k5083

I like it a lot.  Nice exercise in repeated shapes and textures and a lot of nice lines for the eye to slide down.  Like most of the best aviation photos, it is quite irrelevant that the subject is a plane.

Reading, PA, June 6, 2010.

At WWII Weekend, Reading, PA.

I like the drama and the composition achieved with the ground placement.  The subtle definition of the nose bottom is important.  The burned out highlight bothers me a little.  Good treatment of the old bird overall.

Terrific photo.  Love the colors, composition, depth of field control, and the way it captures the technology you were flying in.  Placing the apex of the balloon at the top of the frame, 1/3 from the right corner was perfect.  Couldn't be done better I don't think.

 

Good one Dan.  Great colors and unusual angle.  With classic gear too!

 

Nice shot Dan. I like the subtle warm color cast.

 

You were using a polarizer I take it. With wide angle lenses, they sometimes generate that effect where part of the sky, in this case in the middle of the photo, is more affected by the polarizer and comes out darker. It would be pretty easy to darken the upper left and right corners to get an even tone across the sky.

 

The rainbow glow effect in the bubble canopy is a typical polarizer effect as well, but I usually like it, as in this case.

 

Nice. It is so difficult to get anything fresh and different with the big jet teams. You did well here to work with the light and aircraft position to get the shot.

Taken around 1949 or 1950 in Furstenfeldbruck, Germany, this shot obviously was carefully planned by Dick. He crouched under the wing of the B-29, no doubt planning to catch the taxiing F-80 just as it completely emerged, framed by the nose, nacelles, and props of the bomber. What I don't know is whether he realized that the zigzag shadows of the bomber on the ground would so perfectly lead the eye to the shiny fighter.

 

I suppose that strap hanging from the bomber's engine right above the F-80 mars the composition, and it would be simple enough to retouch out. But, somehow, I don't want to.

Good shot because of the shapes; dominated by a white circle and a black triangle, with good balance between the two. Lines radiating from the center of the image and forming a cross pattern with the seams inside the circle are also nice.

Critiques welcomed.

I like this. The down-in-the-valley jet shots get old after a while, but this is a well picked out and very dynamic abstract. I like how you turned it so that the bottom edge of the stablizer is square with the border of the photo. Good framing and choice of aspect ratio as well.

Dan, thanks for the comment.

 

Blue halos, eh? Not sure what that would mean, unless maybe your lens is not giving you a type of bokeh that pleases you. This was shot with a simple (in terms of number of elements/groups) but good prime lens, which might help contribute to the fact that the fuzzy edges are just fuzzy edges with no outlines or halos. I never really thought about it.

 

That is a little falcon doing the crossover maneuver with the big one, right? Wonderful picture. It takes a moment to spot it, and the picture succeeds more on humor than on aesthetic merit, but who cares. It's very cute.

Nice moody picture, cute story too.

Good pic Alex. Pull back just a little and it would be boring, but the tight crop adds a lot of interest. The clouds help as well.

I encourage critiquers to consider this as an abstract image.

Nice shot. Did you notice that these vortexes and contrails were forming with other planes and wait to capture this one, or was it a spontaneous grab?

 

I find most of your pictures way overcooked, but this one has interesting details and a nicely balanced composition. A good example of less is more.

 

I don't really know if the light grouping is art. You have made art out of it, though. Exceptional things about this pic are the vivid color, the near-black near-void at bottom (would a pure black void be even better?) and the symmetrical parabolas that you set up, one in red and one in chrome. I am trying to decide whether the pic would be better if the sun did not happen to be reflected in the chrome panel; I think maybe so. But anyway, a well composed bit of geometry.

There's a bit of an organic, almost erotic look to the pipes. A closer crop might bring that out even more. Might also tone down the highlights at the welds.

 

Nice picture, you framed it well, with important ingredients like the hood ornament and trademark just within the picture space, and really conveyed how baroque and massive the vehicle is. Surprisingly effective as a composition also.

A lot of airplane photographers overlook the benefit of tight framing. You can just hear this one coming at you. The diagonal orientation adds a lot of life. Perfect framing, too -- note the lower wheel just in the frame, and the bit of interplane strut in the upper left corner is essential to balance the opposite strut and to eliminate the illusion that the starboard wings go on forever (cover a sliver of the left edge of the pic with your hand and see how much less natural it would look). A solid portrait that captures the essence of a round engine biplane.

 

The lines do work, and I'm impressed that the lens kept most of them straight, with what looks like good corner density and sharpness. This is reminiscent of a few of the pics in Makanna's first "Ghosts" book (1979), which is still my favorite book of warbird photos.

 

I like the placement of the anchor with the chain leading to the ship. The various light sources are nicely balanced. If you would be willing to consider some manipulation, I might be tempted to darken that bright blue patch of water right behind the keel, which I think attracts the eye more than it should.