The F6F Hellcat Tells its Story in Fine Art Photography
Often in fine art photography our goal is to tell a story, one that invokes a feeling in the viewers of our photographs. Roaming the hangar floor at the Quonset Air Museum, I was looking to find a story, one that I could tell with my photography. The Air Museum is a small facility at Quonset State Airport in North Kingston, Rhode Island and is home to about 15 military aircraft in various states of restoration.
As I walked up behind an F6F Hellcat, I knew I had found my story. Positioned just inside the half open hangar doors, this small fighter aircraft caught my eye, and my heart. Beginning in 1943 the F6F Hellcat was a carrier based fighter aircraft in the Pacific Theater during World War II, and was credited with shooting down more enemy aircraft then any other fighter in the US military’s inventory. This was an aircraft designed to do one thing, and one thing only – fly.
As I read the history of the F6F and walked around is simple, sleek design I started to imagine how I could use my photography to transform this antique aircraft into a living, breathing thing that longs to be back where it belongs. Out of the hangar in the sky, darting and diving in and out of the clouds as it pursued its enemies.
I moved around behind the tail of the aircraft, and the scene really captured my attention. With the hangar doors open to the skies outside, the little aircraft seemed to be alive, and looking longingly towards the clearing skies, yearning to fly one last time. I had my story, and now I knew exactly how I was going to tell it
I set my tripod up just behind the aircraft , and very low to the ground. I wanted the viewer of the photograph to feel as if they were looking at the sky from the F6F Hellcats point of view. I started off by setting my camera into manual mode,and took multiple photographs at several different exposures and with several different compositions, trying to find that one magical shot.
F6F Hellcat
It has been a while since I have posted anything new, but I have not been idle. Yesterday I spent the day at the Quonset Air Museum at Quonset State Airport in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Housed in an old hangar near the end of the airport I was not expecting the Smithsonian, but I was pleasantly surprised by the treasures that I found inside. Dark & dusty, brick walls and exposed rafters created the perfect environment for these beautiful machines of the past! When I stepped through the doors onto the hangar floor from the lobby I felt as I if I had stepped into another world, and another time. Everywhere I looked I saw texture, shapes and details that just screamed for HDR!
Once I returned home I did some processing of the photographs, to add a feel to the photograph that helps to tell the F6F Hellcat’s story. The goal of the processing for this image was to give it a classic, vintage feel, as if the image had been created during the time that this aircraft might have actually flown.
I hope that you have enjoyed the story of the F6F Hellcat as I have told it with my photography as much as I enjoyed creating it.