It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the Dulles Air and Space Museum!

Two weekends ago (yeah, I've been busy, hence the few and far between posts lately) I met up with some photographers from DPReview.com at the Dulles Air and Space Museum to hang out and talk about our weapons of choice (Nikons...not aircraft based machine guns and rockets). It's funny, I've lived 15/20 minutes away from this place since it opened, but I had never been. The museum is very nice, although VERY crowded and they plan to cram even more aircraft/spacecraft over the next few years. It's a challenge to only get 1-2 objects in a image since they are litterally stacked on top of each other, there are no less than THREE levels of aircraft stacked!

Exterior of the museum...looks like an airport, but then again it is a stone's throw from Dulles Airport...

This is what I mean by crammed...I'm trying to get a picture of ONE helicopter, and to get the whole helicopter in the shot, I have to have 3 planes and another helicopter in the shot too!

There's a really cool section of the museum (it's actually kinda hidden, because it's behind the stairs) that has a bunch of engines pulled out where you can see all the VERY different designs

Another engine removed from it's aricraft

Yes, even unmanned "aircraft" are displayed here (although they all have the warhead removed).

They have aircraft from all generations, from early Wright-style planes, to modern jets...

In the far end of the museum, there is a huge room dedicated to spacecraft, including the Space Shuttle Enterprise and a number of satellites and sections of rockets... I have no idea what this ring is, but it looked kinda interesting to me...

This is an exhaust from a rocket that I used a blue gel on a flash to give it a "spacy" look...

Self-portrait in a space helmet...

I didn't like how this photo came out, but posted it here to show how cool using a red gel on your flash can be... kinda gives the Blackbird's engine a "I'm about to fire, you should probably move away...unless you wanna get toasted" kinda look...

If you live in the Northern VA area or are visiting, I'd definitely recommend checking this place out, it only take about 2-3 hours to wander the whole place, and is free to get in (well parking is $12, so carpool with some friends).

The Sun is no match for the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8!

This past week I was up in Minnesota for a business trip, and I took my D3 and some glass (why wouldn't I?) and we took a cruise on the beautiful Lake Minnetonka which left right around golden hour, and before we left the dock I decided to test out the flare control of my newest addition to my lens collection, the amazing Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 Ultra-wide Angle lens. It has a nanocrystal coat and a bunch of ED (enhanced dispersion) glass in it to reduce flare and ghosting, and let me tell you...it works like a dream. The picture below is a picture of a ship next to the one we one SHOOTING STRAIGHT INTO THE SUN! The incredible part is there is only a VERY slim strip of flaring at the bottom left of the image!

Click this link to view a larger version

Incredible control of flare for shooting directly into the sun at Lake Minnetonka, MN!

Another test using the same lens with absolutely no flare (also no water to reflect the sun from a different angle...) from rural western VA

Video Project in 3 days = No sleep

James and I on our first day of shooting...prior to sleep deprivation...

So those of you who don't know...I have had all of 8 hours of sleep over the past week. I got approached by a GM in my district about creating a video project around customer acquisition and innovation in our local stores last week. I agreed to work on it without knowing when he needed it by (he made it sound like their was plenty of time). The next day he calls to tell me a little more about the project. This is a video which is to be made to show to our Executive Vice President of Retail and our CFO who would be coming to our territory office on the 27th. I said "The 27th of July? Okay." No...it was the 27th of June. This conversation was last Friday the 20th.

I freak out as I had to work all weekend and was scheduled to work all this week. I managed to get my employees to work a bunch of extra shifts to cover me, and grabbed James ( a friend at the company who I've done several video projects before...also a fellow contributer to Tech Tuesdays at Sillyman.org) and filled him in on the details. We began shooting Monday morning and found out Tuesday afternoon after shooting the last bit that this video needed to have a rough draft (90% complete) by 3PM Wednesday...

To make a long story short, this project took about 50 hours of actual work and James and I were sitting in front of a camera or a computer for close to 65 hours (waiting for things to render, import, ect) over the course of 3.5 days. We found out Thursday EVENING that the time for the presentation has been cut back, and due to time constraints they won't have time to show the video (it's only 7.5 minutes long!)

I wasn't going to blog this, but I emailed the video to a couple friends in the industry and they wanted me to post this up just to show everyone exactly how (to put in Armin's words) "...this really shows how much TIME and EFFORT goes into a freakin’ 7 minute video!"

Sorry I am not willing to link or post this video as it is does contain proprietary company information, but just rest assured that it came out great.

At least I got out of a blue shirt for a few days...