Back To School
Back To School needs have changed over the years. A street scene I photographed in Montreal Canada.
Photo Excursion Old Downtowns
A photo excursion on May 29th. Scenes and places we would often overlook, like a cleaners that many decades ago was the police station. This is the second half of this excursion exploring through old downtown areas. I have been doing photo excursions for a few years now. Others who have joined with me have been successful in their art of photography, painting and printing their works. This series shot on my Fujifilm X-T3 and XF16-55mm F2.8 lens.
Photo Excursion
A photo excursion on May 29th. Scenes and places we would often overlook. I have been doing photo excursions for a few years now. Others who have joined with me have been successful in their art of photography, painting and printing their works. This series shot on my Fujifilm X-T3 and XF16-55mm F2.8 lens.
Photo Excursion Post Shelter In Place
My buddy Dennis Johnson and myself cancelled a photo excursion that was scheduled for the day the Shelter In Place went into effect back in March. And here on the day it was lifting we did do a photo excursion. Photographs here on my Blog this coming week. We were both shooting Fujifilm X-Series cameras.
Photo Excursion Success
Congratulations to my friend Dennis Johnson. From our photo excursion to Yermo a few months ago…
“Thank you to American Society of Railway Artists and The Railroad Tourist for posting my recent painting, “Yermo”. The painting of several box cars, inspired by a photo excursion to the Union Pacific Rail Yard in Yermo, CA in February. Painting specifications: Acrylic on canvas, 36″ x 48″.”
Adult Superstore
Honestly we were not looking for this when we pulled off the freeway. An amazingly remote place for it. We were actually looking for a still standing Muffler Man. And we did find it. We found a few on that trip. Do you know the Muffler Man? Check it out here… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muffler_Men On one of my photo excursions.
Selfie At The Daggett Garage
My attempt at a selfie on a photo excursion last week.
At the Dagget Garage built in the 1880’s in the Borax area as a locomotive repair roundhouse. Moved by a 20-mule-team to the Waterloo Mill and Mine in 1896. Then moved to it’s current location in Daggett California in 1912.
Served as an auto repair shop on old Route 66 until World War II when it became a mess hall for troops guarding nearby railroad bridges.
Along The Way
You have been seeing a lot of my aviation photography mixed in with my bodybuilding and fitness, as well as my edgy lifestyle photo shoots and photo excursions. It goes back to when I was 9 years old and taking pictures of my model trains. At 12 I was shooting through my telescopes at the skies. My bodybuilding and weight lifting started at age 12 too. Building model airplanes as a kid and then getting in the airplanes. My interests along the way have always been accompanied by my photography or driven by it. Anyway some were asking, so I thought I might say something here about it all. Thanks!
Adult Superstore
On photo excursions we keep an eye out for old abandoned signs, unusual times gone past buildings and other oddities of Americana. Heading towards Tucson, the sun setting, we pulled off the freeway in the middle of nowhere to photograph an old restaurant sign and such. Darkness and an unmarked rough road and what is there on the way… The “Lion’s Den Adult Superstore for women, men and couples!”. On the edge of the Picacho Peak State Park with a Civil War battlefield. I guess unique to Arizona perhaps? Note the Saguaro Cactus all over the hillside.
The Bandit Queen
The “Bandit Queen” Pearl Hart… “Used her feminine wiles with both prisoners and guards alike, pardoned after 3 years.” My kind of woman! Poster at the Yuma Territorial Prison on a photo excursion.
“Of All The Gin Joints…”
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” Sadly only a photo on the wall and not actually at the counter. On a photo excursion and stopping for food at Lutes Casino in Yuma Arizona.
No Olive Garden
My kind of stop for food on a road trip! This ain’t no Olive Garden LOL! Lutes Casino in Yuma Arizona.
EVF At JTNP
No that is not some term used when astronauts maneuver in outer space. I am talking about the electronic viewfinder on the Fujifilm X-T2 camera I used yesterday in Joshua Tree National Park. However through the viewfinder on this camera, outer space would look incredible!
As a photographer, viewfinders have always been one of my very big important factors I consider in cameras. I really do not like looking on the back of screens, you can’t see them in bright sun anyway. I do not like sub-frame tiny viewfinders. And I have not been enthusiastic about electronic viewfinders. Although I have two Fujifilm X-T1’s and an X30.
Well the viewfinder on this X-T2 just blows me away every time I look through it. Big and bright, color and contrast are breathtaking. There is no blackout or lag at all when you are shooting even in high speed at 11 frames per second. So for that alone, I am very sold on this Fujifilm X Series camera. Most important however is the image quality which is also just incredible. Thank You Fujifilm! In my personal “viewfinder” this is a really important camera.
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.
Sky Chief
Exploring and photographing around Death Valley. A Sky Chief gas pump, a premium fuel invented as high octane and introduced by Texaco in 1938.
Here in Keeler on the East shore of what was the great Owens Lake. Population in 2010 was 66. Back in the 1870’s a steamship carried ore across the lake which today is non-existent. In the 1920’s The City of Los Angeles bled the lake of it’s water leaving behind alkali dust storms driving away the people and their lives.
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 Comforts Of Home
Just did a three day road trip exploring the wonders of nature. So nice to find all the comforts of home in the middle of nowhere. Too fun! Actually I have one friend who was not there who I expect will know exactly where this is. What do you think? Anyone else?
Oil Can!
I kept waiting for him to ask if I had an oil can. Didn’t, so I shot a photo and went to lunch.
Up Close
Like nowhere else, you get up close at the Palm Springs Air Museum. That is where you find me with my favorite Hasselblad cameras. The cameras that orbited the Earth and went to the Moon.
This plane coming in from a flight demonstration is the North American Aviation T-28 Trojan… I have been told that it, in many ways, actually outperforms the famed P-51 Mustang of World War II. The T-28… “a basic trainer that was ordered in four advanced versions, the T-28A for the U.S Air Force and T-28B and T-28C, by the U.S. Navy, with the latter version designed for carrier training operations and the AT-28D. It was the first trainer designed to transition pilots to jet aircraft. In its second life, the AT-28D was used in counterinsurgency missions and later as a ground-support fighter in Southeast Asia. It’s a remarkably strong, fast, and capable airplane, and the big Wright radial engine makes that wonderful music that only a round engine can. The Trojan was the first American fixed wing attack aircraft lost in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.”
“Specifications and Performance –
T-28B Engine: One, Wright Cyclone R-1820-86 radial piston Engine. Horsepower: 1,425 hp., at sea level with auxiliary supercharger. Dimensions:Wing Span: 40.1. Length: 33 ft., Height: 12.8 ft., Weight Empty: 6,424 lbs. Maximum Speed: 343 mph Service Ceiling: 35,500 ft.”
Photo Shoot Vehicle
How about this for a photo excursion vehicle! Plenty of room for lots of gear, wardrobe changing or just a few guys out on a Route 66. Maybe the rest of the time I could be an Uber driver with it!
No Humping!
On a road trip to the Orange Empire Railway Museum. I can state that I did no humping whatsoever!
On the side of a train car at the Orange Empire Railway Museum
Hiking With A Challenge
Without 4 wheel drive, getting to the site of the abandoned Naval Base on the shore of Salton Sea was a little over 2 miles each way in soft sand and high winds. Well worth the effort to see and photograph a part of history.
The Salton Sea was also the location of testing of dropping the first Atomic Bomb. Crews from the Crews from Wendover Air Base made hundreds of practice runs near and over Salton Sea dropping 10,000 pound dummy bombs from B-29 bombers at 30,000 feet.
The base was turned over to the Atomic Energy Commission in 1946 through 1961. Abandoned it was subsequently used off and on by the military for live munitions training and Gulf War training maneuvers.
SecondFocus Blog 