James H. Keyworth wrote:

That still doesn't explain satisfactorily why I lost the tip of the Boeing fin, when no other edges are missing or curved.  Especially since the phenomenon has never been repeated in the hundreds of similar photos I've taken.

Reposting myself from 4-27, it appears to me to be a simple case of the color that the top of the vertical stab is painted, and the angle the picture is taken from.  The tip of the fin isn't lost- I can see the real shape of the fin with my naked eye on good DVI-connected monitor.

If you don't believe me, just load up your "B-737 w C-46 tail.jpg" from your 4-27 post into some photo editing software.  You can easily "find" the remainder of the vertical stab by increasing the contrast.  From there, you can play with sharpness or edge-detect to really bring it out.

Here is the image with a few filters applied...
http://boxybutgood.com/jeff/lml_737/

So no smoke, mirrors, or shutter errors.  Just a case of a sky-blue paint job and a sky-blue sky.  :)


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