Quick Shot: Marauder

One of the many things I inherited from my father was a love of airplanes. I've always been drawn to their raw power and sleek design. When I had a chance to photograph some of the best World War II aircraft still flying today, I jumped at the opportunity. 

The B-26 Marauder was a twin engine bomber used heavily in the European theater during World War II, including on D-Day. Unfortunately, frequent accidents during take off and landing gave the Marauder the nickname "widow maker" for some time, but the pilots learned to fly this great machine and it became one of the most important aircraft to the war effort. 

This B-26 is located at Fantasy of Flight outside Orlando, Florida. The aircraft has been diligently maintained and is still able to fly today.... 70 years later!  

The aircraft was parked too close to other aircraft for me to isolate alone in a single shot, but I was drawn to the reflection of the machine gunners bubble on the front of the bomber. I used a Nikon 14-24mm wide angle lens to get close to the bubble but to still get some of the wings in the shot as well.  

The photo was edited using Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Nik HDR Efex 2; I didn't have a tripod so I got all of the dynamic range from a single shot by dialing in an exposure compensation of -0.5 stops so that the bright sky wasn't blown out in the highlights.