some WWII equipment

[penolta]

Here are a few "left over" images from a visit to the Lyon Air Museum, not included in the series of four threads posted in the Transportation Forum. Indoor lighting conditions were tough with reflections from the planes and backlighting from the large hanger windows. K7D, Sigma 10-20mm, hand held bracketed images at +/- 0.7 EV, processed in HDRtist and PSE6. For those interested in seeing more, the four threads are here:

Lyon Air Museum I - Vintage Cars

Lyon Air Museum II - Military Vehicles

Lyon Air Museum III - Military Aircraft I

Lyon Air Museum !V - Military Aircraft II

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress

1



Douglas A-26 Invader

2



North American B-25 Mitchell

3



4




Adolph Hitler's personal Mercedes Benz touring card

5

[penolta]

Douglas C-47 Skytrain

6.

[pboerger]

My uncle, now passed away, flew the B-25 during WWII in the Pacific. God, did he have some tales to tell. Thanks for the great shots and the memories.

[mtngal]

Your shots are outstanding! They look so much better than what I took in Arizona and your conditions look much worse than what I found.

Next time I'm down in Orange County I'll have to check this museum out, looks like great fun.

[NMRecording]

very nice series. You need to stop posting with that 10-20 before I go spendin money again. ;-)

[Trojansoc]

Looking over all five of the threads, penolta....looks like a great use of a day. You've got some really nice shots. These particular planes look particularly well shined for aircraft that still fly on a regular basis. Nice job.

I was extremely disappointed when I was in Hawaii this summer and planning to go the Pacific Air Museum on Ford Island. We found that not only could you not bring a tripod, you could not bring a "large camera" or any form of camera bag. That is true of the entire historical complex at Pearl Harbor. That was not the case two years ago when we went, and I had really been looking forward to photographing the new exhibits there.

Paul

[penolta]

Originally Posted by pboerger

My uncle, now passed away, flew the B-25 during WWII in the Pacific. God, did he have some tales to tell. Thanks for the great shots and the memories.

I was a kid playing with model toys of these planes during WWII - this is the first time I have been within touching distance of these.

Originally Posted by mtngal

Your shots are outstanding! They look so much better than what I took in Arizona and your conditions look much worse than what I found.

Next time I'm down in Orange County I'll have to check this museum out, looks like great fun.

Thank you Harriet. It is at John Wayne Airport, but check their website for maps - it is in an out of the way section of the airport - easy to get to if you know where to go, but impossible to find otherwise.

Originally Posted by NMRecording

very nice series. You need to stop posting with that 10-20 before I go spendin money again. ;-)

Hell, I am just getting started! - Actually it is the first time I have used it - it is a used copy I only recently acquired. New copies of current lenses are pretty costly nowadays, and Pentax mounts of some are hard to find used at any price since so many people are looking for them, while other mounts are more easily found at decent prices. I had been searching daily for a long time for this one - I had to return one earlier with significant back-focusing problems.

Originally Posted by Trojansoc

Looking over all five of the threads, penolta....looks like a great use of a day. You've got some really nice shots. These particular planes look particularly well shined for aircraft that still fly on a regular basis. Nice job.

Paul

Thanks, Paul. The planes and the floors are spotless - everything is well maintained and accessible. As you may have noticed, there are even pads under the wheels to protect the floor, yet they even do their servicing there, with a tarp on the floor under the engine of the DC-3 as they worked on it. As photographer friendly as the place is, all the reflections from the shiny planes and floor, backlighting from the large windows, and crowding together of large planes, presented significant challenges. I really needed that 10-20 and the help of HDRtist to tame the wide tonal ranges (first time I tried HDR, too)!

I photographed (on film) that same B-17 orbiting over our University boat off Long Beach some years ago - it has been maintained in flying condition for a long time.

[Keltech]

Penolta what a fabulous series! You did a great job controlling the difficult lighting conditions.

The AA polished aluminum bodies were unique. When I was selling to Mc Donald Douglas when the DC-10 was being built for American Airlines sheet metal workers were required to wear Kid gloves when handling the skins.

The Sigma 10-20 was made for these kinds of shots. Mine sees a lot of use. I purchased a Sigma thin CP that I like a lot, it cuts the glare nicely in these kinds of challenging lighting conditions.

Like you I made many a wooden model of these old war birds and played with them a lot.

Lou

[Goldwinger]

I enjoyed this series very much, Pen!

[mole]

Some really fine work, despite some very adverse lighting conditions. Thanks for sharing your talents as well as some great history!