Re jet efflux ( rather than smoke ) I would seriously avoid being behind a B-1 !
We sometimes had to be beside the runway as new types did first flights etc; this usually involved a luckier photographer in a Hawk filming the subject as it took off or landed.
Naturally this chase aircraft was struggling a bit with the low speed, and would go right over us nose up at relatively high power; I can say a Hawk going over one at such an angle & height is enough to get attention, we crouched at the last second and could feel the heat & blast as we were covered in grass.
This was nothing compared to another job, photographing 2-seat Harrier G-VTOL from underneath to cover asymmetric load trials.
I soon learned that ‘underneath ’ was not an option, just to get as near as my nerve & ear defenders would allow.
You will know of the scrolling vortices of thrust under a Harrier; a photographer from another base apparently didn’t, - I admire his courage if not wisdom - and during the ‘Skyhook’ trials he managed to get picked up to quite some height, ( could have been an unusual fod report with his big video camera ) then thrust violently back into the ground.
I’m only saying this as it had a happy ending, incredibly he was only bruised – not so for the camera though, and sadly the footage, if it existed, was kept discreet.
On a Sea Harrier delivery, I was with a stills camera and a Flight Test chap with a video, we’d had been tipped off this might be a bit of a display, and were on a gantry, which was distinctly unstable laterally.
The aircraft went past fast & reasonably close – not dodgy really – but on feeling the efflux I thought we were going over, and ducked below railing height; I forgot the video had a microphone, and still have a copy of the film ending in the F.T. video diving too, and my voice saying ‘ Holy S**t ! ’
In Burgundy on a later job, we had to use the canal going past the Dijon Mirage 2000 base, and it was obvious a slow moving barge was too good to resist; we got singed but I’d seen it coming, a friendly rival had all the deck gear ( and only by luck not the people aboard ) blown over the side.
Made a nice photo’ – shooting through, not above – the lock gates though.