No doubt a percentage of our readership is really a viewership. Many people pick up Code One only to look at the photos, or so we are told. We spice the magazine with dynamic and colorful images to compel these people to peruse the text. In that way, we use photos to turn viewers into readers.
This special edition of Code One goes beyond that symbiotic relationship between image and word. With cover-to-cover photos—a single photo per page—it tips the balance to the visual. To enhance the viewing, we are using a higher quality printing process and a better grade paper. The landscape format sets this issue apart and accommodates the horizontal composition of the majority of the content. The publication has been designed to allow viewers to remove pages and post their favorite shots on the walls of their offices, homes, and ready rooms. Left intact, the edition fits in well with the best coffee table books.
Our only criterion in collecting the photos was that the subject involve Lockheed Martin aircraft still flying. We gathered images from regular contributors to Code One: military, freelance, and Lockheed Martin corporate photographers. We also invited the US military's Combat Camera photographers and members of the International Society of Aviation Photographers to submit. The feedback was daunting. We were forced to select only fifty-nine photos from roughly 500 photos submitted by more than forty photographers. Our selection process favored current operational platforms over legacy aircraft, though we couldn't resist throwing in one P-38 photo to salute the extensive aeronautical lineage of Lockheed Martin.
Wading through all the candidate images is a visually pleasurable experience and a cause for some reflection: the unnatural proposition of powered flight is still stunning in its realization. Even after 100 years. Witnessing the gargantuan bulk of a C-5 Galaxy lumber into the air or feeling the thunder of an F/A-22 Raptor taking off in afterburner creates a sense of awe. The best aviation photographers can capture this sense and convey it as a single moment.
But beautiful aviation images do not come easy. Those who have set their alarms for four a.m. to get to an air base to catch a sunrise takeoff know of the effort behind a quality ground shot. Air-to-air photography of one or more fighter jets from another fighter has its own unique obstacles. Anyone who has loaded a roll of film (or changed a compact flash card) after experiencing the body blows of multiple six-g turns has a refined appreciation of the dynamics behind a good aerial F-16 photo. Air-to-air shooters must deal with subjects moving in three dimensions from a platform that also moves in three dimensions. They have to communicate with their subjects through second persons over radio frequencies. To get that perfect nose-on shot, they may have to stand at the edge of the open cargo ramp of a C-130, being held in place with nothing more than a nylon cargo strap.
We encourage our readers and viewers to recognize these efforts. Send us your thoughts and we will pass them along to the contributors. We also welcome you to view even more photos—and our regular Events column—at www.codeonemagazine.com. Thanks, and enjoy.
Eric Hehs, Editor
Jeff Rhodes, Associate Editor
