Once In A Lifetime

 I won a once in a lifetime chance to fly on my choice of a WW2 B-17 Flying Fortress or the WW2 B-24 Liberator. When the event promoters called me up and told me I had won two seats, I was stunned, when they asked me if I was free that day, I told them, practically shouted at them, "Yes!" and my choice was automatic, the iconic B-17. So I gave them my name and my friend's name (wasn't a difficult choice on whom to pick to go with me) and they sent me the details and locations to be.

Fate having a twisted sense of humour, in cahoots with Mother Nature, ensured it was

 raining cats and dogs. Undeterred, I packed by best gear and went in search of the plane.

There is something about standing in the shadows of history that gives one pause. The men who fought and died in the plane, and damage it took, the sheer awesomeness of it all, it wasn't something to be approached lightly. With the, at times heavy downpour, the colours, already muted with military greens, were further rendered into drabness, all the exterior images have been converted to Black and White.

Despite the rain, there were a fair number of people about, both inside the plane touring, and outside, so taking a picture of each plane without people around was a matter of patience. We waited a fair amount of hours for the rain to let up, which it finally did, at least enough for the crew to take the B-17 into the air. Inside the bomber was much more cramped than I expected, given the tremendous size and moving about required dexterity and flexibility, but once we were settled in, the captain and co-pilot taxied us down the runway, waited for the green light, and then opened up the engines. 

The sonic wall of power and fury assaulted my senses and I was awash in the roar and motion as the B-17 tore up the tarmac and launched itself into the sky. Once up we were free to move about and explore, with the only off-limits area being the ball turret inside and read tail gun. Given the fortress had no fancy electronics, or radar, we stayed reasonably low, above the rain and mountains, but not so high up as to freeze us. Nonetheless I was glad for a heavy coat. I do not recall how long the flight was, but it was worth every second and even now my ear still hum

 with the sounds of the Wright Cyclones bass rumble.
I will probably never again have such an opportunity, but in this case, one will be enough.

Christmas Present

An awesome gift from a totally awesome girlfriend.

The camera is the gift, the 10 Trillion dollar Zimbabwe note I already had. It's worth, about 0.05$ US. Although officially the Zimbabwe currency was abandoned around 2008. At the height of the (ongoing) economic issues Zimbabwe faces, their inflation was in numbers so high they practically have to invent words for it. 90 Sextillion percent. I read somewhere that if each percent was an atom, the highest inflation Zimbabwe encountered would be equal to one third of all known atoms in the universe. That's still a mindbogglingly staggering number. Sorry, off topic, this is a photography site, not a history or geopolitical journal. 

The Yashica 635 TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) pictured here is one of only a handful of TLRs that were dual format, they could take film of 120 format, and with an adapter (hard to find, but included with mine) standard 35mm format film. There are no more medium format film houses here in town, so I'll be shooting a lot of 35mm through this.

The serial number of the 635 indicted it was made around Christmas of 1960, which I thought was cool, making it almost exactly 53 years old when I got it.

Strawberry Ice Cream

There were some unusual colour combinations last night, this one being one of them and reminding me of strawberry ice cream. I was pleased at how well these turn out, mainly because I shoot with an ancient (on dSLR terms) Nikon D1x, and while it's daytime abailities are great, low-light and nighttime acumen is sorely lacking.

Nonetheless, the noise is kept to a minimum and overwhelmed by the main subject.

Fun With Medium Format Part 2

The 120 film Yashica TLRs will take a maximum of 12 shots per roll. So unlike my dSLR, I have to be much more picky about when I fire the shutter. Plus the thing is totally manual, no light meter (well, the 124G does have one, but it's powered by an unavailable mercury button cell), so computer electronics, nothing of that sort, so you really have to know what you are doing because the film isn't forgiving.

But it's fun to carry around a light meter and box camera, and take your time composing and setting up all the requirements. Plus it's a great conversation starter.

Fun With Medium Format

I love shooting with Medium Format cameras, and especially Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) box cameras from the Japanese company Yashica. There is something about shooting with technology made in the 60s that appeals to me.

The best Yashica TLR ever made is the Yashica-Mat 124g and I've never been able to buy one. They've always been (even bad examples) several hundred dollars. Mint condition ones go for $800 and up. But to my surprise a local one popped up for sale for the whopping price of $50. Naturally I had to snap it up. It even came with 12 roles of 120 film that had expired in the 80s. Score! (I love shooting with expired film, the effects are unpredictable)

So naturally I had to take it to Canada with me and go nuts. I got one roll back so far, shot with new film, and while the lens is very sharp (which is what I was hoping) the shots are less than interesting. So I went nuts in PhotoShop to spice them up a bit. The following series you will see are the results. Let me know what you think.

Exploring

This is the back, or possibly front of the building, depending on how you look at it. The river was once large enough to allow ferry boats to pass through on both sides and deliver people for dances. You can just see the second story arched windows where the dance floor is/used to be.

The square building in the far back is the modern pump house addition, and is still in use.

A bit of History

You are looking at a bit of history here, it's an Arado AR 234, the world's first jet-powered bomber.

Again, fiddled with the lighting as the ambient light was all over the place.

Handheld as there was nowhere to brace nor bring a tripod, so apologies if it's a tad blurry.

Cold War

Relics of the Cold War. A MiG 15, and in the left side background, the tail of Corsair/Crusader.

I muted the colours somewhat, as the light coming in from the windows was distracting.

Apparently this was a gift of the Soviet Union, as opposed to something captured, makes sense as it is in good shape.

To boldly go

If my memory of history is correct, the space shuttle Enterprise (pictured here) was so named from a massive write-in from Star Trek fans, as it was originally to be named something else.

The shuttle is currently parked at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum (no, I don't know how to pronounce his name, it's Hungarian so for all I know it's pronounced "Pickled Mouse")

In any case, it's difficult to capture such a huge vehicle in all its glory, especially with massive crowds around, but I did the best I could.

Can you believe the people at the museum don't allow photographers inside the shuttle? Totally rude ;-)

Test Run

I was given a Nikon D1 for the pocket change in my couch. Worn, battered and unloved I took it in and cleaned it up, smoothed over the worn spots with gentle paints, brushed away the dirt and took it out to run it through a field test.

Okay, that's all very marshmellodramatic but the D1 is a piece of history, and the images it can still take, are very nice.

For example, the one just to the left of this text. Taken on a stormy day on my way to a client's office.

I think I will not be keeping it (after all, the D1x is superiour is almost every way) but I will make sure it goes to a good home.

If you want it, let me know.

U-Boat

I have always loved U-Boats. At the Inner Harbour they had an American one you could tour. Was a bit of a trick to photograph it (indeed, all of the Inner Harbour areas) without people around. Patience paid off though. I love this shot.

Lobby

A shot from the waiting room, the outside light was partially filtered by some beautiful wooden slats, and gave the interior a warm look about it. Dark mahogany row seats with leather and brass tacks added to the look. Marble everywhere I looked. Can't wait to go back again.

Same 17mm lens, on the Fuji S2 body.

History

We have a train station that is virtually unused in the city. The history of the building is long, and amusing. In the 60s it flooded, the was rebuilt, then flooded again, then rebuilt, then burned down, then rebuilt, then flooded again, rebuilt, re-used as a mall(?!) which failed, rebuilt again as a train station, just as the trains quit coming to the city.

Anyway, the interior of the place is stunning (for this city anyway) marble walls, soft lighting, solid woodwork, live plants, leather seats, and so on. I was the sole person there today. As I walked in, I saw a cleaning person, but they quickly disappeared. No patrons, no trains, nothing. So it was perfect for picture taking. I plan on going back many times and fully exploring the image possibilities.

Shot with my Fuji S2 Pro and a 17mm lens.

Ozymandias

I want to point out that this is not the mansion I found, this is just the stables, which should give you some idea of the imensity of the area.

The stables were not behind the mansion, but rather a good 1/4 mile away nearly hidden by overgrowth.

I am not often at a loss for words, but the sheer scope of the area (after some reasearch it turned out the original land encompassed nearly 1000 acres) coupled with the magnitude of the decay completely shocked me. All I could think about as I wandered the forgotten lands and buildings, was Percy Shelley's poem about Ramesses the Great.

The most famous line from that work is "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Destiny

The name speaks volumes to everyone. Even if you know nothing about cars, the DMC12 rings a bell. Doomed from the word go, with all the cards stacked against him, DeLorean nonetheless created a cultural icon. There is a sense of history standing next to one. Despite all the well known mechanical problems with the DMC12, I still want one.