Where is the most unlikely place for saxophone signage you can think of?
Last weekend I did something I haven’t done in a number of years: I went to the Abbotsford International Airshow. It was the 55th year that Canada’s National Airshow was held, and for me it was a bit like coming home.
You see, when I was a small child my parents and I first attended the airshow way back in the 1970s. My dad had been a pilot in the German Luftwaffe, but when he came to Canada in that late 1950s, he was not allowed to hold even a private pilot’s license. That didn’t stop his love of aircraft however, so when we moved to BC, he became a regular attendee of the Abbotsford Airshow.
My dad was also a very good amateur photographer. I have thousands of photos and negatives of his that act as a chronology of his life all the way from young boy in Germany, through to old man in Canada. As a matter of fact, he continued taking photos with his beloved Leica M3 until a month before his death.
I inherited a lot from my dad: the love of planes, as well as the love of photography—just to name a couple. So every year the Abbotsford Airshow is a bittersweet time for me. It is truly the time of the year that I remember and miss my dad the most.
This year I decided to do something I have never done before: I bought a 3 day pass to the photo pit. The photo pit is where the truly geeky photo types hang out—complete with massively long lenses, and multiple cameras.
Now admittedly, I too brought a couple of cameras to the photo pit, but I wasn’t all that interested in shooting planes flying in the air. Since I love the artsy stuff that goes into HDR photography, I had one camera set up for the sole purpose of taking photos of the planes on static display.
Now in case you’re wondering why I’m writing all this in my Bassic Sax Blog, stick with me for just a couple more paragraphs. I promise this will all make sense.
I spent a huge part of the 3 days at the airshow wandering around the static areas taking artsy shots of plane parts: everything from rotors, to nose art, to mid-air refuelling nozzles. I spent so much time crawling and laying underneath some of the planes on static display, that I thought surely some of the pilots or crew would accuse me of stalking their plane. 😉
Given the amount of photos I took, I figure it will take me until next year’s airshow to get all of 2017’s pics finished. BTW, if you are interested in seeing those, the best will eventually be uploaded to my Flickr account—the link to which is also on the side of each page of this website. It is the bottom of the 4 blue circles.
The last place I every thought I would see saxophone signage
During my 3-day photo shooting bonanza, I happened to notice something I just had to shoot for this website. It is the insignia on the fuselage of a National Guard F-15 Eagle based out of Portland, OR.
I did a bit of sleuthing into the City of Gresham, OR this morning. Other than an outdoor summer concert series, I didn’t find anything noteworthy that they promote on the city website that would scream: SAXOPHONE! I didn’t notice that they even had a jazz festival.
If anyone from the City of Gresham or surrounding area ever happens to read this and wants to let us know what kind of arts and cultural events are happening in the city that might involve a saxophone, please leave a comment. Until then, I will simply write this off as yet another way that the saxophone’s iconic shape lends itself to conveying a cool, hipness… even when one doesn’t exist.
Hi Helen,
Great catch!
Yes, it’s true, the enthusiasm of Leica owners is only seldom superseded by that of those Nikonians.
Peace,
paul
Thanks Paul.
I took a break from saxophone-related stuff—basically a 2 week holiday of sorts—and have been sorting out and working on some of the approx. 12,000 images I shot over the course of the 3 day airshow. I have 44 now up in a Flickr album if you are interested in seeing them. I still have a lot more to sort and sift through, and then to run through HDR software as well as Photoshop.
Speaking of cameras… I dug out my dad’s old M3 the other day. After reading the original manual, again, I put it back in its leather case. Really, I don’t know how my dad could ever take good photos with it. He obviously understood photography much better than I do. I know he tried to teach me how to use it, but it confounds me. Having grown up on cameras where even manual can do some of the thinking for you, the old Leica is way above my head. Judging distances is something that I will not be able to do accurately. Then of course there is the immediacy now of digital vs film….
Most of the photographers in the photo pit at the airshow were using Nikons. I was not surprised in the slightest. I of course use Panasonic Lumix, which if I were to start on digital again, I likely would not do. I probably would also use a Nikon. That said, I do like the mirrorless aspect of the mirco 4/3s technology. Everything is so much smaller and lighter. Since I am not a professional photographer, I am not spending the extra amount of $ to buy the Panasonic pro lenses, but I do have their X line, and they do produce incredibly crisp and clear images. They are certainly capable of producing tack sharp images—providing of course you’ve got your settings right, and the lighting conditions are favourable. 😉
Since today is my first day back at seriously trying to look at my emails and comments, I better keep at it. I am so far behind it is bad… 👿
Micro 4/3 is nice in the sense that it has been around long enough to have a good selection of lenses from a variety of manufacturers, but isn’t old enough to carry a bunch of legacy compromises. The same cannot be said for, say, the Nikon F mount, or the Canon EF mount. You also have to be concerned with the variable sensor sizes on all cameras descended from 35mm SLRs unless they are specifically full frame. Mirrorless is also nice by way of simplicity, speed, reliability, noise, weight…
…but not function, when you actually need a through-the-lens viewfinder that doesn’t exhibit digital lag. An airshow would be one of these cases. So would sporting events, and existing light photography such as concert photos. I personally wouldn’t want to settle for anything less than a DSLR with a full frame, 24x36mm sensor, because I have worked all of the above. Like you, I don’t get how someone could reliably get the shot with a manual focus, rangefinder camera, and this is coming from someone perfectly comfortable with manual focus and metered manual exposure. Yet some people did.
If you restrict your options to true SLRs, mirrorless systems still exist but they’ll cost you 2/3 of a stop in sensitivity because the prism for the viewfinder is permanently splitting the light coming in from the lens. They’re also on the heavy side.
It all comes down to what you’re actually willing to carry around. At any given moment, the best camera is the one you have with you.
That good selection has a lot to do with Olympus’ previous history building a lens catalogue for their original PEN series of half-frame cameras and their continuing experience in microscopes and medical imaging for almost 100 years.
Peace,
paul
Hi Helen,
My first serious camera was a range-finder type — a Mamiya 35 Super Deluxe, coincidentally given to me by my father for my 13th birthday. You can see examples of what that camera can do here. Except for a minor dalliance with an Olympus Trip 35, that remained my only film camera for several decades. Thus, not because I am a fan, but rather because it is what I have become accustomed to, the design philosophies behind Mamiya and Olympus glass are what I still prefer.
With a little practice, a coupled range-finder camera like the Leica M3 is actually easier to focus and shoot than an SLR, and often faster than autofocus. One of the major advantages is that a good range-finder shows more of the view and indicates the actual frame with perspective compensated bright lines, as distinguished from an SLR which only shows at most 90% of the frame, albeit intrinsically perspectively correct. This allows one to see what immediately surrounds the frame and make quick adjustments to the frame, or to wait for something moving to enter the frame, or not.
For the same reason I find it interesting that you gravitated to Panasonic who currently has a tight relationship with Leitz glass.
Peace,
paul
My answer to tracking what’s outside the frame has always been to keep both eyes open. On most shots this isn’t necessary, but when it is, I’d do it regardless of whether the camera is a rangefinder or an SLR, and I’d make it a habit if I had a “fake SLR” with a laggy digital display. In the modern digital era, I’d also hedge my bets and use whatever frame rate the camera and the lighting/aperture are willing to give me. Think of it as “temporal bracketing”. It’s not like we have to worry about running out of film anymore.
Flash photography is the obvious exception. You only get one shot at that, so you’d better get it right. Even then, a little luck goes a long way.