Commons:Featured picture candidates/Image:Kittinger-jump.jpg

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Image:Kittinger-jump.jpg, featured[edit]

Short description

  •  Info created by US Air Force - uploaded by Sagqs - nominated by Anrie
  •  Info Joseph Kittinger jumps from a record-breaking altitude of 31,3 km (that's in the stratosphere) on 6 Aug 1960, to test the Beaupre multi-stage parachute system created for air crew who were ejecting from increasingly high altitudes (en:Project Excelsior). My reasons for nominating are purely the "wow" factor and value: I know this isn't a technically excellent picture (not very sharp, etc.) but this 47-year old picture shows someone doing something that has never been repeated since. After seeing the videoclip of this on BBC's Earth: the Power of the Planet, I immediately searched the Commons for pictures of it and was surprised that this picture was never nominated before.
  •  Support --Anrie 12:35, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose I'm not surprised it never got nominated: the quality is substandard. Lycaon 12:43, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Well, it's not like they could've gotten a human photographer to go up there with him, wait until lighting, etc. were perfect and then tell the guy "Okay, jump!" You really don't think that the historical value of this pictures overrides the lack of technical quality? Anrie 12:49, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • To rephrase: I really don't think they could've done any better given the circumstances (extreme conditions, etc.) and the situation is not at all likely to be recreated. Anrie 12:52, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support I agree with Anrie. The historical value overrides technical considerations, since it is a milestone in human achievement, even though it not may be of personal interest. The "quality" aspect of it must be evaluated according to the technical means of the times, not according to today´s standards. We cannot go back and reshoot once in a lifetime events. I can just see disqualifying Timothy O´Sullivan´s photographs of the US civial war, Gustavo Casasola´s photographs of the Mexican Revolution, Robert Capa´s photograph Moment of Death of the Spanish civil war or his work, on a silly argument about "technical quality". Technical quality takes second place in such extraordinary cases. To disqualify this type of work on such grounds is almost like disqualifying Galileo´s legacy based on the quality of his instruments. Like Newton said: I was standing on the shoulders of giants." Likewise, photographers today stand on the shoulders of giants. --Tomascastelazo 15:12, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support Fully agree with Tomascastelazo. Great explanation, Tomas! Freedom to share 16:08, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support ack Anrie and Tomas Dori - Talk 17:40, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support Technical flaws mitigated by value. -- Slaunger 21:00, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • * Comment I stared at the photograph for a few minutes, in silence... thinking about that moment... about Kittinger's state of mind... the preparations... the anticipation of the feat... the commitment... the courage... I saw the tape on the box, last minute adaptations?... clearly a lot of unknowns... the noise... the wind... the solitude of the act... and then he jumps... his back to the safety of the world... his face to life... that, in Mexico, we call testicles. 31.3 kilometers of them. This picture is a window into the human spirit. --Tomascastelazo 22:24, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
.."that, in Mexico, we call testicles. 31.3 kilometers of them"... Now, that's a statement, which made me smile ;-) -- Slaunger 23:15, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
result: 11 support, 2 oppose, 0 neutral => featured. Simonizer 13:32, 23 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
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