If the runway is very wide (ie, 50 feet?  100 feet?) and the
photographer low to the ground (5 feet off the ground, 400 feet away)
then the shadows would look very similar to what we see in the photo.

A fast shutter speed means that the trailing shutter follows the
leading shutter very closely, giving the sensor only a moving slit of
light.  This causes a moving subject to tilt.

So all we need to look for is 1) the plane should not be tilted and 2)
the background should be tilted (ie, squares are no longer square)

As far as I'm concerned, though, the shadows look good.  The sun is
almost directly over head, which means the people cast little shadow,
and the plane's shadow appears over the centerline.  The poles, which
are very long, will cast a small shadow.

I'm curious about the propeller though - I would have expected the
propeller to be moving faster than it appears given a suitably fast
shutter speed.  The propeller will also be affected by the moving
shutter slit, unlike the plane, so it should curve unnaturally.  Would
like a picture of the plane stationary, but not badly enough to find
one.

-Adam

On 4/18/07, Richard Stevens <piclist@engineerontherun.co.uk> wrote:
> Two things feed my suspicion.
> 1) If we treat the sun as a distant point source of light, surely we expect
> the shadow of the fuselage to be fractionally wider than the fuselage
> itself. Yet it appears to be the width of the runway centreline.
> 2) Look at the line where the shadow cast by the rear horizontal tail
> aerofoil (I forget what it's called) cuts through the letters SIID. Project
> that line to the ground. It hits the ground far to the rear of where the
> ground shadow of that aerofoil appears in the photo.
> Richard
> On 18 April 2007 04:50, Russell McMahon [SMTP:apptech@paradise.net.nz]
> wrote:
> > The most impressively bizarre and *apparently* dangerous feat of
> > flying that I've ever seen (photo only so far).
> >
> > You'd have to think this photo was a makeup but odds are its real**.
> > Don't try this at home (even if you have a Sukhoi G-SIID).
> >
> >         http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/airshow05/riat05/partone/curtis.jpg
> >
> > I suspect that the level of skill and / or bravery required by all
> > concerned must be rather less than it appears.
> >
> > Gargoyling on the tail number (G-SIID) for images finds it doing many
> > interesting things (so somebody here has probably seen it), but none
> > of its other feats seem to quite match this one for utter fine tuned
> > death-to-everyone-if-any-of-slip-or-even-flinch derring do.
> >
> > Just think what he could do if the engine was running! :-)
> >
> >
> >         Russell
> >
> >
> > Apparent motion blur of poles, if this is real, is caused by an
> > impressive feat of camera focusing, a long lens at large aperture and
> > more foreshortening than the brain suggests - just as well for all
> > concerned.
> >
> > ** Even though there are a number of similar photos of this around
> > it's still hard not to feel it's a makeup and the shadow looks strange
> > compared to other shadows in the picture. But the sites where this
> > appear lend credibility to it being real.
> >
> > --
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> > View/change your membership options at
> > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
>
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