”