6. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

I had the opportunity to photograph at the Aerospace Museum in Sacramento, CA. The rifling inside the barrel caught my attention. It looks like a 20mm barrel of a Gatling Gun mounted on a Thunderbolt II aircraft. Camera setting: 180mm macro lens, f5.6, 1/320 sec., ISO 800.

By the way: Gatling, the inventor of the gun wrote “that he created it to reduce the size of armies and to reduce the number of death by combat or disease, and to show how futile war is.” I found this sentence in the Wikipidia article about the Gatling Gun. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun.

Happy photographing

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4. December 2011 by David.

After taking the photo posted yesterday I turned around and this is what greeted me.

It reminded me of the old line from the Jackie Gleason show in the 60’s, whenever his wife would give him a bad time.

Keep Clicking

Dave

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29. January 2011 by David.

These are from the smallest plane at the museum.

Well it really isn’t a plane in the classic sense, no one could ride in this one. The KAQ-1 is a radio controlled drone that was used for target practice among other things. It could probably fit in the back of my pickup if you let the wings stick out. I like the color contrasts as well as the lines.

Keep clicking

Dave

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25. January 2011 by Friedhelm.

This is another image I photographed at Castle Air Museum in Atwater, CA. I used a 400mm zoom lens at 330 mm to get close  to the center of this jet engine. Enjoy and happy photographing!

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22. January 2011 by David.

Here’s another photo from the Castle Air Museum in Atwater.

This is the prop from a B-24, the tail section of a KC-97  and of course the pigeons. I converted it to black and white since the sky was grey anyway. Then I added grain and contrast to give it an older look.

Keep clicking

Dave

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16. January 2011 by David.

Friedhelm and I visited the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, Ca.

This is the intake of a Lockheed P80-b Shooting Star. A Korean era fighter responsible for a number of aviation firsts. The elegance of the planes at the museum belie their necessary but deadly purpose.  I particularly like the flowing lines and soft feel.  The overcast sky helped mute the lines and shadows.

Keep clicking

Dave

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14. December 2009 by Friedhelm.

My visit to the Castle Air-force Museum brought back memories from my visit to the Rocket  Museum in Penenmuende, Germany in January of 2008.  I photographed this V1 (buzzbomb) outside the museum. TheV1 and V2 were largely produced through concentration camp workers. In one of exhibition halls were suitcases of those slave laborers who were literally worked to death. Photographing those suitcases showed me the reality of the Nazi regime. A horrible statistic of the V2 rocket: More people were killed making it than though the actual usage. It made me also aware how precious peace is.

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11. December 2009 by Friedhelm.

This image reminded me somehow that the early pioneers of aviation tried to imitate the birds. Here a bird was sitting on the top of the airplane. The old dream of human kind has been made into reality. Thanks to creativity, imagination and countless experiments we are able to fly higher, faster and over distances that were impossible a hundred years ago. What a triumph of the human spirit!

Have a great week-end and enjoy!

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10. December 2009 by Friedhelm.

I used a super wide angle lens to photograph this fighter plane. Super wide angle lenses let the center of the image appear larger that it actually is. This can create some very dramatic effects. The is even more supported through the background. The skies at sunset are also dramatic. This airplane can look very scary and through my choice of lens and background I was able to express this feeling. Camera setting: f18, 1/13sec., ISO 100, tripod mounted.

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9. December 2009 by Friedhelm.

The size of the B52 is pretty much overwhelming. As far as I know it is the largest bomber that was ever built. I remember when I was a child we had cards of war planes and the B52 was always my favorite.The second image shows the wheel and hydraulic system. Enjoy and take the time to visit the museum and maybe you will find a veteran pilot or air crew man that served on one of them.

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