Space Shuttle Discovery, Washington DC Flyover - The Photos

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The Space Shuttle Discovery took its final flight this morning from Florida to Washington, DC on the back of one of NASA's 747 carrier planes used to carry the space shuttle's around the country. I went down to the National Mall this morning and stood in front of the Washington Monument to photograph its many fly-overs it took before making its final landing at Dulles International Airport where it will be put on display in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Below are what I think are some of my best shots I got with my 28-300mm lens (which on my crop sensor camera, turns into a 480mm zoom).
Approaching over the Lincoln Memorial.


Nice side shot with the NASA T-38 in frame.

Another good side shot.

Flying almost directly overhead.

Washington Monument flags in the foreground.

Coming out from behind the Washington Monument.

With the White House in the foreground.

Another pass with the White House in view.

Another good side shot from close underneath during its last pass.
And while I did not take this picture, I could not resist posting this awesome shot that was posted on the NASA HQ Flickr account:
Also, here is a video from my friend Ted Severson shot from the steps of the U.S. Capital building this morning:

Finally, here is a slideshow of the entire 284 photos I took and posted on Flickr:

District Nights

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I'm a sucker for time lapse video of any sort, especially when it is beautifully done, such as this. Drew Geraci says this about his video:

This piece is all about DC at dusk and night -- concentrating on the monuments and historial buildings on the mall. During the making of this time-lapse, I was hassled/stopped 27 times by DC police and received 5 parking tickets. That's pretty much how it goes in DC. With help from my buddy Drew Breese, Russ Scalf, and a few unnamed sources we were able to complete this production... even if it was slightly behind schedule. It took nearly 3 months to film the sunsets -- since DC weather isn't always the best. For the production, I used a combination of standard frames, tone-mapping, and traditional HDR (on a few shots). It's quite the mixture. I hope you enjoy this piece and DC just as much as I do. The Vimeo video page lists his colophon of hardware, software and music.. Drew's website is TheVoder.com.

Andrews Joint Service Air Show

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My lovely wife and I went to what was previously known as Andrews Airforce Base, now called Joint Service Base Andrews for the annual Air Show and Open House. All branches of the military were there showing off their hardware and I brought my cameras along. Steff and I had been wanting to go for several years but kept forgetting to or would have other plans already made on that weekend when we found out about it. We managed to have a free weekend this year and decided to go. We came back with over 650 pictures and a nasty sunburn (72 degree day + cool breeze makes one forget about the sun). You can view the entire set of 680 photographs but first scroll below to see some of what I think are the best shots that I embedded here. Also, if you scroll entirely to the bottom, you'll see a video I put together from some clips of the Air Force Thunderbirds show that I shot on my iPhone.

Video of the Air Force Thunderbirds show.