Photographer’s Notes I’m not a happy photographer at the moment.
While I took a lot of great pictures in 2010, I’ve used the most DPC-Friendly ones in challenges already and, although I have plenty of outtakes, I don’t really want to repeat my self. So here I am choosing from among photos that I like a lot, but doubt will do well in the scoring.
So I’m starting with a favorite subject, military aircraft, and am “making” an image.
The original photo was taken of an F/A 18 over Lake Washington during Sea Fair – one of the Blue Angels. It was a crappy day to be in a boat under the flight line and the sky was all “Seattle Soft Box” white and undistinguished. The Blues did their “low show.” I shot some pictures but wasn’t really happy with them. jbsmithana was with me and I think he felt much the same.
There was one low pass, hard bank, vapor-over-the-airframe series that showed promise and another pass I used in a prior challenge.
So how did I “make” this image? The steps below up to but not including “colorize” are pretty standard workflow. But the result was cold. What I wanted was for the observer to feel the power of the jet in the turn, to feel the moisture condensing over the airframe and wings. I wanted it to feel like a weapon of war in harm’s way. I wanted an “Apocalypse Now” sort of feeling with a jet, instead of a helicopter.
I grabbed a couple of color samples from an Apocalypse Now poster and laid a radial color gradient over the image with yellow over the jet and orange in the upper left corner. Then I changed the blend mode to color – wow! Some dodge and burn gave the sky a more turbulent feeling. And last, I added some noise to the image masking the jet. War is dirty, dusty, and gritty and I wanted the noise to suggest this aspect of war.
About the Title: My working title, which I reserve the right to change before entering, is Fire Bug of the Apocalypse. The reference to the apocalypse is, of course, to the movie. The F/A 18 has been called the Bug, Super Bug, Plastic Bug and the Rhino. A few of our DPC members are into aircraft, will get that reference, and perhaps appreciate it. Otherwise, what could be a worse bug in the apocalypse than a firebug?
I showed it to my wife and she said, “They’ll either love it or hate it. Don’t think there’s going to be much of a middle ground.” This is the sort of thing she says when she doesn’t like a photo but isn’t in the mood to defend her criticism.
I would have preferred to see this picture flipped 90 degrees to the right.
This does look like an apocalypse though. The colors and processing is very dramatic. 6
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