Dramatic Florida Sky with AH-1 Cobra for perspective

Anchor Points

All good images have their anchor points which give you the context for the whole image. However, I am at the TICO Warbird Airshow, the air show flying hasn’t started yet, but there is a magnificent Florida Sky! I call them Florida skies because I have only seen them in Florida, there appears to be three different skies superimposed on each other in a random fashion. Different cloud types at different altitudes on a bright sunny day.

If I just took an image of the cloudscape it wouldn’t have an anchor point. But I am at an airshow and the scene below the cloudscape is cluttered with conrtol tower, antenna, tents, inflatable bouncing castles and thousands of people milling about – UGH!

But there is an AH-1 Cobra helicopter selling rides flying into my scene. I do not want the Cobra to take over the scene, but I think it will make a fine anchor point. So I make the click. It is head on and small in the frame – will it be enough? I cannot tell from the camera back in bright sunlight, so I make another click. This time the Cobra is closer to me and flying left to right giving me a full profile.

I think I had it right with the first click, it is just enough to recognize the helicopter, but not distract from the scene.

What do you think?

The scene was reasonably monochromatic to start with, so I converted them to black and white – WOW! I love these the best.