I have this love/hate relationship with aviation museums. On the one hand, it's nice to have aircraft preserved for current and future generations to see and appreciate. On the other hand, many times the aircraft are in a wretched state of preservation and stored or exhibited in less than ideal conditions. Ideally, they should be restored to as near pristine condition as possible and as close to the markings of their real service career, then displayed indoors in a climate-controlled environment.
That, of course, is far from what happens in many places, especially in small, financially-strapped local museums.
Southern California is fortunate in that many such places do have the ability to preserve and display a large part of their collections in great venues. Some friends and I went to two of those museums last weekend: the Yanks Air Museum and the Planes of Fame Museum, both in Chino, CA.
Yanks is the newer of the two at the Chino Airport. The airport has long been the home of Planes of Fame and a whole subsidiary industry dedicated to the restoration and preservation of old warbirds and contemporary air racing craft. Both museums now sport beautiful interior hangar displays and a large collection of flyable and flying articles.
We went to Yanks first because there was a kit collector's show being held inside the facility that day - the reason for our excursion.
While it's great to see such beautifully restored aircraft, the one complaint I have with every such venue is it's a royal pain to get good over-all shots of the individual vehicles. I much prefer to get clean shots outside in nice light. But if they were outside in nice light, they would not be in such great shape for long. Such is the dilemma of museum aircraft.
Nevertheless, neat shots can be had with a little creativity. The image below is an overall view of the legendary North American Aviation P-51D Mustang. The kit show is to the left of the airplane, outside the framing of the shot. It's amazing how much you can hide with careful composition.
It's a decent shot, but not a great one. Good enough for documentary purposes, though.
However, with a bit of careful positioning and composition, a much more dramatic shot is possible, as is shown in the image that opens today's entry. The Mustang was built with beautiful curves and this angle shows some of those classic lines to good effect. The lighting helps set the mood with dark shadows and bright highlights that accentuate the shape of the airplane. It is a much more expressive shot than the overall picture, but than it should be. After all, that is the difference between art and documentation as each have different objectives in mind. While those objectives are not necessarily exclusive of each other, it is a much more difficult challenge to combine the two - especially in a museum setting.
And that's why I shoot both ways, if possible.
We will explore more such images in the next few entries.
It is so cute to watch Evie interact with her little brother at this age. She is really quite protective of him. If he gets fussy she'll try to cheer him up. When we were visiting this Christmas she discovered a snowman toy that had a recording of Jimmy Durante singing "Frosty the Snowman." She thought it was the funniest thing, so she had to share with Eoin.
And share she did...over and over and over...and over again. The adults were ready to slit their wrists, but Evie would laugh and stick the snowman in front of Eoin and watch him smile and give his little gasp-y laugh. It cracked her up.
In truth it was pretty funny. And much better to have her wanting to make him laugh than cry. I hope that continues for a long while.
Well...that was longer than I expected. I did not plan for a hiatus of this duration, but having the computer go out on me and with it being down for over a month did not help the situation. Between that and the crunch of year-end events, work and outside jobs, blogging became an expendable option. The first month I was too busy to miss it; the second month I found I did miss it.
As far as the computer problem, the nearest thing that we could figure out was that my security program downloaded an update which affected our 64 bit Windows 7 operating system. In short, it turned my "C" drive into a "D" drive; meaning my computer would not even turn on.
Before they figured that out, however, they brought in Tina's computer and our external hard drive to check for viruses. None were on the external, and a minor and inconsequential amount were found on Tina's. Which was good, but not as helpful for getting back into doing work on the computer as I'd hoped.
At least the personal data on the C drive was fully backed up. However, I requested that they try to save my favorites and Outlook emails rather than wipe the C drive and simply reinstall the OP. That complicated matters; that and requesting that they back-up the external on a second external as an additional back-up. You can never have enough redundancy. Unfortunately, that took a couple more weeks of time.
By then we were in Colorado Springs for a nice 8 day visit with the kids and grandkids. Needless to say nothing much got done computer-wise, except barely keep up with the emails. Which wasn't totally bad.
Once we got back there were more complications as my external had to be removed from its case and put in a new one. Then there was reloading the printers and other software in my software-reinstalled C drive. And time passed...and passed...and passed.
But the trip to Colorado was fun! Tiring, but fun. Evie really seems to enjoy her little brother a lot, as seen in the above photo with Tina. And that little girl is chattering up a storm! We played and watched movies and went to tea and watched the snow (ugh) and watched more movies. She is very energetic.
Christie and Mike were mostly fine, except for the bout of 24 (or so) hour flu that cycled throughout the family. I'm happy to say my round only lasted half a day and was more a feeling of nausea than real sickness. A good helping of lamb Vindaloo curry for dinner cured that felling; it burned those bugs right out!
Anyway, I'm back, and looking forward to sharing many more photos and thoughts in the coming days.
We had our inaugural home art show this past Sunday. Called "Light, Paint & Ink," it featured my photography, Tina's oils and watercolors and Ellen Shipley's monotypes and wood prints. It turned out pretty well. The weather cooperated and we had a nice day. The rain held off until we were all finished and everything was put away.
This is the view down our driveway as we were nearly ready to start. As you can see I had a lot of rather large aircraft prints and one giclee. Our friend, Tom Hacker, is in the background helping us set up.
Tina had some rather large paintings as well. This is the view further down the driveway opposite the tent above.
This is the view from the tent. As it turned out I was asked to take detailed photos of a sculpture. Since it is a limited series, we decided to display it in case anyone was interested in purchasing a piece as the artist is a good friend.
The figure is a highly detailed rendering of an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot from World War II. Sculpted by Don Lynch, now living in Canada, it was commissioned by another friend, Gary Nila, who is an avid collector of Japanese World War II uniforms and accouterments. Gary has done a couple of monographs on the subject, which I had the honor of doing the contemporary photography. More on that in a later post.
We also had a table set up to display the Invenature Cookbook, of which Tina and I contributed, and flyers for Kindle books by another good friend, Mel Gilden.
The idea behind the show, besides trying to sell our art, was to provide a dry run for a potential art-in-the-park venture. The Pro-Panel walls were newly purchased by Tina for that future endeavor and this was the learning phase on how to set them up. The art looked quite good on the walls. Aida King and Mel Gilden are looking at art.
Another view of the panels, this time with my photography hung on the panels. Karen Hilb is checking out the layout. Karen was our cashier and was a tremendous help.
Another view. Mel is skillfully avoiding my camera. Tina is in the background.
We were blessed to have plenty of help. Gary Charpentier is to the right of Mel's shoulder. Tom is checking out the loose art bin. Some of my black and white photos are on the left wall.
Ellen took a different route. She already had a sun shade, so she and her husband Bill decided to fabricate her walls. It turned out pretty well. This view shows some of her Paleo-Mythos prints. They are quite good.
Some more views of her set up. As you can see we had lots of chairs set out so people could come and relax and chat.
More views of our panels. We were quite pleased with how the worked out. 
We set up the snacks in the Secret Garden. A funky red and white checkerboard tablecloth was used and the drinks were chilled in the ice chest. We also had some wine. Ellen, Laurie Perry, Tina and Karen provided cookies, cheeseballs and crackers, fruit and especially pumpkin bars (thanks Laurie!). We also had sandwiches, which made the rounds.
The back edge of the yard was lined with chairs. It was a very pleasant setting and people enjoyed being able to lounge about.
Steph Grush manned the snacks area and did a fabulous job!
Craig Kaston (right) and Chris Eisner share a conversation. Chris' husband, Steve, is behind Craig. Knowing them, they were discussing airplanes in general and the F-4 Phantom II in particular.
Lynn and Maryanne Jenson peruse the loose art bin. I had my smaller airplane photos in a couple of tubs on the other side.
Ellen holding down the fort at her tent while folks relax in the chairs. We were quite pleased to have Tina's dad, Bill, show up for the event. My cousin Bob Chang chats with Steph.
Fortunately, we did sell some art. Tom was particularly generous. He's getting his purchase from Karen and Roy King looks on.
More views of the art on our walls. As we started to sell pieces Tina went into a seller's frenzy and started filling empty spots with more of our art, some of which were hanging on our own walls! If somebody wanted to by one she was game. We could always replace the pieces with more of our art. But it was pretty funny anyway.
The sky grew overcast the later in the afternoon it became. Karen is now wearing her jacket. The rain started shortly after we closed down. It was a case of great timing. I don't know who Tina had to bribe to get the good weather for the show, but we lucked out.
Through it all our male cat Nicky (short for Nikolai) guarded the back door. He was a very good cat and did not try to go outdoors. I think he like being the king of Bubblewrap. He seemed to enjoy being snuggled up in it.
All in all, we all did well. We all sold some art, and two cookbooks as well! We're looking forward to doing our first art-in-the-park sometime in the Spring, as well as doing another backyard show around this time next year. We had a great time! Hope you all can join us then.
I try to pick my window seats by how I think the sun angle will light the clouds and ground features. Sometimes I guess wrong and it still works out.
The starboard (right) side is usually a good place on a West-bound flight. It works really well on the Denver-Las Vegas route. However, I forgot we were going Denver to Phoenix on this trip. That meant a more Southwesterly direction, with the nose a little to the left of the sun's position in the sky.
When that happens the features usually get washed out by the harsh light. Fortunately this time there was a lot of cloud activity. Big, billowy clouds get a dramatic look when heavily backlit, especially towards the golden hour of the late-afternoon. I really like the shadows cast by the clouds.
These two shots, taken moments apart, give a hint of the ever-changing vista just outside the aircraft. I love it - it's the only thing worthwhile (aside from the faster travel time) about flying these days. If I didn't have a view I would go crazy wondering what I had missed.
Evie seems to have adjusted really well to the arrival of her baby brother. It also helps to have two grandparents around to entertain you while Daddy is at work and Mommy is going to the doctor with Eoin. There is nothing like undivided attention to perk up a four-year old.
So on that particular day we picked Evie up from pre-school and took her to the park. The swing was about the first thing she went to. Note that she is still using the smaller child safety swing with the bucket seat. There was another set with the regular style seats, but she did not want to use them as she was afraid of falling out if pushed too high. A reasonable fear, to me. I think she inherited her excess caution from her grampa. I was not known as a dare-devil then or now.
Nevertheless, once safely ensconced in the bucket, she wanted to go really high. With Nana T pushing from behind and Grampa Tony pushing from the front she attained a good deal of height - and loved it!
And in case you hadn't noticed, she picked out on her own and wore to school that day her Dodger t-shirt that we got her on their visit to L.A. this past June. All is right with the universe, even if they did have a suckee season and the Giants (shudder) finished first. Oh, well....
The park adventure concluded with a bit of bubble blowing with her new toy that we bought her on our trip to the Central Coast over Labor Day. We wanted to bring her a gift so she wouldn't feel left out with everyone cooing over Eoin, so we got at battery-powered, trigger-activated fan-blown bubble blower. Say that fast five times. Despite the unwieldy description it worked great and made a prodigious amount of bubbles. Even the homeless woman under an adjacent tree was impressed.
Needless to say Evie loved it. And we loved it because it wasn't as messy as hand-blown bubbles! We were using a rental van, after all. :-)
Like their Mustang, North American Aviation's F-86 Sabre was a classic beauty with gorgeous lines. One can get lost in the curves and flows of the body and canopy as the light plays off the polished metal surfaces. It is a dance of white on a silver body; a pas de deux that I find endlessly entrancing.
Here is an overall shot of the Sabre, below. Even simple documentary shots cannot fail to show the beauty of the design. They are even more striking in the air.
I have this love/hate relationship with aviation museums. On the one hand, it's nice to have aircraft preserved for current and future generations to see and appreciate. On the other hand, many times the aircraft are in a wretched state of preservation and stored or exhibited in less than ideal conditions. Ideally, they should be restored to as near pristine condition as possible and as close to the markings of their real service career, then displayed indoors in a climate-controlled environment.
It's a decent shot, but not a great one. Good enough for documentary purposes, though.
It is so cute to watch Evie interact with her little brother at this age. She is really quite protective of him. If he gets fussy she'll try to cheer him up. When we were visiting this Christmas she discovered a snowman toy that had a recording of Jimmy Durante singing "Frosty the Snowman." She thought it was the funniest thing, so she had to share with Eoin.
Well...that was longer than I expected. I did not plan for a hiatus of this duration, but having the computer go out on me and with it being down for over a month did not help the situation. Between that and the crunch of year-end events, work and outside jobs, blogging became an expendable option. The first month I was too busy to miss it; the second month I found I did miss it. 
We had our inaugural home art show this past Sunday. Called "Light, Paint & Ink," it featured my photography, Tina's oils and watercolors and Ellen Shipley's monotypes and wood prints. It turned out pretty well. The weather cooperated and we had a nice day. The rain held off until we were all finished and everything was put away. 
Tina had some rather large paintings as well. This is the view further down the driveway opposite the tent above.
This is the view from the tent. As it turned out I was asked to take detailed photos of a sculpture. Since it is a limited series, we decided to display it in case anyone was interested in purchasing a piece as the artist is a good friend.
The figure is a highly detailed rendering of an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot from World War II. Sculpted by Don Lynch, now living in Canada, it was commissioned by another friend, Gary Nila, who is an avid collector of Japanese World War II uniforms and accouterments. Gary has done a couple of monographs on the subject, which I had the honor of doing the contemporary photography. More on that in a later post.
We also had a table set up to display the Invenature Cookbook, of which Tina and I contributed, and flyers for Kindle books by another good friend, Mel Gilden.
The idea behind the show, besides trying to sell our art, was to provide a dry run for a potential art-in-the-park venture. The Pro-Panel walls were newly purchased by Tina for that future endeavor and this was the learning phase on how to set them up. The art looked quite good on the walls. Aida King and Mel Gilden are looking at art.
Another view of the panels, this time with my photography hung on the panels. Karen Hilb is checking out the layout. Karen was our cashier and was a tremendous help.
Another view. Mel is skillfully avoiding my camera. Tina is in the background.
We were blessed to have plenty of help. Gary Charpentier is to the right of Mel's shoulder. Tom is checking out the loose art bin. Some of my black and white photos are on the left wall.
Ellen took a different route. She already had a sun shade, so she and her husband Bill decided to fabricate her walls. It turned out pretty well. This view shows some of her Paleo-Mythos prints. They are quite good.
Some more views of her set up. As you can see we had lots of chairs set out so people could come and relax and chat.
More views of our panels. We were quite pleased with how the worked out. 
We set up the snacks in the Secret Garden. A funky red and white checkerboard tablecloth was used and the drinks were chilled in the ice chest. We also had some wine. Ellen, Laurie Perry, Tina and Karen provided cookies, cheeseballs and crackers, fruit and especially pumpkin bars (thanks Laurie!). We also had sandwiches, which made the rounds.
The back edge of the yard was lined with chairs. It was a very pleasant setting and people enjoyed being able to lounge about.
Steph Grush manned the snacks area and did a fabulous job!
Craig Kaston (right) and Chris Eisner share a conversation. Chris' husband, Steve, is behind Craig. Knowing them, they were discussing airplanes in general and the F-4 Phantom II in particular.
Lynn and Maryanne Jenson peruse the loose art bin. I had my smaller airplane photos in a couple of tubs on the other side.
Ellen holding down the fort at her tent while folks relax in the chairs. We were quite pleased to have Tina's dad, Bill, show up for the event. My cousin Bob Chang chats with Steph.
Fortunately, we did sell some art. Tom was particularly generous. He's getting his purchase from Karen and Roy King looks on.
More views of the art on our walls. As we started to sell pieces Tina went into a seller's frenzy and started filling empty spots with more of our art, some of which were hanging on our own walls! If somebody wanted to by one she was game. We could always replace the pieces with more of our art. But it was pretty funny anyway.
The sky grew overcast the later in the afternoon it became. Karen is now wearing her jacket. The rain started shortly after we closed down. It was a case of great timing. I don't know who Tina had to bribe to get the good weather for the show, but we lucked out.
Through it all our male cat Nicky (short for Nikolai) guarded the back door. He was a very good cat and did not try to go outdoors. I think he like being the king of Bubblewrap. He seemed to enjoy being snuggled up in it.
Evie seems to have adjusted really well to the arrival of her baby brother. It also helps to have two grandparents around to entertain you while Daddy is at work and Mommy is going to the doctor with Eoin. There is nothing like undivided attention to perk up a four-year old.
Nevertheless, once safely ensconced in the bucket, she wanted to go really high. With Nana T pushing from behind and Grampa Tony pushing from the front she attained a good deal of height - and loved it!
The park adventure concluded with a bit of bubble blowing with her new toy that we bought her on our trip to the Central Coast over Labor Day. We wanted to bring her a gift so she wouldn't feel left out with everyone cooing over Eoin, so we got at battery-powered, trigger-activated fan-blown bubble blower. Say that fast five times. Despite the unwieldy description it worked great and made a prodigious amount of bubbles. Even the homeless woman under an adjacent tree was impressed.
