Do Stripes Make Me Look Fat?
So what do you think he would be saying here…
“Do stripes makes me look fat?”
“Do you always have to be doing that?
“Is this art?”
Last night at the opening of Art Palm Springs 2017 for Modernism Week. Pablo Picasso by Jamie Salmon. The Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts Booth at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
More P-38 Fun
Starting up and rolling out, a P-38 Lightning fighter plane from World War II. One of perhaps fewer than six still flying in the entire world. You can see from my video that the Palm Springs Air Museum visitors get an up close experience like none other. Not as close as I am, but right there to get their hats blown off their heads and get a good whiff of the spray of motor oil. How fun is that!
The Colonel’s 97th Birthday
Tuskegee Airmen Lt. Col. Bob Friend. Celebrating the Colonel’s 97th birthday at the Palm Springs Air Museum. The P-51 Mustang “Bunny” flown by pilot Tom Nightingale doing flybys, restored as a replica of the famed Tuskegee Airmen “Red-Tail” P-51’s.
Spa And Cactus
Desert Hot Springs, known for little spas and boutique hotels, some really nice, some not so much. A small town, founded in 1941, nearby the much larger resort city of Palm Springs. Built by tourism coming for the natural mineral hot springs and then by real estate speculation. Having seen good times and bad times, there is still a mix of the times gone in signs of the past, if you just take the time and go look. From a photography excursion just yesterday.
Remember Where You Parked
Monday I went on a photo excursion around Palm Springs for weather related photographs. This is usually a dry river bed in the Araby Cove neighborhood. The rains have made an actual rushing river out of it and cutting off one of only two roads in and out of the area. And you wonder why it is needed to actually post “Road Closed” signs and barriers. I guess someone did’t get the memo.
So Much To See
A three day trip planned around specific places that were on my must see list. The Amargosa Opera House at Death Valley Junction. The created home and stage of ballet dancer, Marta Becket. Now 92 years old and once upon a time, her only audience was that which she herself painted upon the walls. Today also a hotel and cafe, an experience I wanted to see first hand and will now never forget. I will go back yet again.
The View
The view across the tarmac at the Palm Springs Air Museum from Saturday. I always have a camera at hand when I am there. The jet on the left, an F-102 will be taking up residence in the new Museum hangar when it is completed in a few months.
Winter Light
The Winter skies over Palm Springs revealed wonderful contrasts of light yesterday. It was made for photography.
No Matter How Old You Are!
Always so very fun no matter how old you are! The sound and the power of this vintage aircraft taking flight. Just this past Saturday at the Palm Springs Air Museum. A World War II Navy fighter, the Bearcat F8F-2, here flown by pilot Steve Barber.
Bearcat
A Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat Navy fighter plane on it’s way out for a flight demonstration at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Flown by Pilot Steve Barber. The Bearcat was a carrier based aircraft. It later still out performed many of the early jet fighter aircraft. Popular in air racing, they can exceed 500 mph and have held many world records.
Pretty Polly
Among my very favorite “Nose Art” at the Palm Springs Air Museum… “Pretty Polly”. This P-63 King Cobra from World War II is now a very rare aircraft and this one even more so because it is still flying.
I have been posting a lot of my aircraft photography over the last week and I have been asked by people when I was going to be posting more of my photography of beautiful women. “Pretty Polly” is my transition going into next week when I will show you more of those gorgeous women, and some guys too! So keep coming back! Thanks!
B-25 Mitchell Bomber
The B-25 “Mitchell” was the bomber flown off the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on April 18, 1942 for a bombing mission over Tokyo. It was intended to show that the USA could project power across the oceans and that Japan was vulnerable to an air attack. The mission was also retaliation for the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
This is a B-25J version which entered service in early 1945. It was used as a crew trainer and transport. Interestingly it appears in the 1970 movie “Catch 22” as “Vestal Virgin”. Now here flying out of the Palm Springs Air Museum on it’s tour schedule. The sound of those engines starting up is worth the visit all by itself!
My Selfie
I haven’t shot a selfie since I was in Budapest. This time at the March Air Field Museum. Think I look good?
I Don’t Get It
So the sign is right there! But when I used it everybody got so upset. At Moorten Botanical Garden.
I Was Just Standing There
I was just standing there, taking this nice photograph of this little mountain when this airplane got right in my way! I have identified it as a C-17 Globemaster III departing March Air Reserve Base. Think I should complain?
Low Clouds
So many of you have been photographed in the pool in my backyard and seen nothing but bright hot sunny blue skies. Today is a very unusual day of rain and look how low the clouds are against the nearby mountains. I have friends over there who are probably completely fogged in. Very fun! Here in Palm Springs.
Shoes and Atomic Bombs
Shoe shopping in Rice California along Hwy 62. Rice was formerly named Blythe Junction. Now a ghost town, it was the home of Rice Army Airfield. It was the 2nd choice for the world’s first atomic bomb test in 1942. This is the somewhat famous Rice Shoe Tree. On a photo excursion and location scouting yesterday.
Wouldn’t you like to know who and why? I would.
That Way!
Sometimes these photo excursions and location scoutings are not much more planned than going ‘that way’. At Rice California with Arizona straight ahead.
Unseen
How often do you not see what you see? Driving along you look over and there is something over there in the distance. Driving up a road that seemingly does not take you to a destination. This is one of those. On a photo excursion and location scouting yesterday. What an amazing thing to see in the middle of nowhere.
The Metropolitan Water District Eagle Mountain Pumping Plant. Just look at that incredible building probably dating to around 1938. I do find it all fascinating.
“While water flows through much of Metropolitan’s service area powered by gravity, it takes five pumping plants along the Colorado River Aqueduct in the California Mojave Desert to ensure its final destination to Lake Mathews.
These pumping plants move water supplies from the Colorado River Aqueduct with a total lift of 1,614 feet. All pumping plants have nine pumps, and each of the nine units has a nominal rated capacity of at least 225 cubic feet per second. Each pump is driven by a vertical, three-phase, 60-cycle, 6,900-volt synchronous motor, which is totally enclosed and water-cooled. Each Intake motor develops 9,000 horsepower.” – MWD website
F-102 Restoration
The restoration crew at the Palm Springs Air Museum are nothing short of magicians. This F-102 “Delta Dagger” sat in a forest for 40 years. This entire rear section has been re-created from jigs and templates that were 3-D printed from a survey of an intact F-102. Standing next to it up close made me think two things… First, now it almost looks like it just rolled off the assembly line. Second, it is a much bigger aircraft than I had realized. Especially having seen it on a truck when it first arrived at the Museum some time back.
The Convair F-102 “Delta Dagger” was the Interceptor that served as the backbone of the United States Air Force. It entered service in 1956 and 1,000 were built, designed to intercept invading Soviet strategic bomber fleets during the Cold War. In various versions, it had a top speed of Mach 1.22 and a service ceiling of 56,000 ft. The F-102 served in Vietnam, flying fighter patrols and serving as bomber escorts, finally retiring from USAF service in 1976. There are no flying F-102s in existence today.
By the way, The first operational service of the F-102A was with the 327th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at George Air Force Base, near Victorville, right here in Southern California in April 1956. I am looking forward to seeing the completion of this F-102 and it making it’s permanent home not far from it’s beginnings. Very exciting!
Before Photo Courtesy of the Palm Springs Air Museum
Dos Palmas Preserve
The Dos Palmas 14,000 acre wildlife preserve and oasis near the Salton Sea. It has become one of my regular stops. It almost seems like these palms could come alive and be some kind of fairy tale creature wandering the landscape.
Salton Sea Not A Painting
Not “photoshop” either. From yesterday on another photo excursion and location scouting. The Salton Sea is ever fascinating.
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