In the Air Museum I

On my recent visit to the Air Museum I was interested to see lots of

young children with their parents and grandparents (school

holidays!). I was trying to capture something of the strangeness of

it - innocence looking at the brutal and efficient weapons of war.

 

All comments welcome!

I think it works. These inside air museum shots are difficult. I was just at one the other day and don't think I like the shots. B17, isn't it?

Thanks Ken. Yes, a B17 Flying Fortress. I am interested to see how poeple react to this bunch of shots as it is a bit different from my usual landscape and architecture.

Colin it is good to read about Your opinion.What You try to express comes out very well.I like how You have the little boy standing there. that unknown brings here the astonishment.good the reflection in the light of the floors and the B&W,I will see if I am allowed to rate it, what I think,very good!! Just tried,had to go down to 6/6.

Alix, thanks. I am interested in my PN friends thoughts and comments about the shot even when the subject may not be their 'Cup of Tea'! So your thoughts are valuable to me.

Colin, the museum atmospher is very much present, even I find the composition a bit too crouded, but I think these were the condition. Iwould have cloned out the " half" figure behind the wing opposite the child in order to accentuate him in the scene,and make it a bit less crouded. good light and shadows captured.. Pnina

Thanks Pnina, as you say, it was crowded and I wondered how much to remove to concentrate the image. In the end this is pretty much straight from the camera with a single layer to improve shadow detail.

I like the lighting on this and what looks like a rather bewildered child (reminds me of the film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind). As it happens, I saw a B17 fly past on 7th August, as I drove home from the channel tunnel. It made the trip.

 

Best wishes. P

 

 

Thanks Peter. Yes the shot does have echoes of Close Encounters which has the same idea of innocence encountering something complex and alien.

 

We see a number of old planes flying around here and seem to be under the flight path for fly-pasts in London. We saw the Battle of Britain memorial flight with the lancaster and its million poppies the other day.

Very interesting, but tough one, as well. Let's see. The child is clearly the center of the photo, helped not just by the gaze of the grandfather( I assume), and the light around him, but I think the figure above him also appears to be directing towards him. That figure also appears to be ducking under the wing, whereas the child is in a huge wonderland. This difference, together with the figure on the right, his head almost touching the wing, but his head still looking up, following the line of the wing out of frame, is, for me, the most interesting part of the composition. Three people, all with different interactions with the environment, apparently dependent on age( since the right person looks teenage).

 

The grandfather is not part of this relationship, since he only appears interested in the child( at this moment in time). That brings up the role of the other middle person. He's a staic mass, with no particularly interesting pose. If he wasn't there, there would be more light around the grandfather. Would this mean that the grandfather would then compete for our attention with the child? We can see the direction of his gaze, so does the rest of him really matter? That's a large area of dark mass in the foreground, but is the other person fulfilling a useful role?

 

Is that another person ontop the wing? He's creating a triangle with the prop blade, which given the strong angles above and the curve of the engine to the right, is interesting, but probably not that important in the grand scheme of things... unless the shape that's created helps spread the weight of the two middle people. I think it might have a role in something like that.

 

That leaves the light people in the background. Getting rid of them leaves only shadowed people in the picture. Not very realistic, but would it strengthen the composition? I can't decide.

 

Anyway, that's how I'm reading this, with the reactions of the three figures becoming the theme of the photo. Of course, emotionally speaking, the grandfather is more important than his role in purely compositional terms. I was justing exploring his purpose in weight terms.

 

It is a bit crowded, but at the same time, I can't figure out who to get rid of. Let's see what other think, maybe they'll read it differently.

IMO to many words trying to explain what is hard see in the picture. I does not work for me. One idea is to use a gentle flash-fill-in or try to show some faces. Kind regards.

Onc more Colin.Like You said,it is not everybodys " cup of tea".I am not professional anough to judge the technique.But I think the picture is emotional,with the shadowed people and the light leading outside,even in the propella window.

Hi Colin! I've had this image open on my browser for a couple of days now ... just thinking about it. I can't even explain to you what I was thinking ... there are so many things to like about it, most of them in subtle ways. I keep coming back to the little boy. I can't imagine the sense of wonder for him, being so close to all of these big airplanes that look so tiny when they're flying through the air. I like that all of the people are silhouetted, and I also like the reflection of the window on the plane. It's a winner for sure!! :-)

Stephen, thamks for your detailed comment. It is interesting to know how you see it. I agree the background is messy and the background people don't help the composition but I thought would upload the raw shot rather than spend a long time tryng to tidy them up. To me the main subject is the little boy's reaction to the planes and the grandfather's caring attention to him. The plane is important as the setting but the rest to me is not and just acts as background circumstance. Thanks again for your view of it.

 

Jan Olof, thanks, as I said, not everyone's cup of tea. Maybe I could brighten up some of the detail.

 

Alix, thanks for coming back. I agree the shot is about the emotion of the boy and his (?)grandfather.

 

Lou Ann, thanks for your considered thoughts. I too find I will leave commenting on a shot for a time if I want to think about it. You seem to see the shot as I do - with the whole thing focusing on the mind of the little boy as he is confronted by the huge airplanes. This seems to be one of those shots that I like and am pleased with but the general PN view is, shall we say, cooler!

The story is definitely about the grandfather and the child, all else seems secondary to it. I like that the they are silhouetted. I don't mind that there are other people around, however I wish that the person immediately to the right of the grandfather wasn't there. But this is a candid shot and for what it's worth you might have missed this shot if you waited.

Amar, thanks. Yes, I agree the guy to the right of the grandfather figure would be my first target to remove. But then I would have to fake an undercarriage leg!

The shadowed figures I like in this.

This evokes a memory I'd thought I'd put to rest.

When my son was 3 years old we were touring an aircraft carrier. While my husband and I were looking at the planes my son went on his own down below the ships deck and became lost from us. Seeing the child here in your photograph makes me think of being lost in his world of this large museum of the great shadows and light.

Thanks W. Empathising with your experience it sounds like a moment of parental panic you would want to forget. Glad all were ok!

This is interesting! I am used to seeing your very careful and well executed compositions of buildings, structures and landscapes. This is full of motion and things going on. The backlight and the shadows on the shiny floor add an interesting athmosphere. The little boy, looking a bit lonely and lost attracts attention. The man on the far right is coming towards him, a father searching? The big aircrafts and the small boy makes him seem more vulnerable.

 

I like this and you did very good with the difficult light. It doesn't look really B&W, rather very low saturation. Anyhow it fits the lighting very well.

Thanks Camilla! yes, a bit different from usual but as it is school holiday time a day at an aircraft museum happens once in a while. I intended to make all these b&w but i think you are right - I uploaded a desaturated version instead.