Once Upon A Time At The Salton Sea
The Salton Sea was once one of the biggest attractions in the country. A billboard at the road in to Bombay Beach.
Quality Counts
Quality counts more and more. We went through a decade or longer being bombarded with bad photos and video in ads, features and social media. A few of the photographs I shoot for the Palm Springs Air Museum. Camera was my Fujifilm X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF 8-16mm f/2.8 lens. These are also used for print advertising. Thanks!
Lots Of Props
The Palm Springs Air Museum P-51 Mustang “Bunny” taxi’s out at the Palm Springs Airport. Shot with a Fujifilm X-T3 and Fujifilm 55-200 lens.
C-17 Flying Like A Fighter
They fly these huge cargo aircraft like a jet fighter! Boeing C-17 Globemaster III at the Hangar 24 AirFest this past weekend. I would love to fly in one of these! Shot on my Fujifilm X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 lens.
Skyhawk
The Douglas Ta-4J Skyhawk at the Hangar 24 AirFest this past weekend. The A-4 Skyhawk was built from 1954 – 1979. I somewhat recall as a kid I had a Revell plastic model of this aircraft. Now I get to hang around the real ones. Shot on my Fujifilm X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 lens.
Aircraft & Fujifilm Camera Gear
Really love video shot with the Fujifilm XF 100-400mm lens on the X-H1 body. This is pilot Michael Pfleger arriving in his World War II F4F Wildcat at the Palm Springs Air Museum. And then taking out the T-33 jet trainer for a taxi text run. Recently restored and getting it ready for it’s flying debut on Saturday November 10th for the Air Museum’s 22nd Anniversary and Veterans Day celebration.
From The Co-Pilot Seat
The takeoff in a 1928 Ford Tri-Motor passenger airplane. Yesterday leaving the Palm Springs Air Museum. This is one of the very first passenger aircraft. Three engines and ten passengers. Cruising speed of 107mph and a range of 570 miles. A must see, it will be available at the Air Museum through this Sunday (March 19th) and available for rides all day each day.
Arriving 1928 Ford Tri-Motor
Built in 1928 this Ford Tri-Motor passenger plane arriving at the Palm Springs Air Museum. A very rare sight to see flying today! And you can take a ride! Check the Museum website at PalmSpringsAirMuseum.org
First sold to Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT, the logo that graces the aircraft’s fuselage today) in January 1929 and was named City of Wichita. It inaugurated westbound transcontinental commercial air service on July 7, 1929. In April 1931, ownership of the aircraft was transferred to Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA). Here the aircraft helped in the development of TWA’s route system.
Pipes And Sea Fury
The Palm Springs Pipe Band for the Annual Canadian Military Tribute at the Palm Springs Air Museum. The aircraft is a Hawker Sea Fury. Outstanding! Turn your sound on!
Fujifilm Flying A+
Testing out a Fujifilm X-T2 camera this week. I own Fujifilm X-T1’s along with my Hasselblad and Canon cameras. Each with their own purpose for my shooting. More often than not on a daily basis, you will see me with one of my Fujifilm cameras on hand for most uses.
The X-T2 is the latest version and with only a couple of days with it so far, I am truly impressed with the improvements. The camera loaned to me has the power booster which makes for three of the camera batteries for all day power and boosts the speed up to 11 frames per second. A much bigger viewfinder that keeps up with fast shooting for those fast movers and much faster focus tracking. I won’t go into it too much but I am seriously impressed. There are numerous other technical refinements from the prior version that someone like me who uses a camera all the time under all kinds of circumstances really appreciates.
The final results however are the photographs. This is a tight crop of a Gulfstream jet landing in Palm Springs on a flight from Portland Oregon. For you photographers, this is actually from a jpg shot in Velvia film emulation mode. No retouching etc. My opinion… WOW! Thanks Fujifilm!
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.
Winter Light
The Winter skies over Palm Springs revealed wonderful contrasts of light yesterday. It was made for photography.
Lots Of Cars!
Some of the over 600 antique, classic, sports and special interest cars on Saturday. At the McCormick’s Palm Springs Collector Car Auction. Very Fun!
Tuskegee Airmen Heroes Of WWII
Off in the distance you see them, a P-40 Warhawk and a P-51 Mustang closing fast. No, not an old photo I found, but this last Saturday in the sky at the Palm Springs Air Museum.
P-40 Warhawk and P-51 Mustang
A celebration of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II and the 96th birthday of Lt. Col. Bob Friend, the oldest living Tuskegee pilot, having flown 140 combat missions over Europe. This is the Colonel sharing his times with some of the many visitors to the Air Museum. Tom Nightingale, the pilot flying the P-40 and often flying partner with the Colonel says that he remembers names and times and places of almost every photo that people can bring up to him. And that the Colonel can go hours on end, over and over talking to people, doing photographs and signing autographs.
Tuskegee Airman Lt. Col. Bob Friend on his 96th birthday
The P-51 here is an airplane that has been restored in commemoration to the Colonel’s P-51, nicknamed “Bunny”, that he flew over Europe during the war. But this Saturday “Bunny” had another very special guest, Tuskegee Airman Rusty Burns! At 90 years old I can personally say this man got in and out of that airplane like a 25 year old. Even after a number of high speed passes down the runway, he was all smiles as he left the airplane off the front of the wing, not the closer to the ground back of the wing. Just like he said he always did!
Tuskegee Airman Rusty Burns getting ready to fly in the P-51 “Bunny”
High Speed Bearcat
A Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat coming down the runway at the Palm Springs Air Museum at somewhere around 275-300 mph. The last Bearcat was delivered in 1949 and is a 2100hp 425 mph beast of an airplane. An interesting fact is the outer 3 ft of wing was designed to break off under high stress saving the aircraft from catastrophic failure. You have to go visit the Palm Springs Air Museum! So very interesting and so very fun!
Photographed with FujiFilm X-Series cameras and lenses.
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