I went on a trip to the US in 2013. I spent nearly three weeks there, most of it on the east coast.
I stayed with friends in Baltimore and went on an overnight trip to Washington DC, the nation's capital.
No tour of the city is complete without a look at the Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian is a museum which started off in this building below:
These were all taken with a Kodak instant digital camera.
I have to be honest, I'm not a big fan of space. I don't take much interest in happenings at NASA. Yet, I admit I have seen some Star Trek and I'm a Star Wars nerd, although not a fanatic, but that's science fiction.
I won't go into detail about each exhibit as let's face it, it's already available online elsewhere and I'm not about to show my lack of expertise. So I'll just give basic info.
The air and space museum
Astronaut:
CORE
This was a picture of a picture. I just liked it enough to photograph it.
Mapping
Information display on Astronomy
Mars Explorer: When something is in a case of some sort, it's difficult to get a good angle without the light bouncing off. It's also difficult when you have people milling about, getting in your shot.
Another explorer shot. Here's what I mean about the light bouncing off. It can affect the way it translates on your camera, and it's hard to know when to use the flash and when you don't. Some cameras have a setting that can, I suppose, measure the amount of available light and gauge whether the flash is necessary, but it can change the look of the final photo.
Space shuttle: I can vaguely remember one of the first shuttles, just as I remember the one that exploded on lift-off killing everyone aboard. The Columbia, I think. Well, it was thirty years ago. I think my brother had a model of a shuttle when we were kids.
Another information board. As you can tell, another problem with light reflecting off.
Not sure what this was but it looks cool.
Ditto.
Sputnik
As I say above, I'm not a space nut, but I do love flight. Mostly because I started flying lessons when I was very young and loved it. Unfortunately I'm too short-sighted to actually get my licence so I couldn't continue with the lessons. Maybe some day though.
A plane cockpit. I forget if this was a specific plane. There was a plexi-glass shield preventing people from actually getting in the cockpit, so it may show a slight reflection.
The Spirit of St Louis
Various planes, mostly around World War II.
I'll continue in the next post with more Smithsonian. There were already too many photos for the Air & Space Museum. For someone not that big a fan, I sure took a lot of photos.
