Gallery: The Nerve-Wracking Process of Shooting the Very Last Space Shuttle Launch
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Shooting a shuttle requires Winters to work backwards. He mapped each shot out in storyboard form.
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The diagrams help him visualize what he'd like to capture in the frame.
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Winters mapped out the location of each of the 11 cameras he used to document each launches, as well as the corresponding focal lengths he wanted to use for each.
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Shooting the shuttle head-on is one thing. It's more difficult to capture the shots as the shuttle flies out of the frame.
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Winters mounted five cameras close to the launch pad to capture the firey liftoff.
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The corresponding tight shot.
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Others were farther away on the mounds
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Which resulted in looser, full-shuttle images.
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Sometimes the best shot has very little to do with the main subject. The cover shot for Winters' book doesn't even show the shuttle.
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