Blume, Alf wrote:
A tele-lens was used - the aircraft is at least 30 feet away, a bit closer
perhaps than when refuelling from a C-135 (and definately higher), but not
much.

Exactly. What you see in these pictures is a typical illusion of
"closeness" produced by a long-focal-length lens. In reality the planes
are not that close to each other.

Remember not so long ago there was a lot of buzz in mass-media when some
kid took a picture of two passenger planes "almost colliding" in the
sky? Was it near some US airport? Don't remenber... But anyway, that was
the same kind of illusion.

--
Best regards,
Andrey Tarasevich