I just came back from Seattle, Washington. Where I visited the SW:WSMTI exhibit, now running at the Pacific Science Center, right next to the Space Needle Tower. And while I found it to be overall, an impressive exhibit, I must say that I found it to be a frustrating experience from a Darth Vader fan point of view. I am a huge fan of Star Wars as a whole, and find the whole SW universe to be facinating. Everything you see, had to be imagined, designed and fabricated from scratch. The level of detail and craftsmanship goes beyond anything I have seen in any other exhibit. And I have seen alot of them over the years.
And the people behind this exhibit took great pains to showcase this. Placement, lighting and display case design all meant to highlight each piece and bring you back to that moment where you saw it on screen.
That is, 'til you get to the Vader exhibit.
Why is it, that virtually everything else you see, is in near pristine condition? Displayed in 3 or 4 sided cases, spaced far enough apart to minimize glass reflections and you can get all over them to take pictures, but, Lucasfilm and the people responsible for this exhibit insist on displaying the 'icon' of the Star Wars Saga in a one sided 'glass telephone booth', parked in the brightest, most cramped area of the exhibit, so the glass reflects light from everything in the room, including the over abundance of nearby spot lights, making it hard to see, much less, take a good picture? And what's up with the costume itself. Why has Lucasfilm made no attempt to preserve this costume or restore a costume, so Vader can be displayed in his full glory? Why does Lucasfilm treat this enduring 'icon' with such little respect?
Well, with some hard work, I did manage to take pictures, but nothing like I had originally planned. Here are just a few...

Those are great shots..some of the best I've seen taken thru a display case. Nice job.

Cool. I think loads of people would love to see other pictures you may have snapped at the exhibit of other pieces as well. If the Vader was as crappy as you say, you certainly caught him from his best angle. Very nice pictures. So, what are your thoughts on the piece - especially the helmet?

Very nice photos, looking forward to seeing more.

I was at the Gala premiere and got to see the exhibit privately before it opened, so grabbed a few snapshots myself.

Man, SL, you need to learn to step back a little... adhere to the 6 feet rule... you are too up-close... missing out on most of the helmet.

Heh, well it was nearly a full helmet photo but I just cropped a small part since otherwise it would be too big to post here.

Have you heard of thumbnails?

What are those? Are those like hangnails? Don't sound very useful to me....

Don't get me wrong, fellas. It was Vader. The Real Deal. Enough said. The only problem I have, is how it is presented. Yes, those pictures turned out good. But for every one of those, I got one or two of these:



The first one is just all the reflectionss off the glass with no flash.
The next one is all the out of focus dust particals on the glass with a flash.

Combine that with someone doing a bad cleaning job and leaving water spots all over the faceplate (as even seen in Thomas' pic), and it just wasn't easy to get a good pic. I had to really work to get any good clean photos.
And this won't let me put more than 3 pics in at a time.

John

I actually quite like the second photo.

A bit off topic, was this at the premiere gala in Boston? Cause I was there.

According to Thomas, this is the same helmet. His pic was take at that event, and it is the same one.
The helmet is totally 'do-able' as a reference, but wouldn't be nice, if, instead of Vader looking like this:, if it looked like this instead?:
It's not about the art. Yes, I photoshop'd it. If George and the people at LFL, really cared, this helmet would still look like this today. Why is it, that nearly every Vader helmet has chipped paint, scratches, broken tusks, and cracked domes, yet the 'medical droids' are still nearly as pristine as the day they were made?

John

her's a couple I took when it was is London......

Not the best photos......I only had a crap camera with me.....

Actually this picture is excellent. If you don't mind me reposting it, in this thread (as your picture), I'll show you what I mean.

If you are referring to my pics then post away. I have no problem with people using any of my pics at anytime for anything as long as they are not using them to sell their own.