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USS Kitty Hawk – Battle Cat CV-63


USS Kitty Hawk – Battle Cat CV-63
Photo Information
Copyright: John Plumb (JPlumb) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 855 W: 204 N: 1036] (3121)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-07-07
Categories: Daily Life, Transportation, Decisive Moment
Camera: Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200mm 3.5-5.6 G ED AF-S VR
Exposure: f/9.0, 1/125 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2007-07-08 18:01
Viewed: 927
Points: 28
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Sydneysiders love their ships. When the Queen Mary 2, and Queen Elizabeth 2, came to town they (with me) flocked down to see them first hand, creating a nightmare on the roads and harbour. This past week The USS Kitty Hawk came to town for five days. Traffic was not as bad, the stay was a little longer, and the state took certain precautions, having learned from the last visits.

The Kitty Hawk is one of the largest warships to visit Sydney. It has a 5,300 strong crew, with a contingent of 70 aircraft. It is 326 metres long and sits 61 metres above the water level at its highest point. Commissioned in 1961, it is the oldest active-status warship in the US Navy. Due to it’s age it is expected this will be the last visit to Sydney Harbour for this classic. It is expected to be decommissioned next year.

This is a big deal to Sydney, not only because it’s another chance to view another classic ship, but having this ship and crew in town means up to $1,000,000 per day to the local economy.

Some of this from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/05/1970641.htm

While taking various shots, what impressed me about this ship (besides all the aircraft on the top deck) was the length of it up against Garden Island. It was difficult (though possible) to get this from my vantage point near Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, in one shot. I thought it would make a great panorama though, so that’s what I went for. The toughest part of doing this was getting clear visibility in each of my separate shots with respect to pleasure craft coming over for a quick view. It was a game of patience. The one small boat you do see at the bow is a naval vessel. It remained parked here.

Members of TE can click on the picture for access to the Large Post.

Workflow was as follow:
Shots taken in Raw - NEF files adjusted together for exposure and shadow only (maximums)
Since I was close to the ship while shooting it’s length there was some lens distortion between shots – these needed to be reset (horizontal) between the shots until I had alignment – this was done manually through an iterative approach until I had what I wanted.
I created a larger canvas and combined the shots here as separate layers (rather than using the more traditional photoshop auto process – it wasn’t giving me the alignment I wanted). For future reference, this seemed a lot faster too, with much better on hand control.
Flattened the layers on the panorama, when I had alignment.
Adjusted levels to white and black points – minimal
Adjusted curves – very slight s-curve for contrast
Used an overlay layer with 5% opacity black and white brush for dodging and burning
Added a layer for sharpening with USM
Modified sharpening with a layer mask (25% opacity black brush)
Saved as a tiff
For this post, resized, sharpened edges of original USM layer, framed and saved as a jpeg for small post.
For large post backed up to the original image and repeated the process completed for the small post.
happypoppeye, deblink, ribeiroantonio, UnTrained, mvdisco, Greg1949, RSK, pboehringer, wishlist, tigra, marioana, lousat, abulafia has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To KoreaGreg: A Welcoming PortJPlumb 2 07-09 21:00
To UnTrained: Fresh PaintJPlumb 1 07-09 15:30
To ribeiroantonio: Almost Missed ItJPlumb 1 07-08 21:17
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • trinko Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 584 W: 179 N: 223] (2928)
  • [2007-07-08 18:05]

interesting subject nice focus good colors

Hi John,
I saw this ship on the news the other night, great image, the quality is wonderful, nice crop too.
Cheers,
Debbie

I can see you do not miss any of the big ships visiting the Sydney Harbour. And this one is really big. Was the ship open to the public? From what you say in the note it was a bit of work to get this impressive picture. Well done and congratulations for the wide view.
Antonio

Hi John,
excellent work as everything I saw is clear, sharp and worth a view. But you should have asked them about a fresh painting before as the rust is everywhere ;-)
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

Bonjour John
What a beautiful view !! of the uss Kitty Hawk, very nice picture of this great Porte Avions (in French) I see the QueenMary 2 in Québec city in sept 05, and when you see this wanderful boat in persons WoW! this is great.(Sorry for my English John) Your panorama picture is very well composed and the colors soo..Excellent note and POV.
Have a nice day..
Michel

John, Great shot, the large post really fits this subject. You have captured it very well. All your work has paid off I think, any distortion is not noticable. The running rust on her sides make he appear well used, and I am personally pleased that she has found a welcoming port, too often these days there is no stand down time for the boys and girls serving.

Greg

  • Great 
  • RSK Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 91 W: 7 N: 22] (239)
  • [2007-07-09 16:45]

Hi John,a lot of time involved in completing this image,thanks

for all the detailed notes, they are indeed instructive & now

printed out & saved just in case a similar occasion comes

my way.Your end result is well worth your efforts & the

larger version,really lets the viewer see whats on deck,thats

one large aircraft carrier.T.F.S.

rON.

Hi John,
for 1 million a day could you please let them know that I've lot of free space here in Salford Quays? :o)

Excellent panoramic shot for this monster of the sea. Well captured and balanced with a great sky! As usual your note is perfect and the description about the PP you've done is very useful!!
Thanks for that John,
Cheers
Igor

  • Great 
  • tigra Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 646 W: 154 N: 552] (2946)
  • [2007-07-12 1:33]

Hello John
Impressive picture! And thanks for the interesting note also.
Katia

  • Great 
  • Stepan Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5132 W: 94 N: 3983] (26195)
  • [2007-07-12 13:10]

Must be really impressive to see such a huge boat for real.
I'm surprised the boat looks tired and bad painted, but the post is interesting (especially with the large version).
Stéphane

G'day John.
I heard this goliath had visited. You'd think with all the money the Yanks pump into defence they could give it a coat of paint! Great capture. Great PP work. Very well done.
Best regards, Steve.

1 million dollar a day? I guess that I will invite them to stay just for 24 hours in my backyard ... :-)
You got a quite interesting composition with that long horizontal framing. The large post is quite necessary to appreciate better the details.
I wonder what will happen to the ship after decommissioned. Turn into some museum, sink it into the ocean, desmanteling it ...

  • Great 
  • lousat Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 899 W: 14 N: 779] (5250)
  • [2007-12-11 15:24]

my compliments for the note first. And the panoramic pic is a fantastic work,perfect sharpness and details,thanks for share,Luciano

Hi John
You are really good at being on the spot when the famous ships are in:)
This one is quite interesting, I have never seen a carrier like this up close, but on your very detailed large post it feels like being there.
Very nice, and again thanks for the note.
Harry

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