Cross Polarization

As a NASA photographer I was often called upon to photograph objects so that scientists could make measurements from them. In one instance I was asked to photograph a crack in the fuselage of the X-29, an exotic jet prototype. The crack was several feet inside the body of the jet and we had to build a rig with mirrors to be able so see and capture the photos that were needed.

The image presented here is a cross-polarization. The figure of the man is a clear plastic model. By placing the model on a sheet of polarizing material, then placing a circular polarizer over my camera lens, I was able to create an image that showed the stress lines in the plastic. When I was in school at Brooks Institute, a fellow student used this technique to show stress lines in jet canopies.

Cross polarization also creates amazing images of crystals. For a future blog I will find some quartz and other crystals and photograph them using the filters.