About me
Howdy, my name is Luke Ayers! I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas and I lived in Texas my whole life until I moved to Eugene, Oregon for my first year of college in September of 2024. I have a passion for Aviation Photography and I have been participating in this hobby since 2019.
My story
On Christmas in 2019, I was gifted a Canon DSLR, sparking a newfound passion for photography. Not too long after that I started taking pictures of aircraft on approach to San Antonio International Airport (SAT) from my front yard, taking inspiration from an older friend of mine who had already been planespotting for a while. My curiosity and excitement grew, and on December 31, 2019, I found myself planespotting in San Diego during a family vacation. As the pandemic took place in 2020, I found myself with more free time and dove deeper into planespotting. It was during this time that I began working with Airways Magazine (Airways Publishing LLC) in September joining their fantastic team of photographers. My dedication paid off, and in 2021, I saw my work published in a magazine for the first time, marking a significant milestone in my planespotting journey. As I continued further down the path of aviation photography, I continuously wanted to improve and do more. At first I had to rely on my parents for transportation to and from the airport in San Antonio, but eventually, in December of 2021, almost exactly 2 years after my first time planespotting, I finally got my license. At this point I took every chance possible to collect more photos of different aircraft or airlines I had yet to capture. More time passed, and I started to upgrade my gear, and this process will always be ongoing. Like most photographers and artists, I always strive to improve the quality of my work, and this was just another step in doing so.
Why airplanes?
Ever since I started this hobby, I've had some people who think it's a weird or nerdy hobby, but it is a surprisingly large community, spanning countless platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Flickr, YouTube, and many more. Not only that, but there are many websites or databases full of images from photographers around the world. Websites like JetPhotos have been around 2002, with over 4 million screened photos now available online for anyone to view. These websites provide all details of an aircraft, including registration, serial number, photo location, and much more. The reason I enjoy this specific type of photography so much is for many reasons. There are so many different airlines and aircraft types out there, leaving countless combinations for us planespotters to capture through our lens. Getting up close and personal with these aircraft has always been fun for me, trying to perfect every shot just sharp enough to see all the intricate details of an aircraft. Most of all though, is collecting images of rare aircraft or special liveries. For example, Southwest Airlines has a special paint scheme for many different state flags including Texas, California, Nevada, Tennessee, Colorado, Arizona, and more! As you can see by just a select gallery of images I have collected, there are many different aircraft for us planespotters to capture, and no single photographer can ever capture them all.