Air and Space Museum

Oops - I got the gray background color wrong. Oh, well. :-) 204,204,204!

Anyway - this is one of many shots that I took when I visited the new Smithsonian National Air & Space museum for the first time. The museum opened in December, 2003, as an extension of the Air & Space museum on the National Mall in downtown DC. This new museum is located on the grounds of the Dulles Airport, outside the beltway in Virginia.

I definitely have Colin in mind when I upload this ... I know his affinity for machinery. :-) There will be more shots from this spot to come.

Now, photographically, I would love some input on any thoughts you have here. The darker zigzags were bright red, and I wanted to keep the image in color. But I tried and tried to work with the background that you can see in the bottom and in the top corner, and it never worked. I didn't want to crop out those parts (I like to keep my shots in a 2:3 crop ratio), so I tried the B&W and that seemed to work best. Sorry I lost the red, but the whole shot seems to benefit from the B&W treatment. This is a significant crop from the original image. I have several others of the same plane. Any thoughts that you have are most welcome. And if you're interested in seeing the original image or one of the other shots of this plane, let me know, and I'll post an attachment.

Thanks to all of you for your ongoing support of my ongoing learning curve in photography. I would never be able to do 98% of what I do without you all. Thank you!!

I guess that cars & vehicles is the best category for this... Any

comments or ratings are appreciated. Please, if you have time, read

my comment on the photo to see what input I'm looking for. Thank you.

I think you were right to go with b&w here. It makes for a fine still-life study of surfaces and textures. And it emphasizes the interplay between the circular arcs of the cowling and the straight zigzag paint lines. I shot a lot of pictures in that building last year and I would be proud if I had gotten anything this good.

Nice shapes and detail, Lou Ann. I like it.

You've done pretty good with a static display, Lou Ann, considering how difficult it might have been to exclude clutter. Yes, I would like to see the original.

 

Incase it interests you (and for future reference), here's a link to some of the best aviation photography around. The archive is huge, but taking your time to poke around might be worth the effort in discovered images.

http://www.airliners.net

I know what is this. This is a detail from the bicycle drive of an old french moped named "velo solex". No ? Too bad, I will try to do better the next time.

Actually, it is the people on airliners.net who ought to come over here and take a look at Lou Ann's picture, to learn how to approach the subject as a photographer and not a plane-spotter. I don't think they have much to teach her.

You guys have truly flattered me. I am glad that you feel so strongly about my image, August. I would have to say that, to be fair, the (few) photos that I have seen on airliners.net, they don't claim to be going for photographic value over showing the distinctions between different aircraft and having a comprehensive database. And, also in being fair, I couldn't tell you the first thing about this aircraft, other than the fact that the red zigzags caught my eye. :-) (But ... I will be going back to that museum in a couple of weeks, and you'd better bet that I'll be writing down some things while there....)

Michael - here's the original image. You can see that my crop was significant. I was having trouble with the yellowish tint in the floor and background. I couldn't seem to fix those yellows without throwing off the colors in the plane that I wanted to keep. It was frustrating, so I just went with the B&W....

Lou Ann, you are right about airliners.net. There is a site called fencecheck.com that is oriented a little more toward aesthetic photography, although the tastes of most of its members run toward action shots of modern jet fighters.

 

FYI, the aircraft you photographed is a Nieuport 28, a French fighter from 1918. The museum's blurb on it is here:

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/nieuport.htm

 

THANK YOU for that website!! I love looking at all of the shots of the restoration process!

I like this crop very much. Quite an interesting design. I think it looks better with some higher middle tones. It brings out the industrial, polished look. Here's a quick attempt. now the prop really stands out, and so do the details of the engine.

I like that, David. Good idea. After seeing your version, I realize how dark mine is! Thanks!

Well seen! I also, like the lighter version by David R....

It's close, but I prefer Lou Ann's original. I think the darker tones look richer and the distracting stuff at the bottom is much less evident.

Lou, I think you have done a marvelous job here. For me the crop is very good and I would not have changed anything apart from eliminating the lower part showing the background under the motor. The quality of the photo and its sharpness makes the viewer almost feel the material, its hardness, smoothness and force. Maybe you should try to work on the shine and almost (?) blown out part of the grey zone in the middle (highlight).

 

It is a photo in the style of Bauhous and photographers like the early Feininger. Even the object of your photo is from the same period.

Again, you folks flatter me. I felt like this was a strong image ... but the reaction to it has been better than I was hoping for. Thank you all very much!!

Very well seen..... and excellent execution and presentation! My congratulations, Lou Ann!

Interesting story behind the last good result Lou Ann. I like the B/W conversion, and the forms captured.

Hey, great shot, Lou Ann! you have captured the circular shapes of the engine very well. I like David's version though in some ways I think your darker version suits the subject well too. The lighter one looks clean enough to eat breakfast off which I imagine was not the case when these things flew around. I really must get to the Smithsonian one day.

... and when you guys come to town, you WILL let me know!! :-) I'd love to go to that museum with you!

 

Colin ... twenty minutes before you made this comment, I was thinking that it was a bit late for you in the UK to be making comments on photos. Now it's really late! Or are you in the US and didn't tell us?

Beautiful, Lou Ann. I really like your B&W treatment, and the tones you managed to get in this one. The crop looks perfect. Great shot and editing job!

You are the early riser I am the opposite :-) Sometimes with shift work I end up not knowing whether it is day or night!