All through this website are examples of my photography of aircraft, flight scenes, and models. This has been a hobby since I was in college. Below are examples of some of my other photographs.
Shuttle liftoff from KSC - While working for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as a co-op student in the late 1980's, I had the opportunity to witness and photograph several shuttle launches from optimum vantage points. Here are two photos I am most proud of from my co-op days.
STS-50 carried the US Microgravity Laboratory-1 payload into orbit to perform microgravity experiments on a variety of scientific subjects. This photo was made as the Shuttle launched from Pad 39-A on June 25, 1992 at the Kennedy Space Center. The vantage point was from on top of a mobile launch platform in the crawler-transporter holding pen, just north of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Click here to read more about STS-50.
While at NASA I worked for the Materials Testing Branch (MTB) of the Materials Science Lab at the Kennedy Space Center. We performed tests on materials and systems related to the Shuttle, ground support equipment, and supported almost every conceivable activity that went on at KSC and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The MTB was one of three labs that worked together. The other branches were the microchemical analysis branch and the failure analysis branch.
The MTB has basic capabilities to perform physical testing, thermal testing, vibration testing, triboelectric (electrostatic) testing of thin plastic films, and corrosion testing of materials and systems.
Note these pictures are of the orbiter Columbia, which was lost in a reentry accident on February 1, 2003. To view the latest information on the accident, go to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board website.
Shuttle liftoff from as seen from Cocoa Beach - This photo was taken on April 5, 2010 as a time-lapse from Cocoa Beach about 1/2 mile south of the Pier. It is of STS-131, one of the last Shuttle flights, and (probably) the last night Shuttle launch. The photo was a 197 second exposure, which was enough time for the solid rocket boosters to separate and the SRB exhaust clouds to begin dispersing, as evident at the top of the arc. In the following picture, the white trail is of the shuttle, the red trail is a position light from a circling aircraft, and the dispersed SRB exhaust clouds are readily apparent. Because of the time of day (6:21 am, about 1/2 hour before sunrise) and the clear skies, this was one of the prettiest launches I've ever seen.
On the left is a picture of Burgess Falls near Cookeville, TN that was made in the late 1980's. I went to school at Tennessee Tech for several years and had the opportunity to take a lot of cool pictures. This was one of my best, made with a tripod and an exposure time of approximately 2 seconds.
On the right is a picture of Laurel Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Townsend, TN. A relatively long exposure time (1/2 second) produced the blurred water. The original was made with a Canon Digital Rebel (EOS 300D) in the large format JPEG mode. The image was color and saturation corrected and resized to 657x480 for the web.
Above is a picture of Little River in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Townsend, TN. A 1/2 second exposure time was used. The original was made with a Canon Digital Rebel (EOS 300D) in the large format JPEG mode. The image was color and saturation corrected and resized to 640x319 for the web.
Photography Notes: The
old Space Shuttle images above were taken with a Nikon F camera with Photomic
light meter and a 135 mm Nikkor lens. The latest Space Shuttle images were taken
with a Canon EOS 5D with a 24-70 f/2.8L IS lens. The picture of Burgess Falls
was taken with the same camera body with a Nikkor 50 mm lens. The color prints
were then scanned and .JPG files created.
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