Dammit, how irritating this is! First of all, I know a picture like this is possible because I've seen the aircraft/cloud/vortex combination from my 11th storey livingroom window near a threshold.
Second, I know seeing it's rare because I still can't ignore an aircraft taking off and, after five years in the same building and thousands of departures from the adjacent runway, I've only seen the combination mentioned above two or three times.
Third, those I have seen seemed different, wider cones, a bit more ragged edges to the cones and the cloud was much less dense than in the "nice photo" this thread refers to.
Fourth, I dreadi having to take the Nikon and 350mm lens out of storage, actually putting film into the thing and sitting by the window waiting for a shot just to prove a point.
If that picture was taken from the ground, even with a 500mm lens, wouldn't there still have been something in the way of extended flaps? The 747 in the photo looks whistle-clean.
The cloud formation in the background shouts altitude over 10,000ft. If the shot was taken from the air, surely it would be a very reckless person who, even with a 1000mm lens, would wilfully put his aircraft directly in the wake of a 747?
I also noticed that darker ring in the photo, but not the other aircraft.
Enuff arreddy