Photography – Marc Posner

June 21, 2023June 23, 2023

Endeavour in Los Angeles

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing the three main engines looking upward at the rudder.

I finally photographed Space Shuttle Endeavour on Monday, June 19, 2023, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, CA. Endeavour arrived in Los Angeles more than a decade ago, on September 21, 2012, and I really thought I’d be first in line to see the retired shuttle when the exhibit opened. Of course, I also thought I would take arrival day off and photograph the shuttle and carrier 747 landing at LAX. Instead, I went on the roof of my campus building and watched it fly by. Suffice to say, this visit has been a long time coming.

Space Shuttle Endeavour flying atop a NASA 747. A military jet is visible in the background. — Space Shuttle Endeavour flys atop a 747 as part of its delivery celebration on September 12, 2012. This photograph was taken at Cypress College in Orange County.

At the California Science Center, the orbiter is currently displayed in a horizontal position, as it has been since the exhibit opened in the Samuel Oschin Pavilion on October 30, 2012. However, you’ll only be able to see it this way through (roughly) November of this year. In the coming years, the shuttle will be mated with an external tank and boosters to complete the full Space Transportation System and it will be displayed in a new pavilion in the launch configuration.

Because of this coming change, I felt an urgency to see Endeavour now since the opportunity to photograph the current set up will disappear forever. I spent quite a bit of time photographing Enterprise when it was still at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Udder-Hazy annex and Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center. So, in planning the trip to Los Angeles, I knew Endeavour would be an exclusive focus, rather than taking in the rest of the museum. Though she lacks my passion for space and aviation, my mom joined me and even took the photo of me that’s at the bottom of this page (thankfully, this was shot on my camera since I haven’t seen her other images yet, which is how you know she was along more for the visit than the spacecraft).

A front view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis with its cargo bay doors open and the robotic arm extended, as displayed at the Kennedy Space Center. — Atlantis on display at Kennedy Space Center. Taken December 2018.

A front view of the Space Shuttle Enterprise as displayed at the Smithsonian. — Atlantis on display at Kennedy Space Center. Taken December 2018.

Endeavour’s current display position provided some less-obstructed access than with Enterprise or Atlantis. Knowing that the display configuration will change, with Endeavour I focused on some of my favorite elements of the orbiter: the nose, the cockpit windows, the access hatch, the nameplate, the engines, and the wings — especially the delta shape and the leading edges.

One final note before moving on to the images themselves, preparation is an important part of any photographic outing. In addition to my experiences with Enterprise and Atlantis, and the landings I covered, I also reviewed several sites. These include the California Science Center’s Endeavour LA section, Alejandro Pérez’s blog, and Jonathan Ward’s Bringing Columbia Home site. The shuttles are museum pieces now only because of the loss of human life aboard Columbia and Challenger and it was important to me that the astronauts’ memories were present with me on this trip.

A graphic with the word "Endeavour" using a top view of the delta-shaped shuttle orbiter as the letter A. The white lettering is set against a black backdrop. Behind it is a photograph of a sunrise from space, which appears as a thin, blue arc with a trace of gold and a gold starburst in the middle.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing the full right side of the orbiter.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing the full left side of the orbiter.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing part of the right side of the orbiter. Visible is the Endeavour nameplate.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing a closeup of the right side of the orbiter's nose. Visible are the reaction control system jets.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing part of the left side of the orbiter. Visible is the crew hatch and a yellow arrow with the word rescue inside it.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing part of the left side of the orbiter. Visible is part of the crew hatch and a yellow arrow with the word rescue inside it.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing part of the left side of the orbiter. Visible is the leading edge of the left wing, the US flag, the left OMS pod and parts of the rudder and cargo bay doors.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing part of the left side of the orbiter. Visible is the US flag and part of the words United States, along with a portion of the cargo bay and a hint of the wing's leading edge, and a hint of the OMS pod.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing part of the right side of the orbiter. Visible is the the leading edge of the right wing, the US flag and part of the cargo bay side wall.

Photograph of space shuttle Endeavour showing the underside of the orbiter's left wing.

Photo shows a man in a NASA t-shirt standing in front of the shuttle orbiter Endeavour on display at the California Science Center. — Me and Endeavour (as photographed by my mom). I covered Endeavour’s first landing on May 16, 1992, as it landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California to end STS-49. Unfortunately, I don’t have any scanned images of that landing, so I’ll need to hunt through my physical archives.

View Slideshow

U.S. Flag and United States & Wing Leading Edge

February 19, 2022February 20, 2022

Valley Jr. Warriors

hockey players on the bench smiling for the camera

On the weekend of February 12-13, 2022, I was finally able to see my oldest play a meaningful game of hockey. As I mentioned in my previously most-recent gallery introduction, the D1 Capo Coyotes lost their Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League playoff game on February 19, 2020. At the time, the team was a little more than a month away from participating in the USA Hockey National Championships.

I did not know then that the ADHSHL playoff loss would be my older son’s last high school game. He and I (and even my younger son) have gotten in some beer-league games in the time since the pandemic interrupted his playing career.

All that said, I never expected that it would be two years between meaningful games. For several months, he’s been telling me: “Dad, the boys want some pictures.”

Well boys, here are some pictures:

portrait-style image of an ice hockey player participating in a game. — Finally!

February 22, 2020

2020 ADHSHL Championships

hockey players celebrate winning a championship game

The Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League championship games were played on Saturday, February 22, 2020 (the 40th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” Olympics game, by the way), at Great Park Ice. I attended and photographed the D3 game in hopes that the Capistrano Coyotes would prevail after our D1 team was eliminated on Wednesday. It was not to be, as Servite took that contest, 2-0.

Shooting the D1 championship presented a bit of an emotional challenge. After winning back-to-back D2 championships and being elevated to D1 this season, Capo fell short of making the final. It was tough seeing my oldest on his knees after the game and the disappointment remains highly present.

That said, he was at a crossroads in his hockey pursuit when he joined the San Diego Jr. Gulls back in his Bantam years. The boys and the families were (and still are) amazing. They welcomed us warmly and they invited JP to stay over quite a bit to help ease the travel up and down the 5 Freeway. Four of those boys are members of the Pacific Ridge Firebirds. So I stayed to photograph their pursuit of a championship (we beat them last year in the D2 final). I was thrilled for their opportunity to celebrate a championship. The header image here shows two of his closest teammates from the Gulls.

FivePoint Arena is very photographer friendly, and I love shooting in there. The sight lines are as good as they get in minor hockey, so I feel like I get nice clean shots.

My images below, however, are not super clean. These are essentially dumped from the storage media so that everyone involved — players, families, the teams, and the league — can enjoy them as soon as possible. As always, I am happy to clean them up for anyone who wants an image to print.

Photographs can be viewed here:

photo of hockey players with the ADHSHL Schulman Cup — Kento (#58), Clayton (#12), Patrick (#31), and Ethan (#67) are teammates and friends from the Jr. Gulls seasons.

February 8, 2020February 19, 2022

2020 ADHSHL All Star Game

The 2020 Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League All Star Games were held on Thursday, February 6, 2020 in FivePoint Arena at Great Park Ice in Irvine. Photos by Marc S. Posner/Courtesy Capistrano Coyotes.

On Thursday night (February 6, 2020), I had the privilege of photographing the Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League All Star Game at the Rinks Great Park Ice in Irvine. I shot both the Varsity and Senior games, but unfortunately missed the Junior Varsity contest, which had a start time before I was off of work.

PHOTO GALLERIES

The Ducks — who were involved in the event with with their game-day entertainment and production teams — and the ADHSHL provided an all-access opportunity, which meant shooting from the player bench and penalty box part of the time.

The huge take away from my vantage point is how much fun the players had participating in the game with current and former teammates playing on both their own and opposing teams. As you’ll note in the featured images, goal celebrations sometimes included members of both squads.

The photos in the gallery above are limited in size and I haven’t edited them yet (this kind of volume would take me a few days to edit and post, and I don’t want to delay sharing them any longer than it took to import, convert, and upload.

My usual offer to players and parents stands: let me know what photo(s) you want and I will get you a cleaned-up, printable version.

August 12, 2018August 12, 2018

Photos: JCC Maccabi Hockey Tournament

I was privileged to serve as a photographer for the JCC Maccabi hockey tournament. The Orange County community hosted the annual JCC Maccabi Games and ArtFest for 2018 in conjunction with Long Beach. More than 2,500 teen athletes and artists from around the globe participated.

The games bring the community together in competition, but just as much in community.

One of my favorite moments from the tournament came on Day 2. The teams from Greater Washington and Toronto Blue played to a 4-4 draw — and then they used the “handshake line” to hug. It was a sublime hockey game as DC got out to a 3-0 lead, but Toronto responded with four straight tallies, including two in the final 5-minutes. DC tied the game with a the extra attacker on in the final minute of play. However, the post-game tradition topped it all

Good stuff.

More photos are on the JCC Flickr page (note not all the photos there are mine, though most are).

I’ll be linking to an expanded set of photos as I select and edit in more detail than my immediate first pass through the images linked above.