There are a lot of problems associated in getting this shot. First is access to the spot I shot from......easy enough, I work there but nobody else viewing would have had the same access. Next would be having a camera capable of capturing that image...... I would like a new Nikon D800 but I have a D300..... not as good with noise when shooting at the ISO needed. No Tripod..... I had to hand hold the camera........even though I was shooting at ridiculously slow speeds that should have made it impossible to capture a clear image....... the vibration reduction lens helps there. Something I really have no control over is the centering of the aircraft when it is brought into the hanger, this was the best since I have been going out there after I get off of work each night. Another thing out of my control was the aircraft itself, a 767 with a nice looking Star Alliance livery.......because they were working on the control systems at the time, I was able to capture the aircraft with it's "tail feathers" in the extreme up position. I also captured the red flashing beacon on the belly of the aircraft in the lit position. The lights on the ceiling are pretty close to being perfectly symmetrical making a nice pattern. The rudder is splitting the flag very close to center and the tips of the horizontal stabilizers are nearly equally spaced from theTexas and UNITED flags. The exhaust pipe of the Auxiliary Power Unit in the tail is a little left of center but not enough to bother me. Of course if I would have had more control I would have had the hanger floor empty of all equipment and I would love for the nose of the aircraft to be facing me but this was not official and I had no control over anything but my camera and where I shot it from.
In this day of effortless cellphone snap shots, good photography is being appreciated less and less, there are plenty of people that think that this shot could be made with their cell phone by haphazardly pointing it at the aircraft and pressing the button........Ansel Adams couldn't and wouldn't even try to shoot something like this with a cellphone. We have become a people that think that's good enough is good enough........it's not. I will not be boring you guys with my airplane shots anymore, I'll post them on a photography sight that gets the effort.
