Lost America

Full-size display model of a Curtis P-40, made mostly of balsa wood and fiberglas.  It lives in the back corner of a hangar at a sleepy little aviation museum in Central California. Total darkness, Protomachine flashlight, lime, red and blue.

Disassembled Lockheed P-2 Neptune, in storage at a private airfield in California’s Central Valley. Full moon light, Protomachine light set to red, lime and turquoise, during a 4 minute exposure.

“AK Blush” Now available as a signed and numbered limited edition 8×10 print. I am only doing 25 of these! $25 by paypal. (Includes shipping in the USA only! Outside the US, add $5) Message me if you’re interested.

Details on the side of an early ’30s American-La France fire truck.  These gauges have a patent date of 1906, but A-LF used them for decades.  Paul’s 2nd junkyard. Total darkness, Protomachine flashlight tuned to pink and warm white.  Snooted on the gauge faces.

In the 19th century, Concord was the leading American manufacturer of stagecoaches.  The iconic Welles Fargo coach was a Concord.  After the turn of the century they began manufacturing trucks to stay competitive, but by around 1925 they were gone.  This incredibly rare, nearly 100 year old dump truck is one of dozens of incomplete [...]

Pratt and Whitney R-4360 Wasp engine, originally bought for salvage value, only to find all the high value parts had already been removed. Now its a high desert lawn ornament. Shot at Paul’s OTHER junkyard . . . Blue and red-set Protomachine flashlight, full moon and lots ‘o clouds. 2-minute exposure.

463 seconds under the full moon, late at night, deep in the Antelope Valley.  Lancaster glows, off in the distance.  A few seconds of red light, from the Protomachine, inside the house.  The rest of the time was spent standing around freezing my butt off in the wind.

OK, motorheads, here’s something you don’t see every day . . . especially in rural California: a mid-1950s British Armstrong Siddeley Saphire 346 Limousine.  Found under a filthy tarp, in an old hangar, at a privately owned WWII training airport.   Yes, that hood ornament is a winged Sphinx with jet engines: Siddeley was best known as [...]

A Bennett 900 gas pump, painted in Chevron blue, circa 1955.  Part of a private collection. Rising full moon lighting the face, red Protomachine from camera left.  Two 15-minute exposures stacked for 30-minute star trails.  The lit version was a separate 4-minute exposure and the whole thing was blended into one image using Photoshop.

You just never know what you’ll find lurking in a dark warehouse. Looks like this Jaguar XK 100 (settle down, it’s a plastic kit car!) hasn’t moved in years. Protomachine flashlight set to warm white. 37 second exposure in total darkness.