Gathering of Fleetlines

The Blvd Bombs Car Club held a fundraiser car show at the Bobs Big Boy Broiler in Downey CA. We arrived in time for the spectacular sunset and found quite a few 1940's Chevrolet Fleetmasters and Fleetlines like these pictured here. The red convertible fleetmaster was particularly stunning. Convertable fleetlines are a comparatively rare sight at car shows so I try to photograph them whenever I see them.

East Facing Pontiac

Kathy and I have a habit of getting to car shows very early. This show, actually a auto swapmeet held at the Pomona fairgrounds opens around 5am. We arrived only slightly afterward and there were already thousands of cars in place. This ncluded the subject of this photo a pontiac with a very cool hood ornament. This was shot with my nearly 40 year old 100mm macro lens.

Santa Fe New Mexico to Flagstaff Arizona

I drove 384 miles today from Santa Fe New Mexico to Flagstaff Arizona. We really enjoyed staying in Santa Fe. While all of the stores were displaying very beautiful but expensive things, very few tourists seemed to be purchasing things. It was clear that the Covid-19 virus has impacted Santa Fe hard. I would say that fully one third of the stores were vacant, another third were closed, and the remaining third that were open, weren't busy. The town was not packed at all and those tourists that were there were not carrying packages. Anyway, we stayed at the historic La Fonda Hotel. I woke up around 4:30 and decided to check out the Orionids meteor shower. While I didn't see any, there were countless stars in the sky above Santa Fe.

We knew we had a long drive to Flagstaff so we got up early, had breakfast at a nice cafe that has been in the same location since 1909 and got on the road. We refueled the minivan and ourselves in Gallup New Mexico. We then decided to stand on a corner in Winslow Arizona (such a fine sight to see).

Our stop here was brief but enjoyable. The road from Windslow to Flagstaff seemed to mainly be climbing and we passed several towering mesas and red rocks were prevalent.

Tomorrow we intend to return to Route 66 to see the Arizona towns of Williams, Seligman, Kingman, and Oatman.

Elk City Oklahoma to Albuquerque New Mexico

I drove 432 miles from Elk City Oklahoma to Albuquerque New Mexico today. We did have to stop at Amarillo International Airport to exchange our rental car because of a tire that had a slow leak. The helpful Enterprise agent tried to put us in a compact car after we had paid for a full size SUV but we declined. We're driving a minivan now and it's comfortable and roomy. We mainly stuck to highway 40 but did stop for lunch in at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo Texas. It's a very large restaurant but there were very few people there. Rules regarding social distancing and use of face masks were being enforced so that was good. We had fun and the food was good.

We crossed into New Mexico and once we did the clouds and rain were left behind. It was 46 degrees when we left Elk City. When we arrived in New Mexico it was 79.

Kathy made a hotel reservation for us in Albuquerque, but we wanted to drive down old Route 66 for a bit to see the city of Tucumcari New Mexico first. Our first stop was the Blue Swallow Motel which is a historic attraction on Route 66 and has been serving customers since 1939. We met Rob, one of the owners while we were taking some photos of the property. He rightly asks that no one sells images of the hotel without their permission. We of course agreed to this, so no sales of the images taken here for any purpose. Please respect their request as we do and support this important small business enterprise along with the others along Route 66.

Next we visited the TePee Curios shop which I had seen on youtube. We found some great stuff to buy and met the owners who were very helpful.

After that we got back on the highway and saw a spectacular sunset as we arrived in Albuquerque. Tomorrow  we are headed west again although we might backtrack a little and head north to visit Santa Fe or head south to visit Sedona. Either way in the days to come we will pass through Gallup, Winslow, Flagstaff, and who knows where else. Great day today.

National Museum of the United States Air Force - Dayton Ohio

I have always wanted to visit the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton Ohio. The problem has always been that it's a long way to go from California to just see one attraction. My opinion has changed. This museum is so vast, I could easily spend 3 or 4 days just looking around. We were only in the building for about 5 hours and it just wasn't enough time to see everything. This place is high on my list of places I want to return to. We were shocked when my wife asked the security guards at the bag check if they allowed tripods in the museum. The answer was a simple "Sure". My wife entered the museum while my brother-in-law and I trudged back to the car to retrieve the tripods. Wow was it worthwhile. To preserve the artifacts, the lighting level in the museum hangers is kept low. This made using a tripod especially useful. I think I took about 1,000 photos. I have included a few below. After leaving the museum, we drove from Dayton Ohio to Indianapolis Indiana which is only about 120 miles but it was already getting dark and we were tired from the 600 miles we drove the day before. So I'm typing this post on my iPad Pro in a Hilton hotel in downtown. Now that this is done, I'm headed for bed. It's onto St. Louis and Route 66 tomorrow morning.

Union Station - Ornate Stairway

This is one of the beautiful stairways leading into Chicago's Union Station's great hall. Amazing!

How I took this shot:

This handheld vertorama was stitched from 4 HDR sequences each containing 3 shots ( -2ev, 0ev, +1ev). I would have used my tripod but one of the security guards was already watching me, I didn't want to give her a pretense to kick me out. It's happened to me more than a few times before.

Union Station - Group Critique Busted!

When I entered the great hall in Chicago's Union Station, I saw about 10 art students sketching the interior. I walked around for 15 or 20 minutes taking photos. When I was leaving, I noticed they had put their sketch pads on the floor and had gathered in a circle. I assume this was a group critique. I thought I could sneak up on them, raise my camera with fisheye lens above my head and get a quick shot. You can see I got busted.

Chicago - My Kind of (windy) Town

Kathy and I concluded our passage on Amtrak's Empire Builder train in Chicago. After emerging from the beautiful Union Station (once our phones had acquired enough satellites to provide GPS navigation) we walked to our nearby hotel on Franklin street. We were only going to be in town for a single day, so after getting something to eat, we walked around for a bit, taking some photos of the dramatic architecture this city has to offer. Kathy wanted to visit the Chicago Institute of Art but we found it was closed during our visit, so the next morning we walked to Millennium Park and took some photos there. Apparently the park only recently opened to the public but we found some parts open, while others remained closed. In the case of Cloud's Gate also irreverently referred to as "The Bean", visitors were able to view it only from a distance with barricades having been put up to prevent crowds from gathering beneath it. This didn't bother me too much. I was able to obtain some photos of it without a ton of people in the shot. 

The view of Chicago's skyline from Cloud's Gate is truly spectacular. The day was cold and windy but the sky was mostly clear. Any clouds that appeared were quickly carried on the wind to destinations unknown.

A word about Chicago: I know all major cities have issues with homelessness, blight, trash, noise, crime, etc. but my initial impressions on this visit to what was admittedly a very small area in downtown Chicago were these: The streets, sidewalks, buildings, and bridges were for the most part clean. By comparison, the streets and sidewalks in downtown Los Angeles in my experience are filthy and no government agency seems to be charged with more than an occasional street sweeping. After a street sweeping, the ground is still black with dirt, gum, and who knows what else. The people we met were polite and friendly. There seems to be an emphasis on culture and preserving the city's history and finally the city's architecture is beautiful.

I'd love to return in the near future for an extended visit. There is so much I want to see.

While taking photos in the city, I made sure to create several panoramas but the Affinity Photo software which I am using on my iPad Pro does not seem to be able to successfully stitch them. I may have to just post individual HDR merges and stitch the panoramas when I return home. 

We are currently back on an Amtrak train crossing West Virginia. Looking forward to being in Washington DC tonight.

1948 Chevrolet Fleetline and Point Fermin Lighthouse

About 6 or 7 years ago during my vacation from work, I attended a car show at the seaside town of San Pedro, California. The Legends car club was hosting their yearly big event at Point Fermin park. Roll in was scheduled for 7am but we arrived around 5am and found about 50+ cars waiting in the dark to be admitted. The organizers recognized my wife from her attending other events and they kindly granted us both early admission. We walked around the park and found the host club member's cars parked in some prime spots. One of those was this pristine 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline located right in front of the historic Point Fermin Light house. With the moon rapidly setting and the blue hour fading more and more by the minute, Kathy and I didn't waste time. We setup our tripods, cameras, remote shutter releases and started shooting. Later that morning there were thousands of people walking around the park and taking photos the way we like to take them became impossible. That was ok because by that time we were packing up and making ready to leave with several hundred photos each saved on our memory cards.

Racing Along Southern California’s Coastline

This photo was taken from the observation car on the Amtrak Coast Starlight train. We were just passing through Vandenberg Air Force Base and I could clearly see the historic launch facilities now being used by SpaceX for their military payloads. This has been a great trip so far. Kathy and I are enjoying traveling by train. Taking a shower last night was a bit of an adventure since the shower stall is the size of a telephone booth. Later I was able to provide some entertainment for my wife as she watched me climb into the top bunk of our sleeping accommodations. 

How I took this photo:

This is a 3 shot HDR composite image. I brought my tripod with me on this trip but I'm sure the Amtrak employees would not appreciate me setting it up in the aisle way. Instead I held my camera steady by putting up against the side of the doorway. The train was rocking and rolling but I was able to hold it still so it was in sync with the movement. The longest exposure showed some motion blur out of the windows so I enhanced that.