Dart Two Dart

I've always liked the Convair F-106 Delta Dart. It is one of the sleekest, prettiest designs every made and a classic 1950s speed demon. While the single-seat interceptor is more angular and muscular, I must admit the two-seat trainer adds a pleasing curve to the Dart form.

I was happy to see the F-106B parked outside when we went to a model kit show this past January at the Yanks Air Museum at Chino Airport. Last year when we were there the Dart was crammed in amongst the other airplanes and a clean, overall shot was nigh-well impossible. While not the best angle, I was able to capture the whole bird on an overcast morning during our visit.

This particular aircraft was one of the Rockwell B-1 chase aircraft during the Lancer's flight test operations at Edwards AFB. It is definitely one very colorful marking for a very beautiful bird, and it was great fun to shoot it, even in marginal weather.

As I have mentioned before, the thing about "bad" weather is that you can still get some great images. Nature and landscape photographers know that well, but aviation shooters, especially the dedicated documentary slide traders, insist on sun-at-your-back, clear foreground and background, side-view or quarter-view, no mid-day or golden-hour images as capturing accurate colors and marking information is paramount.

But setting aside documentary parameters, great aircraft shooting can be had, particularly on tight images or unusual angles. I especially like the above shot with the light reflecting off the large canopy and fuselage. It's very dramatic and atmospheric. While it doesn't capture information, it does capture mood.

This last image is also one I really like. Since I knew we would be in the midst of a model show and sale, and since I didn't think anything would be outside, I left my tripod in the car. Fortunately the range on the Eos 40D allowed me to hand-hold all the shots that day with surprisingly good results. The head-on view was one of those happy moments. Again, poor on information, but a very dramatic and pleasing result. It was a very good day!

Mustang Sally

I have this love/hate relationship with aviation museums. On the one hand, it's nice to have aircraft preserved for current and future generations to see and appreciate. On the other hand, many times the aircraft are in a wretched state of preservation and stored or exhibited in less than ideal conditions. Ideally, they should be restored to as near pristine condition as possible and as close to the markings of their real service career, then displayed indoors in a climate-controlled environment.

That, of course, is far from what happens in many places, especially in small, financially-strapped local museums.

Southern California is fortunate in that many such places do have the ability to preserve and display a large part of their collections in great venues. Some friends and I went to two of those museums last weekend: the Yanks Air Museum and the Planes of Fame Museum, both in Chino, CA.

Yanks is the newer of the two at the Chino Airport. The airport has long been the home of Planes of Fame and a whole subsidiary industry dedicated to the restoration and preservation of old warbirds and contemporary air racing craft. Both museums now sport beautiful interior hangar displays and a large collection of flyable and flying articles.

We went to Yanks first because there was a kit collector's show being held inside the facility that day - the reason for our excursion.

While it's great to see such beautifully restored aircraft, the one complaint I have with every such venue is it's a royal pain to get good over-all shots of the individual vehicles. I much prefer to get clean shots outside in nice light. But if they were outside in nice light, they would not be in such great shape for long. Such is the dilemma of museum aircraft.

Nevertheless, neat shots can be had with a little creativity. The image below is an overall view of the legendary North American Aviation P-51D Mustang. The kit show is to the left of the airplane, outside the framing of the shot. It's amazing how much you can hide with careful composition.

It's a decent shot, but not a great one. Good enough for documentary purposes, though.

However, with a bit of careful positioning and composition, a much more dramatic shot is possible, as is shown in the image that opens today's entry. The Mustang was built with beautiful curves and this angle shows some of those classic lines to good effect. The lighting helps set the mood with dark shadows and bright highlights that accentuate the shape of the airplane. It is a much more expressive shot than the overall picture, but than it should be. After all, that is the difference between art and documentation as each have different objectives in mind. While those objectives are not necessarily exclusive of each other, it is a much more difficult challenge to combine the two - especially in a museum setting.

And that's why I shoot both ways, if possible.

We will explore more such images in the next few entries.