In the Hangar

When I was a kid I had an encyclopedia of airplanes, and I loved to look in it. The National Air and Space Museum holds some of my favorite planes, so naturally, I spent an inordinate amount of time photographing them. Here are some of my favorite shots.

HDR: 1/60, 1/25, 1/10 sec at f/4.5, ISO 1600, 20mm

1/50 sec at f/3.5, ISO 1600, 10mm

1/20 sec at f/4.5, ISO 800, 22mm

1/30 sec at f/4.5, ISO 800, 19mm

1/40 sec at f/4.0, ISO 1600, 16mm

1/100 sec at f/3.5, ISO 1600, 12mm

Space Shuttle Discovery

It's always been a dream of mine to see a shuttle launch, but that era has passed. The next best thing is to see one in person at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. I've watched the Shuttle Discovery launch and land many times on TV, but I really wasn't prepared for just how magnificent it is in person. I literally spent hours staring at it, taking hundreds of photos, and reliving my childhood fantasies of spaceflight. My wife finally had to pry me away to go see the other exhibits, which too were very cool. I'll post more on that later.

The hanger that held the shuttle was dimly lit except for bright splashes of direct sunlight creating a very wide range of light from dark to bright. In this situation I'd normally use a tripod and shoot bracketed exposure HDRs, but tripods weren't permitted in the museum. This made it really difficult to get great shots, but I think a few turned out pretty well.

1/80 sec at f/4.5, ISO 1600, 22mm

1/250 sec at f/5, ISO 1600, 123mm

1/40 sec at f/4, ISO 1600, 16mm

1/40 sec at f/3.5, ISO 1600, 10mm

1/80 sec at f/4.5, ISO 1600, 22mm