Space Shuttle Endeavor Flyover

A gallery shot "From my first roll of home processed C-41" by paladin1420 inspired me to catch today's flyover of the Endeavor when everybody called me to tell me it was happening. Got my boss and co-worker to OK the time off and gathered up the gear...

San Bruno Mountain

News radio station was giving updated information on the sightings and I was just about at the top when it started coming towards the mountain. Had about 20 seconds to setup, which wasn't enough. I fired off one shot, cycled the Grafmatic and fired a second shot. Forgot to cycle the Grafmatic again and wanted to check the focus. Accidentally pulled the film holder out while the neg was exposed. In my panic I cycled the Grafmatic while it's out in the open. I'm sure this fogged all the film, maybe it ruined all the shots I don't know yet.

But the funniest thing happened while I was setting up for the second flyover... The Pentax Spotmeter V needle was flying all over the place. Never been anything but rock solid at locking on a value. Here in bright daylight I was getting readings of 3, 6 sometimes a sensible 9, 11. I think the radio towers were sending out such strong EMF that it was interfering with my light meter readings.

On the way down I heard a clunk but checked the backseat and didn't see anything so kept driving until I got nearly home. Then I realized while talking with my wife that I had lost the Spot Satellite messenger unit. I'd put it on the roof to signal my location for fun. Like a cup of coffee. Instead of picking up sandwiches from Columbo's, I went back up to the mountain to look for the big orange cell-phone looking gadget. Lucky enough it was right there in the place where it made sense it would be. And the bright orange makes it stand out. You know if you are going to lose something... It's kind of nice to lose something that is sending out GPS coordinates of exactly where it is. The coordinates above are where it was waiting for me to pick it up.

Well I missed the shots. Without a proper viewfinder on the old view camera, and without having time to properly check landmarks on the groundglass before shooting... my timing was off and the shots are poor.

Cycling the Grafmatic in the open didn't ruin all the film. But the notches, where the septums have a notch, are fogged.

I suspect that was not the best horse for that kind of course, so to speak.
That links to the other thread about always using large format when smaller formats might better serve the purpose.
"Readiness is all".
Hamlet would have chosen a 135 with a tele lens, I suspect

Bill,

I'm sorry you missed the shot, but I'm glad you went to see it in person. It's an historic event and it's good to be able to say you were there. I actually only took one or two shots of the second fly over just because I wanted to see the it with my naked eyes rather than through a veiwfinder.

My son and I also decided to go at the last minute too and the challenge for me was that I had left my meter home. Fortunately, I used my son's digital camera to get a reading off of the George Washington Bridge, which I guessed would have a similar value to the shuttle and 747 and made my settings accordingly.

I'm glad I got my shots processed and posted in time to "inspire" you (you might be the very first)

Regards,

Sorry to hear about that, it happens. Did you make up for it by shooting some scenery atleast?

Alright! You came away with something after all, and a pretty good story to go along with it.

Had close to the same experience as Bill. I was working out in the yard under a semi trailer adjusting the brakes when one of the fellas calls out "THERE'S THE SPACE SHUTTLE !!" crawled out from under the trailer and grabbed my camera already mounted on tripod ran out and manged to snap off two shots but one was blank. I was very close and low to the ground but only visible for like 10 sec. Developed film today, the one neg is thin but in-focus considering dragging and holding the tripod in my hands with a 250mm lens on the Hassy. Try and post tomorrow.

Mike

Bill:

It would have been sadly more appropriate if Endeavor was flying out of the frame, instead of into it.

But I like the image anyways.

Mike, (and j-dogg who commented in Gallery), Looking forward to your shots.

It's interesting the "command performances" we had this year, the eclipse, the transit of Venus. In each case, the 12-inch telephoto was the best tool in my shed, though not exactly suited to the task.

Matt,
I think you are right. I should have tried to center the image, then that would have happened.

Last one second

Here it is, a little blurry but my record of History flying over Norwalk.

Bill, with hindsight I think using my Rolliecord with the 75mm lens would have been a better choice of camera's. There was to sort of time and and did not have a clue from where the low flying plane was coming from .

Mike

Nice shot Mike, for a grab shot you got a really well-organized foreground.

It was all luck Bill,all I could do was point the camera in the general direction while running backwards.

Mike