Thanks Ryan for sharing your experience. Nothing like the roar of vintage aircraft Same 2 models as my Avatar.
So, I got an angry email... And I get it. Let me explain. I have this thing for bags, pouches, and carrying devices for travel and cameras. In this industry, there are a few small players that do small batches of items that I often cherish, but am not devoted enough to camp out or wait in some online que hours for. And it frustrates me that I lose out... This whole print thing is not that. I'm not trying to create demand by limiting supply. I am not a professional photographer. Some might say I'm not even a good photographer and I wouldn't argue with them. This whole print thing is just me trying to get better. I make prints of the same photo over and over again until I get it right. Afterwards, I'm typically left with 10 to 15 terrible prints and a few good ones. I throw away the bad ones and have no need for the decent ones, so I give them away. The larger prints that I sell for good money only exist to fund more photo paper, chemicals, etc... Basically, they pay for my education and the free prints that I give away. And here’s the brutal truth: these prints aren’t holy artifacts. I’ve taken around fifteen hundred film shots since 2022, published a handful, printed fewer, framed one. One! So if you miss out? Don’t sweat it. You didn’t miss the Mona Lisa, you missed another scribble from a lunatic trying to figure his shit out.
Wowsers gone already! My favorite warbird P51D! Second fav P38 Lightning so if you get to see one and photograph it, give me dibs!!! Airplane nut as well as a car nut and both happened at a very early age. Crazy how that happened but I don't mind at all!
Man you have to have some nerve to be mad at someone for giving something away because you didn't get one. Cool pic.
I have been late to the party more than once, whither it's a shiftier ball or a yoyo,it's like the old adage,"Right time, right place." Brenda just happened to be perusing the Hamb early this morning. HRP
I actually get it... he was under the assumption that I was creating demand for the photos I do charge for. I'd be frustrated too. But I mean, hell... look at this print. There's water marks are all over it, it's back focused a bit, I should have taken a step back for a better composition, etc...
all you old guys need to go back to work so you'll be up at the hour ryan posts the offers @Ryan which one did you frame? was it the flathead you risked your life for to get the overhead shot?
I can shoot digital and more or less end up with the image in my head. Not that it’s great, but I know what I’m getting. With film, it’s much harder… I often just shoot and hope. But this summer, I saw a scene in Hawaii and knew I wanted to shoot it. I knew the camera, I knew the lens, I knew the film stock… and I thought I knew how it would look. So I woke up at 4am, broke numerous trespassing laws, and got there in time for the light to be right. Took the shot, developed it, printed it… and it’s exactly the image I had in my head. So, I framed it… Totally off topic to this joint, but PM me and I’ll send it to ya. I don’t think anyone else will find it that special, but it’s my favorite photo that I’ve ever taken.
I disagree @Ryan . I have one of your first giveaways from a few months ago. It is better than 99% of the photos we have framed on the wall. It is so close to art it is not even funny. You are and will always be your own worst critic. It’s that way with a lot of art. I end up hating the music I record and my wife loves it….go figure As for your T-6 in the photo, my shop ( while in the Air Force in Hawaii ) converted 22 T-6 Texans into the green torpedo planes in the movie Tora Tora Tora…..cool experience
I have zero problems going to jail for the right reasons. Good trouble is the best kind of trouble. I take over 5000 photos a year on average... and a broken clock is right twice a day, so... And Tora! Tora! Tora! is in my top 5 favorite war films of all time. I love that movie so much... That's actual art.
Dang it... missed out again! Those were cool pics! Oh well... And it's not like I don't have several hundred shots of Mustangs and T-6's from the last 50 years
If you ever want to develop some more, I would buy one. We are our own worst enemies, sometimes we need to take the kind words from the people around us at face value.
In years past an outfit out of Massachusetts with an assortment of WW II vintage aircraft toured regional airports offering rides in these vintage bombers. Fortunately they stopped at an airport near me on a regular basis. For a fee I got to fly in an assortment of WW II bombers, a B-17, B-24 and a B25 over a period of a few years. What an experience!!
You were in the Air Force in what, '68-'69? I always figured there must have been more than one shop working on that. I was working in Goleta, CA converting Boeing 337's (Stratocruisers for those who remember them) into Pregnant Guppy, Mini-Guppy and Super Guppy outsized aircraft for Aerospace, Inc. with about 150 other guys. Someone came up from Ventura where they were converting T-6's into Japanese Zero's wanting some of the guys to come down and work on weekends. They could either be paid a dollar rate or trade time for flight time in a T-6. Some took them up on it. I've always regretted not taking time off from racing to go do that.
When the Confederate Air Force visited Anderson, South Carolina I knew I had to get a ticket for my dad to once again fly in a B-17, he was uneasy about being in the plane since he was the sole survivor of a crash, dad had tears in his eyes when the plane landed, he said he felt a sense of peace but never wanted to fly again, he didn't. HRP
Great stuff and a good story to go with it. Prooves that when you aren't paying attention you miss out because I really wasn't paying attention on that one. A number of years back I took my dad out to a WWII warplane display at the the Tacoma Narrows Airport and one of the planes they had on display was allegedly a B 25 but during WWII had been a passenger plane belonging to the military. Dad walks up to one of the guys who had the plane on display and says that that isn't a B 25 it is a _________ . Then the guy asks "how do you know that" and dad says "I rode from California to Hawaii on one" and actually gave the date to the guy. The guy says that "well you rode on this one then because it was the only one built. Dad took his journal back and showed the guy his notes about riding on it the next day. We lost the journal when my doof Ex brother inlaw through dads books away or gave them to his mother who had a used book store after dad passed away. My sister thought I had it but I said no, dad always kept it pretty close by. When I worked at the Yakima Washington airport we got treated to vintage planes quite often. My dad flew 25+ missions in the South Pacific with the Fifth Army Air Corps during WWII in B 25s and I did the tour of a couple of WWII bombers at a display at the airport and had to drop down out of the bomb bay of one because it was too tight quarters for me to fit thrugh.
Just sayin' It irks me how some folks just want to flush away the past and the materials it held. Myself I am guilty of ignoring it but today still cling to a lot where folks have no interest.
The Jalopy Journal
