It’s fun to photograph airplanes, helicopters and all kinds of new and aged technology.
Back in Hungary, in the 80s I had an assignment to shoot Migs and hearing these planes and seeing the afterburner light up was quite an experience. I had to have each slide inspected by an army representative to get release on the ones they deemed to be safe for publication.
I remembered that when I saw this absolutely beautiful L-39 “Czechoslovakian” made jet.
I don’t think it’s just a paint job but the design shape/size/form/proportions seem to be ageless and truly a masterpiece for me. See, not just bad came out from behind the iron curtain, the Czechs made Skodas and especially the ones before WWII were remarkable.
I was really please to see this next image and it’s probably the first ever “as shot” image I post on this blog or on my fb page. I take pride in not “making the image by Photoshop” and only make modest enhancements, but there is always a bit of cropping or other “balancing acts” to apply. So here is an out of camera shot:
I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it wasn’t begging for a whole lot of “make up”. And here is the thing, I’ve framed it with a 600 mm focal length as it was flying couple of hundred miles an hour. The slightest panning discrepancy would have completely moved the plane out of the viewfinder. This baby can be blown up to 30-40″ easily, I can put all 16 million pixels to good use, nothing gets chopped away with cropping. But then again, it’s not that, it’s how beautiful this plane is.
Another one I liked:
The way 1/2500 of a second freezes and seizes movement makes it hard to believe that this thing was flying. I’d title this photo: The cutting edge, or Blade.
Maybe the more usual angle:
Then there is this one:
You know that I didn’t just flip it in photoshop. I was looking for any signs of gravity but I can’t convince you visually that this was flown upside down as shown. ( I’d not betray you the viewer by flipping an image upside down to make it more interesting. )
This is the world’s smallest jet:
how much fun could flying this be! You can see the pilot sitting inside, it’s probably not even the length of a minivan.
What a toy and what a job to fly these.
Talking about pilots, here is one in a Harrier Jet, remember the movie True Lies? ( Arnold and Jamie-Lee Curtis )
The jet turbine air outlet can pivot downwards, so it’s like a helicopter, it can hover in air and doesn’t need much or any runway.
Here is the whole bird:
Look at it while it’s tilted and hovering with landing gear out and hot air spewing in front of the trees:
Let’s go back in time, a P51 Mustang from WWII ( I shot these at a fly over during the Coca-Cola 600 last year )
Complete with German flag and Luftwaffe logo.
Somewhat later – Vietnam:
See the burning fire reflected on the bottom:
Want even more drama:
Finally 3 more photos to end with:
Thank you for your time and interest!
Zayphoto 