SNAPPING THE SHUTTLE PHOTOGRAPHER LIFTS OFF ON EXPERIENCE LAUNCH'S THRILL TEMPERED BY DELAYS, CROCS.Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer If you ask Bill Hartenstein, watching a shuttle shuttle: see loom. shuttle In the weaving of cloth, a spindle-shaped device used to carry the crosswise threads (weft) through the lengthwise threads (warp). Not all modern looms use a shuttle; shuttleless looms draw the weft from a nonmoving supply. launch just isn't the same unless you feel the ground shake beneath your feet. The 42-year-old Burbank resident has photographed launches and landings from Vandenberg, Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. and Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral) U.S. launch site for manned space missions. [U.S. Hist.: WB, So:562] See : Astronautics in Florida. It's a job that combines his two greatest passions: space and photography. ``The experience of shooting a shuttle launch is quite a bit different than watching it on TV,'' said Hartenstein, who owns a machine shop in North Hollywood where he has made aerospace parts for rockets, he said. Hartenstein began shooting launches in 1983. Magazines such as Aviation Week and Space Technology regularly publish his images. It's the idea of capturing a moment in history that moves Hartenstein, he said. Hartenstein and other photographers set up their equipment, usually multiple cameras, about 2,000 feet from the launch pad, and usually a day in advance. The cameras are on a timer timer, n radiographic timing device that functions as an automatic exposure timer and a switch to control the current to the high-tension transformer and filament transformer. The face of the timer is calibrated in seconds and fractions of seconds. , which features a microphone, and anything loud activates the shutter (1) An opaque window that is moved in one direction to let light in and in another to close off the light. In fixed-lens cameras, one shutter often suffices for aperture and speed. . Usually, five minutes before the launch, the cameras start clicking. At this point the photographers are watching from five miles away. It's too dangerous for the photographers themselves to be any closer to the shuttle, he said, noting with the boosters, ``it's like a bomb.'' But it's that fire that makes evening launches the most spectacular, he said. ``It lights up the nighttime sky like it's the daytime Daytime may refer to:
. It's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen,'' he said. Hartenstein found himself setting up at Vandenberg again this weekend as a rocket, carrying a satellite for the Air Force, was set for launch. Aside from frequent delays or cancelations, there is one other minor drawback DRAWBACK, com. law. An allowance made by the government to merchants on the reexportation of certain imported goods liable to duties, which, in some cases, consists of the whole; in others, of a part of the duties which had been paid upon the importation. to waiting for a launch in Florida: crocodiles crawling out of the swamp. ``It's all part of the job,'' Hartenstein said, laughing. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) Bill Hartenstein's photo captures a liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Hartenstein uses four cameras in different positions to take account for changes in the weather. At far left, a 12-foot alligator alligator, large aquatic reptile of the genus Alligator, in the same order as the crocodile. There are two species—a large type found in the S United States and a small type found in E China. Alligators differ from crocodiles in several ways. comes out of the water to watch the photographer and others at one of Hartenstein's shuttle shoots. Hartenstein sets his camera about 2,000 feet from the shuttle pad to get close-ups. Bill Hartenstein/Special to the Daily News (3) Burbank resident Bill Hartenstein, who operates a machine shop in North Hollywood, sets up his remote cameras to photograph a shuttle launch at the Kennedy Space Center in February. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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