What you’re looking at is not a real fighter plane. It’s a scale model that photographer Dan Ledesma shot to look like a real, full-sized jet. Badass.
Prepare to be even more amazed — Ledesma meticulously builds the miniatures himself, before he takes on the tedious task of actually photographing them, as he explains to PetaPixel:
The first step in creating these types of images is finding an ideal spot that has the right amount of light. The second step is to recruit a patient assistant to help position the plane at the perfect angle. During the shoot, the plane hangs from a pole by a thin line, so we are literally fishing for a great pic! When getting the planes into position, the wind can sometimes pose a challenge. The models that I work with are fragile 1:48, 1:32, and 1:72 scale replicas that I spend months building and painting, so they must be handled with great care to avoid damage.
Ledesma says rather than snap hundreds of different shots, he waits for the exact moment to capture a few perfect poses. His eye must be pretty exacting; if you didn’t know these were just models, you’d swear they were the real deal. [Dan Ledesma via PetaPixel]
Pictures: Dan Ledesma