STS-133 Launch!

I just returned from Florida yesterday following STS-133's successful launch to the ISS.  I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Causeway launch viewing area, just 6.8 miles from LC-39A, which is as close as the general public can get.  It was a SPECTACULAR launch, made all the more special by the last minute problem with a range safety computer that took us to within 2 seconds of a scrub!

I've posted a couple of videos, one is just lift-off through SRB-seperation (http://vimeo.com/20370050) and the other is the whole experience from T-5 minutes and counting to when the first bus started up to leave: http://vimeo.com/20435430

I've also posted my photos from the day here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imperfectsense/sets/72157626155247896/detail/

I think this is my favorite:

I plan to try to get Causeway tickets to STS-134, and then I am hoping to have media credentials for STS-135 so that I can view that from the VAB, only 3 miles from the pad.  That deal may yet fall through, but I'll give it my best shot!

Holidays Update

I've been very busy lately getting the Pacific Northwest Aviation Photographers group started, you can check out the progress at www.pnwap.org.  I'm very happy with where this is headed, I think we have a great community out here and I look forward to offering some very cool opportunities during the upcoming airshow season!

Personally, I've been focusing on expanding my portfolio into new types of photography, trying a little bit of everything to see what sticks.  You can check out my latest work at www.flickr.com/ImperfectSense.  Aviation photography remains my greatest passion, but I've found I'm enjoying shooting christmas lights and children as well.  I'm also trying really hard to develop an "eye" for what I call texture shots, images that are very close in to a subject but show details or effects that you wouldn't normally catch in a standard photograph.  For those types of shots I'm going to need some better lenses, and I've actually discovered a few old Pentax primes that I think will do nicely when combined with my Canon T2i.  I just need to keep scouring Craigslist and Ebay until I find some good ones up for sale.

California Capitol Airshow

I took a whirlwind trip down to the California Capitol Airshow last weekend to see the "Lightning Strike", all 6 remaining flying P-38's were invited to attend and fly together, 4 of them were able to make it.  This was the largest gathering of P-38's since probably the 1950's.

As my favorite warbird of all time, I've been trying to catch a P-38 in the air for well over 15 years, so I was SUPER excited to have this chance to see 4 together.  I was also nervous that they might not live up to my expectations after nearly 2 decades of anticipation.  When they finally took to the air, there was no doubt... they are the most beautiful, graceful, best sounding warbirds I've ever seen :D

I'm downloading my photos from the trip now, and will be posting them to my Flickr as I finish processing them, but I wanted to throw up a couple of quick videos first, for those of you who couldn't make it to the show.  The first video is of 3 of the P-38's in a "rat race", doing circuits of the airshow box.  The sound of them going by is fantastic, but since this video came right off my (hand held) camera (with a 400mm lens), there is a good bit of shake.  I will clean them up and edit all my best footage together later.  The second video is the Missing Man fly-by on Saturday, with all 4 P-38's.  I hope you enjoy the videos!

P-38 Fly-bys (ROUGH) from Liz Matzelle on Vimeo.

P-38 Missing Man Fly-by (ROUGH) from Liz Matzelle on Vimeo.

Welcome to the new Icehawk Media

Welcome to my new Icehawk Media website.  Please bear with me while I settle in and get things setup, in the meantime for my latest photography please take a look at my Flickr photo stream here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/38284438@N00/