Boulder Beach

 

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Wet rocks.  I traveled almost two thousand miles from Kansas to Maine, to take photographs of wet rocks.   Because that’s what we do.  (Fortunately,   I came back with a lot more than wet rock photos.)  These are the particularly photogenic rocks of Boulder Beach in Acadia National Park, Maine.  This location is along the shore just north of the Otter Cliffs in my last post.   The waves have worn these rocks super smooth.  Generally, they range in size from baseballs, up to watermelons.  Of maybe softballs to footballs.   Most of them are grapefruit sized.   You get the idea.   I must add that the entire “beach” is composed of these rocks at this spot.  It was very difficult to walk around and use a tripod.  Not an ankle friendly environment, especially in the rain.   The plan was to be here for some super cool sunrise photos-but there were low clouds and rain, no sun – one has to improvise.   I re-post processed this one recently and am quite fond of it.

 

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Otter Cliffs

 

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I’ve been revisiting some old images, and found this one from a 2008 visit to Acadia National Park in Maine.  This one was overexposed but I was able to extract some lost detail and color in the sky, much to my surprise.  Shooting RAW is the only way to fly!   I believe that’s Otter Cliffs in the distance.  I love Acadia – it’s a do-not-miss destination especially if you time it right, and visit in the correct one to two week period for fall colors.   (Which varies year to year of course-usually sometime in October.)

Warhawk

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The mighty P-40 Warhawk, flown by the Commemorative Air Force.   The P-40 first flew in 1938, it was the third most-produced American fighter of World War II, after the P-51 and P-47.   Warhawks served all over the world in combat during the war.   I had never seen one in person, but thankfully one was on hand for the Wichita Flight Festival this year.    The P-40 took off in pursuit of the Japanese fighters in the Tora Tora Tora show, it was great.   Beautiful plane.   When parked, it was roped off in a way that severely limited the angles from which it could be photographed.  I would have loved to have been able to get around in front of it as well.

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Tora! Tora! Tora!

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This years Wichita Flight Festival featured the Tora Tora Tora airshow.  Flown by members of the Commemorative Air Force based in Texas, the show gives the audience just a taste of what it looks like to be attacked by a swarm of Japanese aircraft.  It is a recreation of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.  The group takes pains to explain the show is not a glorification of war, but rather a dynamic history lesson about the event which propelled the U.S. into World War II.    As I understand it, most if not all the Japanese planes in the show are very accurate reproductions, which were constructed for the major motion picture Tora Tora Tora from 1970.

The show is very enjoyable, something I will not soon forget.  World War II era aviation has always been an interest of mine.   Although I’m sure all the flying is choreographed, from a photographic standpoint (from someone who had never seen the show before), it was chaos and mayhem.  I’ve never attempted to shoot such an event, I was reasonably pleased with the outcome.   The show includes lots of explosions and smoke, which definitely adds to the experience.

I’ve posted these photos as a gallery, please feel free to click and enlarge!  Amongst all the Japanese planes, you’ll see a lone American P40 Warhawk in there.  I’ll have more of that great plane at a later date.

Aerobatics

 

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From the Wichita Flight Festival airshow last weekend.  Above, we have Otto the helicopter, flown by pilot Roger Buis.

 

 

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This is pilot Kent Pietsch flying his yellow plane through one of the more sedate maneuvers.  I just like the smoke trails for photography purposes.  Pietsch later landed his plane on top of a truck.  (Well, there was a little flat platform on top of the truck, but still…..

 

 

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These last two are pilot Jason Newburg in his Pitts Viper aircraft.

The Fires Of Sunset

 

 

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Sunset storm in Wichita, Kansas  about an hour ago.  My next few posts were supposed to be airshow photos, but this sky thing happened tonight so I ran out for a quick snap.

Blue Evening At The Keeper Of The Plains

 

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Blackbear Bosin’s The Keeper of the Plains, located at the confluence of the Big & Little Arkansas rivers in the heart of my home town, Wichita, Ks.   The sky looked interesting this particular evening so I drove down to the Keeper and loitered about.   After getting soaked by a brief rain shower, things started to improve.   I have some images with more dramatic clouds, but I really liked the deep blue evening sky color in this one, contrasted with the artificially lit sculpture.   There are a lot of power lines in the area, along with a couple of tall suspension bridge towers (interesting subject for photos as well) so it is sometimes a challenge to frame the sculpture to exclude all those things.

Cadillac

 

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One last image from the car show.   A great old black Cadillac.   It was at last years show also, I have many a shot of it’s hood ornament, of which I have posted a couple in the past.  (The third photo down in my recent “hood ornament bonanza” post for example.   It’s a big old hulking piece of American metal, full of interesting details and a boat load of character, beautifully restored and maintained.

Ford Shoots Ford

 

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Last year around this time I posted a “Ford Shoots Chevy” photo from the Blacktop Nationals car show.  This year it was a Ford that had the best hubcap for a self portrait.   So there you have it!

Hood Ornament Bonanza

 

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From the Blacktop Nationals car show in Wichita.