March 18, 2012 by Gail
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
It was a great weekend mix of everything, including aviation, photography, comedy, food, and friends. If you have a chance to see Danny Bhoy live, DO IT! He’s hilarious!
Happy St. Patty's Day!
Danny Bhoy @ Hamilton Place
foggy Hamilton
I <3 mango pudding
tentacle art @ dim sum
Posted in Aviation, cameraphone, Entertainment, Food + Drink | 2 Comments
March 18, 2012 by Gail
Fairey Firefly AS.5
Seeing Danny Bhoy live was my main reason for heading to Hamilton yesterday, but I decided to make a day of it and visit the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum as well. It’s been a long time since my last trip there, nearly three years ago at the Canadian Aviation Expo in May 2009. That is an incredibly long time, given that I was a member from 2006-2009, flew two member rides in the DC-3 Dakota, and visited much more frequently prior to freelancing. It’s like seeing a friend after an extended absence — you realize it’s been far too long! Aviation was a big part of my former life in the U.S., and I don’t want to lose it.
One thing about visiting a museum frequently, particularly an aviation museum, is the question of how to photograph the static exhibits to make them interesting to the general public? After looking at my previous photosets of the museum, I noticed that I spent more time documenting the aircraft collection and didn’t really know the stories behind the individual aircraft. Occasionally I would speak to a museum guide when he’d approach me while I was shooting and looking around, but I never took a tour. Little did I know, I was really missing out.
Yesterday I took my first guided tour of the museum by piggybacking onto the last tour of the day; I joined in half an hour before the museum closed at 5pm. I just happened to be standing at a spot when the group wandered over, and I found the guide (Joe Coleman) very knowledgeable about the aircraft so I stayed and listened to the rest of the tour. He knew a lot of stories, and by telling them, that made the planes and pilots who flew them come alive. I can take pictures, but history is best told not in pictures but a narrative.
Museums rely on volunteers to operate, and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum has many of them: guides and restoration volunteers, to name a few. The restoration work is painstaking — imagine how difficult it is to get parts for these limited-production warbirds. By the time the Bristol Bolingbroke is finished, it will be the culmination of more than two decades of work. You can see the restoration workshop at any given day that the museum is open. One reason I take photos is to chart the progress, not to mention these guys work really hard (for free!) to further the museum’s mandate:
To acquire, document, preserve and maintain, a complete collection of aircraft that were flown by Canadians and the Canadian military services from the beginning of World War II to the present, including other related aviation artifacts and memorabilia of significant historic importance to this period.
To instruct, educate and entertain the general public through the maintenance and rotation of displays, flight demonstration, special events and activities; and encourage Canadians of all ages to become actively involved in the preservation of these aircraft.
To provide facilities for the restoration and protection, interpretation and exhibits of the collection. These will be displayed in their natural element – aerial or static, with emphasis on all aspects of safety and legal obligations in relation to both the artifacts and public; and to deliver programs that meet the standards for community museums in Ontario.
To maintain supportive exhibits to the thousands of men and women who built, serviced and flew these aircraft and in memory of those who did not return.
I’ve posted some of my favourite photos from yesterday, like this one of the CF-104 jet fighter reflected in the museum glass:
Canadair F-5 Freedom Fighter
I love this photo. If I were born 50 years earlier, would this be me?
This last shot is of an ex-Sudanese Air Force Buffalo DHC-5D that was fully restored by volunteers as a tribute to Canadian peacekeepers from Buffalo 461. The nine crew and passengers of the last flight of Canadian Forces Buffalo 461 were shot down in Syria in 1974.
Check out their restoration website here: http://www.buffalo461.ca/
For the rest of the photos from yesterday:
[thumbnails]
[full-screen slideshow]
Posted in Aviation | | No Comments
March 17, 2012 by Gail
Flat Stanley loved his first visit to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton!
In fact, he’s still there…
I discovered when I got to my car after the museum closed at 5pm that Stanley had somehow fallen out of the camera bag. A wedding was just beginning to get underway in the museum when I left, which means either Stanley crashed an aviation museum wedding or he thought a hangar full of vintage aircraft would be a great place to hang out for a while — or both.
Can’t say I blame him!
Although, that means I will have to find a way to continue Stanley’s adventures in Toronto somehow…
In keeping with the theme, no adventure is without its share of mishaps.
Posted in Aviation, cameraphone | | 3 Comments
December 21, 2011 by Gail
waving hello to folks in the CN Tower observatory
The sky is my happy place. As soon as I lift off, I leave my work on the ground… I’ve been working a lot lately and all I want to do is go up in a plane!
These aren’t all the aerials, but what I’ve had time to upload thus far:
Posted in Aviation, Flying | | 2 Comments
May 30, 2011 by Gail
Airborne for David’s birthday! Mission was a success, all credit due to Tiffany and her brother Tyler for making it happen. More photos after I get back to Toronto…
Posted in Aviation, Flying, USA | | 1 Comment
May 27, 2011 by Gail
David with Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome pilot Bill King in September 2005
A couple of weeks ago, by pure chance, I happened upon a Flickr contact’s photo of her flying with her brother over the town where I used to live with David. I was so excited I asked if she could ask him if he’d take me flying on Monday, and today I got a YES! Monday, May 30 is David’s birthday. (Which also happens to be the same day as my brother‘s, and Digital Nomad Eric‘s.)
In my sleep-deprived state, I could cry with joy. This week has been a wave of wonderful emails from new clients and happy current clients. What a boost! Now I’m ready to sleep off some of this productivity exhaustion and recharge for a work-free long weekend in Pennsylvania (I’m taking the U.S. Memorial Day off courtesy of The Firm). I’ll start driving south around dawn and hopefully bypass any storm action.
Looking forward to blue skies on Monday! Fingers crossed!
Posted in Aviation, House of Fielding | 2 Comments
November 13, 2010 by Gail
There has been a very conspicuous (to me, at least) absence of aircraft on this website this year, in large part due to being crowded out by wedding and engagement photography. Even the travel photography has taken a backseat to the commissioned portraiture. I say it’s about time I evened out the situation!
Photos for now, commentary and more photos coming after I’ve caught up a bit on sleep!
Posted in Aviation | No Comments
October 28, 2010 by Gail
Being too sick and too busy to do any shooting lately, the recent posts have been all cameraphone shots and weddings and not enough of my other interests, especially aviation. In fact, it’s been five months since I had an aviation fix: Blue Angels on Jones Beach in New York May 29, and the helicopter ride May 30. This summer I came to the sad realisation that this is the first season in five years that I will not make it to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome before their last day of biplane rides (extended from mid-Oct to Nov 1, but I can’t make it down this weekend). I was considering another biplane ride while in Ottawa in August, but I opted for trainspotting instead.
Now that the weddings are over for this season (there are still corporate and engagement shoots, though), I plan to post more aviation material before the end of the year. How? Good question, I’m working on it… meanwhile, for all the aviation enthusiasts out there who account for the majority of hits to this website, a guy at work taking flying lessons sent me this link (it’s safe for work, but put on the headphones!):
Wow! Watching this makes me want to play the lottery!
Posted in Aviation, Critters + Creatures, Linkage | No Comments
Copyright © 2012 Gail Edwin-Fielding
