Photos

"Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life? Aviation combined all the elements I loved. There was science in each curve of an airfoil, in each angle between strut and wire, in the gap of a spark plug or the color of the exhaust flame. There was freedom in the unlimited horizon, on the open fields where one landed. A pilot was surrounded by beauty of earth and sky. He brushed treetops with the birds, leapt valleys and rivers, explored the cloud canyons he had gazed at as a child. Adventure lay in each puff of wind."

Charles A. Lindbergh

This shot happened fortuitely. I went today for some plane-spotting (in the way of Placombe and other trekkers). I was tracking this CRJ900 taking off from our airport, bound for Naples. When she rotated, I zoomed fully back to get a wide-angle shot. The distortion of the lens and the climbing angle made the plane appear almost vertical. But the contrast between the freedom of the plane in the blue sky and the ground barbed wire, that wasn't planned at all.

Tehnical: harsh light, the original JPEG was heavily underexposed and backlit. Saved the day with auto-levels and contrast mask. Resized and slightly sharpened.