Pic(k) of the week 34: Spitfire Mk. XIVe - Mean machine

Last month I wrote about the amazing Flying Legends airshow I attended at Duxford, UK. 

I often find myself going back into my image library a few weeks after the shoot, in order to see if anything has been wrongly left out in the initial round. 

When I started working on an "average" one, I believed I saw the potential to make a 5 star ( maximum stars I allocate, portfolio worthy) image. After a few hours of editing my initial thoughts were confirmed.

2013 Pic(k) of the week 34: Spitfire Mk. XIVe - Mean machine

I titled the image above; "Spitfire Mk.XIVe - Mean machine".
Mean, this 1944 Spitfire definitively looks!  The MkXIV was one of the later versions of the renown UK built WWII fighter, that after the war was eventually sent to India to join their Air Force. 

She later became own by The Fighter Collection at Duxford and after a long restoration project, took to the skies again in 1992.

The quote on my website homepage: "We don't take images, we make them", was definitively true for this one! Unlike for my Street Photography and photo-documentary work, I personally have no problem to "work" my Fine Art images to the best of my abilities.

On this specific one, I spend considerable work on removing disturbing factors in the background like the several modern day single engine aircraft. For the ones interested the original un-edited image, please click on the image below;








Image details
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 70-200 VR2 lens
ISO 800, f8, 90mm, 1/1000s
RAW development in Lightroom 5
Photoshop CS6 cloning/content aware
Nik SilferEfex for black and white conversion

To stay with the warbird and vintage aircraft, theme; I will be attending the "Oldtimer Flieger Treffen" at Hanhnwiede near Stuttgart (Germany) September 5 till 7. With over 300 vintage aircraft attending, weather permitting, it looks like it will be a great show!

Talking about the Spitfire, lets finish with a famous Winston Churchill quote:
"Never in the filed of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"


BJORN






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