How they got the shot of Endeavour by Hollywood sign

[Chris Dodkin]

This past Friday Gary Friedman was assigned to photograph the space shuttle Endeavor’s historic return to Los Angeles. As part of a team of more than 20 LA Times photographers, his position was on the helipad of downtown’s 73-story U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building west of the Mississippi.

I had a 360-degree view of the city. A photographer from the Reuters news agency and a video crew from NASA were also on the building to document the event.

Around noon the shuttle, piggybacked atop a 747, was spotted gliding through the sky. It passed by our rooftop vantage point moving east to west on a flight path that took it past the Hollywood sign.

Using a Canon 400mm 2.8 lens on a monopod with a Canon EOS-1D Mark III body, I kept my hand on the shutter. I chose not to shoot with a longer lens as I was worried that the shuttle may be out of the frame. The juxtaposition between shuttle Endeavour and the Hollywood sign seemed fortuitous.

In all, Endeavor made three passes by the Hollywood sign, but none of the passes resulted in the same juxtaposition as that first pass.

Here's the contact sheet showing the sequence of shots - and the final selection

Contact sheet: How I got the shot of Endeavour by Hollywood sign - Framework - Photos and Video - Visual Storytelling from the Los Angeles Times

 

[Brian Moore]

That's a nice shot and a cool story; thanks for posting it Chris. By the way, there was a different shot of the shuttle on the front page of the Times the next day. It was shot from ground level, on Aviation Boulevard which serves as the eastern boundary of the runways at LAX. It was a smashing shot, with the boulevard teeming with sightseers and the shuttle at an altitude of what appeared to be no more that 20 or 30 feet.

 

[Hamish Gill]

This is also very cool
Space shuttle Endeavour detachment time-lapse video - Framework - Photos and Video - Visual Storytelling from the Los Angeles Times