Fun In The Skies!
Yesterday at the Palm Springs Air Museum as their C-47 “What’s Up Doc” does a fly by. Always fun there, you could watch from the ground or even have grabbed a ride headed down to the Salton Sea and back. Bring your camera too and check out the goings on, pretty much everyday, on their website at http://palmspringsairmuseum.org
Photographed with a FujiFilm XT-1 camera and the FujiFilm 50-140 lens. What a great lightweight versatile camera system!
A Flight Of Beer On A DC-3
Yesterday you could have gone back in a time machine and flown luxury class on The Flabob Express DC-3 while tasting craft beers at the Props & Hops Craft Beer Festival at the Palm Springs Air Museum. The plane was originally designated as a C-47B and built in 1945. Very Fun!
Photographed on Hasselblad. Only the best!
Chili, Cars, Planes and Halloween
What a great combination! A Chili Cook Off, Car Show and all at the Palm Springs Air Museum on Halloween! You could even go take a ride in Bunny, a fully restored C-47! Too Fun!
My Ride Is Here!
Overhead this morning, the C-47 Skytrain “Bunny” out of the Palm Springs Air Museum. It’s nose art is “What’s Up Doc”. In service for 58 years and here painted with 1944 D-Day Invasion stripes. Also known as “Gooney Bird” it can land almost anywhere even with no landing strip. As the DC-3 it was one of the earliest commercial passenger planes.
Notice Any Difference?
Indian Canyons Golf Resort here in Palm Springs one week apart, Sunday morning to Sunday Morning. Before and after with some water and a couple of light evening rains. No I don’t play golf, but have certainly done photography at golf courses, country clubs and photographed a few golfers. But this time, I was there for breakfast.
Parade Of Planes
The Flying Aviation Expo comes to a close for this year. The airplanes on display at the Palm Springs Convention Center taxi back to the airport and planes from the Palm Springs Air Museum head on home. So very fun to see them under power cruising down the street!
Fly On In
The Flying Aviation Expo is here again in Palm Springs. About 5000 people here for it from just about everywhere. Here are a few photographs from yesterday. Great fun!
Just Needs A Quart Of Oil
Just top it off with a quart of oil and good to go! Ok maybe not. Just brought in to the Palm Springs Air Museum yesterday morning. This is a Grumman F9F Panther. The Panther was the U.S. Navy’s first successful carrier based jet aircraft. It was also the aircraft of the Blue Angels from 1949 – 1954. There were 1,382 built and today it is a very rare aircraft. It will go through extensive renovation at the Air Museum and before too will be on display looking like the day it came off the assembly line.
I did some online searching and found what may be a photo (below) of this actual aircraft on board a carrier during the Korean War. It is in the VF-821 Fighter Squadron and may have been on the USS Princeton and the USS Essex. It certainly looks like it was damaged. The photograph below that is an intact Panther on the USS Midway in 1952. I find that photo pretty exciting because I was a photographer onboard the Midway when she was decommissioned and brought into San Diego Harbor where she is today as a Museum.
Behind The Scenes At The Palm Springs Air Museum
So much goes on behind the scenes at the Palm Springs Air Museum. That incredible collection of aircraft goes from restoration to continuous maintenance. It sure is not like just buying a used car and polishing it up. These planes often go from barely recognizable to Museum quality gems. Here are a few photographs I just shot yesterday and I look forward to bringing you more from this incredible display of living history. Please keep coming back to see them. And go visit there, you will love it! Thanks!
Take A Walk On The Wild Side!
“Killer Heels” a superb exhibit of high heels and more at the Palm Springs Art Museum. From sexy to kinky to fashion to fun. Did I mention sexy and kinky! Got my attention. There are three video installations as well and they are just incredible! I will be going back again but here are some photographs of a few for now. So much art and craftsmanship in these designs!
First a 2012 Prada Sandal that evokes a Mid-Century Modern car design very appropriate for Palm Springs.
Then a sexy bright red 2012 – 2013 Heel by Giuseppe Zanotti.
Pump 2013 Springs/Summer with gold and clear Swarovski crystals by Nicholas Kirkwood. Behind them, 1959 black pumps by Salvatore Ferragamo worn by Marilyn Monroe.
And for those of you who have not taken that “Walk On That Wild Side”, Lou Reed…
Each Of Us Can Work To Change A Small Portion Of Events…
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.” – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – 1966
Please join with me and an amazing resource of living history, the Palm Springs Air Museum, in building this working memorial to the many who have served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The support we provide now will honor those who have given so much and will influence so many who will one day walk through those doors. Thank You! And please click here… https://www.gofundme.com/fb5e43ac
Palm Springs Photographs
As might be expected, I have a huge collection of amazingly unique and different photographs shot by me here in Palm Springs and around the area. People, places, landscapes, events, tourist spots, museums, restaurants, models, bodybuilders, fashion and more being added all the time. From anywhere from downtown Palm Springs to the Salton Sea and Joshua Tree, the entire region. My photographs have been featured in magazine travel features, advertising, fitness magazines and so much more here in the USA and around the world. Very soon I will be making these photographs available for immediate use and licensing in a searchable and viewable archive resource online. If you are the art director, photo editor, editor, publisher, public relations person or advertising creator please check back or send me an e-mail to SecondFocus@mac.com to be updated when these photographs will go live and available. I think you will all be very pleased with what you will be seeing. I am also available for your special assignments within the region and elsewhere of course. I must say that I am very excited about this and additionally I must say, Thank You!
Flying Time!
Coming up on the time of year when the Palm Springs Air Museum starts running all kinds of great programs, events and flight demonstrations. Truly my favorite place! I can’t hang out there enough. Like so many of you I was the kid who built model airplanes of World War I and World War II fighters and bombers and then jets of all kinds. Imagined what it would be like to be behind the stick of these machines speeding above the Earth, close to the ground or catapulting off the deck of a carrier. Later myself taking to the air in a Cessna and occasional other small plane. And very excited to see my buddies like Hunter Johnson take to the air too, this time in the bombardier position of FiFi, a still flying B-29. Too Fun!
Air Museum With The Hasselblad
Some random photographs today with a Hasselblad medium format digital camera. One of the things I like about the Hasselblad is the accurate color reproduction. It is called “The Hasselblad Natural Color Solution (HNCS)”. This is a real important issue with me especially when it comes to skin tones. Just take a more studied look at all the photographs you see of people, especially on Facebook, and you will see how so many photographers let skin tones go orange in color. Even with the tanning products that are used in bodybuilding and fitness, people should not look orange in photographs, they should look tan. Skin tones and colors in general are more accurate in medium format digital and known to be very accurate in Hasselblad.
Using the Hasselblad at the Palm Springs Air Museum
A Palm Springs Photo Festival To-Do
To all my photographer friends; are you coming out here for the Palm Springs Photo Festival starting Sunday? If you are and happen to be coming in on Saturday, here is a very fun photo op for you. The Palm Springs Air Museum will be doing a flight demonstration with their Navy T-28. This is a really astounding aircraft that actually will outperform many of the more famous fighters from World War II. You can expect it to be flying just after 2 PM but there is much more out at the Air Museum for you to keep your camera busy. If you are not coming in on Saturday, you have all week to check out a great collection of vintage aircraft and so much more to see. The Palm Springs Air Museum is very close by to all the Photo Festival venues. Here is one of my photographs of the T-28 and a short video. See you there!
Lots Of Photo Fun!
A weekend of photographing some fun flying out of the Palm Springs Air Museum. A Navy SNJ trainer with a likely very happy passenger on board. The SNJ was also known as the T-6 Texan. Over 25 years there were 15,495 made and ultimately flown by 34 countries. It also was used in combat in World War II and Korea.
Awe Striking From 70 Years Ago
It is not everyday that you see a B-29 Superfortress start up and taxi out. But you can in the video here. Mostly known for being the airplanes that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was actually in some ways a more ominous part they played in ending of the War with Japan and the end of World War II. Flying in darkness at low altitudes, on March 10, 1945, over 300 B-29’s dropped almost a quarter of a million incendiary bombs on Tokyo itself. Can you imagine air fields filled with these giant bombers all starting up to fly a mission. And then hundreds of them overhead! Seventy years later, you can go this last remaining still flying B-29, for it’s visit today at the Palm Springs Air Museum.
The Bombardier Over Salton Sea
My buddy Hunter Johnson about to take off this morning in the Bombardier seat in the B-29 Superfortress “FiFi”. It is the only still flying B-29 in the world. This was especially historical because out of the Palm Springs Air Museum the flight was over the Salton Sea. During 1944-1945, Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets led the 393rd Heavy Bombardment Squadron in classified missions dropping dummy atomic bombs over the Satlon Sea. Then on August 6th, 1945 by Tibbets’ flew the B-29 Enola Gay to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan. You can go see the B-29 “FiFi” at the Palm Springs Air Museum tomorrow Sunday and perhaps there might still be a seat available for you too! Check it out! http://psam.org
“Bucket Of Bolts” And More!
Tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday at the Palm Springs Air Museum you can see the only remaining still flying B-29 Superfortress “FiFi”. Bring your camera like I did and will be doing. You can tour the interior, watch her fly and even take a flight! Other planes will be out there too, like “Bucket Of Bolts” a C-45 WWII Military Transport. You can fly on “Bucket Of Botls” for as little as $75! Anyway I am just really big on this because it is one of those “once in a lifetime” opportunities and just believe people should take advantage of it when it comes your way. Especially if you live right here in the Palm Springs area. Check out the Palm Springs Air Museum Facebook page and website at http://psam.org for more info.
‘What’s Up Doc?”
The C-47 World War II Transport “What’s Up Doc?” doing some qualifying air time flying overhead yesterday. The tail section and wings are marked with the D-Day Invasion Stripes that identified Allied aircraft. Out of the Palm Springs Air Museum and on the way to the Air Show in El Centro California for this coming weekend.
Bored And Sipping On Your Frothy Coffee
Just imagine sitting over there in the passenger terminal waiting for your flight, slightly bored, sipping on your frothy coffee when you see this come in for a landing! Just WOW! The World’s only still flying B-29 coming in to the Palm Springs Air Museum. I really urge you not to miss the opportunity to go see “FiFi”! You can tour the interior, watch her fly or even fly on board. One of those “once in a lifetime”!
“FiFi” Ain’t No Dame!
“FiFi” is the World’s only still flying B-29 Superfortress. Flown at the end of World War II, it was B-29’s that dropped the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were 3,970 built and “FiFi” is the only one still flying as you can see in my photographs with her coming in to the Palm Springs Air Museum yesterday. You can go see this immense historic aircraft yourself through Sunday. Not only can you just go and look but you can tour the interior or even book a flight. But do not miss the opportunity to see this incredible part of history!
The Unveiling Of Bunny
Last night at the Palm Springs Air Museum. In honor of the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. A reception for the unveiling of the restored P-51 Mustang fighter plane “Bunny” which they flew into battle becoming among the most decorated and respected heroes in all of the United States Armed Forces.
With an appearance of Tuskegee Airmen welcomed by Air Museum Director Fred Bell and the model for the “Bunny” nose art by famed artist Stan Stokes.
Get To Your Photo Shoot
How do you get to your photo shoot? Sharon Lim prefers classic air travel. So if you fly in, I will pick you up at the airport or if you are really lucky, at the Palm Springs Air Museum!
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