Friday, July 31, 2009

Air Force One flyover photos, $328k for what?


The Pentagon has released 146 more photos from Air Force One's New York flyover. You can view them here and you can also view the redacted flight manifest here.

After looking at all of the photos I must say, I wonder what was this fly over really about? We were told that it was a training mission and that they wanted to update file photos of Air Force One. But after looking at all the photos I kind of wonder.

The first thing I immediately noticed about the photos themselves is that none of them contain the majestic New York City skyline. There are angles that could have easily given Air Force One with both the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. Such an image would have been far more dramatic than the ones they took. Heck, why fly Air Force One all the way up to New York if you are not going to take full advantage of scenery and get your money's worth?

Also as someone who know more than a thing or two about photography, I have to say these photos are kind of on the amateur side. They seem more like snapshots than professional file photos. Just Google any military aircraft you can think of and you will see better photos than these. Clearly the military has photographers with skills, so why are these so crummy?

After seeing these photos I have to say, it all seems like a bigger waste of taxpayer's money than before.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

yea. A big waste of taxpayer's money. What else is new with this Administration?

One Ticked Chick said...

Some photo op, that looks like Secaucus. Not only was this another huge waste of taxpayer dollars, but frightening New Yorkers who still live with the memory of 9/11 is inexcusable.

Vicki's Bit-o-earth said...

I totally agree with you on the quality of the photos. I actually downloaded and looked at the photos before I read your post, and was thinking the same thing. I'm a professional photographer and was amazed at the horrible quality of the photos. I'm baffled as to why they would use a photographer that didn't know what he/she was doing. Obviously the camera was on auto mode, which has very little control over lighting, focus, etc. Thanks for the post.

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