Posted by B on July 7, 2008
Some time ago, I saw this notice at my school. The lede is copied here:
“The Mary Condon Hodgson Art Gallery will host paintings by Richard Harris from June 7-July 8. Titled ‘Wings of Honor II,’ his paintings are influenced by the world of military aviation.”
With school out for the summer and gas prices the way they are, I’ve been a bit of home-body. But I finally got over to the gallery today and checked out the 20+ paintings. Getting good pix of paintings is always a challenge, and today was no exception. I had to stand on the side to avoid flash and reflection issues in the gallery.
So without further adieu, here they are. The gallery here includes two Luftwaffe jets. Cool.
Posted in Grumman Hornet, Helldiver, Luftwaffe, ME-109, b-17, flying fortress, p-51, paintings | Tagged: Richard Harris, WW2 aviation | No Comments »
Posted by B on August 3, 2007
The ww2file is pleased to announce the ww2db.com Featured Image partnership. The idea behind this post (and the weekly posts to come) is to highlight ww2db.com’s collection of 3500 plus photos, many culled from the National Archives, Library of Congress, the US Naval Historical Center, and other research institutions.
Okay, so here we go. When I first saw this image (Hellcat Diver, Jan 1945) , it was in the middle of a fat picture book, highlighting the work of a naval photography unit. The strength of that book was that there was common thread among the photographs, not only of the equipment (like this aircraft) but also of the closeness of the men on those ships.
The photo itself…wow. Perhaps it was the scale in the book, maybe even the sharp turn the pilots are making, or maybe it’s the angle of decent toward the carrier. There is just something dramatic about it. Very often in war ariel photography, the lines are straight, either looking at other planes or ships in the distance. Here, everything is in one tight frame and the line of sight is bending down.
Back then, I was working at a job where one of my primary functions was to mess with photoshop, so I scanned this baby at the highest res I could get and just studied it. Magnifying the image beyond 100% revealed a good deal about those specs on the carrier’s deck and towers. It’s an exercise I suggest to anyone, if you have the time.
Posted in Helldiver, USS Hornet, aircraft carriers, ariel combat, ww2db.com featured image | No Comments »
