My name is Guus Luijten, born in 1989 in a small town called Heibloem where I still live. Heibloem is located in Limburg, the South-East corner of the Netherlands. I've been interested in aviation as far as I can remember.

In 2002/2003 I bought my first digital camera, some crappy Trust Powercam. Getting something like a sharp picture out of it was almost impossible. For that reason I started saving and in 2004 I bought a Canon Powershot A75 with 3.2 Megapixel and 3x optical zoom. The quality of my pictures improved a lot. Because there was no airfield nearby I never tested it on aircraft, I just used it around the house. In 2006 we visited the annual open doors of the RNLAF at Leeuwarden AB. I believe that was the first time I photographed aircraft with my digital camera. Because I was missing zoom only the static photo's turned out well. Early 2007 my father bought a Konica Minolta Dimage Z6 (6 Megapixel and 12x optical zoom). In that year I also started to visit more aviation events and I used my fathers camera to photograph the aircraft. Especially during the open doors of the RNLAF at Volkel AB 2007 I found out the camera wasn't ideal. The camera was having difficulties focussing on the fast moving jets and the zoom was a bit slow. It was time for a new investment and since early 2008 I am using a digital SLR camera; the Canon EOS400D. I bought the Canon 400D because it was a nice camera to learn the ropes of photography with an SLR. I used the standard kitlens and bought a Sigma 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 APO DG Macro. After the first succesful season in 2008 the quality of my pictures improved and I learned how to work with a SLR. The Sigma zoom lens I used wasn't exactly what I was looking for. In the beginning I bought the budget Sigma to learn SLR but it wasn't very sharp or fast. I wanted to shoot high quality images so I invested in a new lens. Since early 2009 I'm using a high quality Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM. It was a good choice because the quality of my pictures improved again. Not only because I started using a better lens but more important I learned a lot about (aviation) photograpy in the last year. Nowadays I am still learning more about photography with every event I visit.

Gustlock.nl launched in July 2009. I started the website to show the beauty of aviation. I photograph every branch of aviation, militairy, GA, airliners... My personal favourites are military (mostly the airshows) and Classic aviation (I really like Warbirds and other propeller action) but it doesn't really matter much as long as it flies (fixed wing, helicopter, balloon...). But there is one type of aircraft that always gets my attention and that is the Yak-52. There is something magic about this aircraft, I love the looks, the big M14P radial engine and especially the performance! It doesn't look very aerobatic but just wait until you see it in action! Also the other Yakovlev aircraft types get some special attention, the 52 just a little bit more...

Why the name Gustlock? I'm currently still in school. Studying Aircraft Maintaince at Maastricht-Aachen airport. Gustlock is a nickname I got from fellow students. When an aircraft is parked on the ground rudders can be fitted with gustlocks, those are locks that prevent movement of rudders when strong gusts are blowing over it. If not fitted those gusts can cause heavy uncontroled movement of the rudder and damage it. What has a gustlock to do with me? Guus > Gus > Gustlock. It just shows Gus in it, the English variant of my Dutch name. That's all!

Publications

Below I keep a list with photos made by me that have been publicated. The list is short but I hope it will grow larger in the future.