B-25J “Panchito”
by Shawn Levy
I don’t normally title my shots, but in the case of the one below, I made an exception. It’s called “The Lesson”. The shot is of a B-25J named Panchito, serial number 430734, and works in conjunction with sponsoring the Disabled American Vets outreach program.
Panchito was a static as well as flying display. During the flight demo, I took a couple dozen photos of it, one in particular, “the slow photo pass”. Figuring I’d get a great shot, I chimped the screen on the back of my camera, only to discover it was drastically over exposed. I didn’t sweat it, and finished shooting Panchito. Later that night, I took a look at that shot after dumping my cards, thinking maybe it could be saved. It could, but not in the way I thought. I played around with it for a while, and got what you see. In straight black & white, it didn’t even look like a photo, more like a drawing. I added a little color to antique it a bit – and no it’s not sepia – it’s a mix of four colors.
So the lesson learned – never, never , never delete a shot (for those of you shooting digital). I’ve done it a couple times before, but never again.
Photo by Shawn Levy