A Little bit about Me

 
Hero Photo, back when I was younger and thinner!

Here you are and I'm glad that you stopped by. For many years, my major hobby  was collecting original slides (transparencies) of military and civil aircraft. While I concentrated on military and US military specifically, I did have a fondness for Jetstar biz-jets and round motored aircraft. However, as with many things in life, my passion for this decreased in direct proportion to the increase in film prices and the drawdown of the military, which meant fewer and fewer aircraft at shows. Now I photograph fewer than 100 aircraft a year and though I still do limited slide trading, it is but a shadow of what it used to be.

This hobby was a direct result of another hobby, that of building plastic aircraft models, a hobby I have enjoyed all my life and still pursue. In fact, it has taken over as my #1 pasttime.  If you'd like to talk about models that would be great. I build all kinds of models, but mostly aircraft.  Please visit my webzine to see what is new.

For those of you who might be wondering what in the world slide collecting is, it is quite similar to those that collect anything from dolls to stamps, except that we collect original aircraft slides (or in some cases negatives).I have been doing this since 1986 and have amassed a huge collection numbering in excess of 60,000 transparencies.

One way that I differ from many of my compatriots is that I collect by serial number. This is similar to bird watchers who try to spot as many birds as possible, except that I like to have a photograph of as many different serialed aircraft as possible. It is a goal of mine (one that will never be reached) to have a shot of every aircraft of a specific type. You can see the impossiblilty of this from one example: There have been over 2500 F-16s built. I have shots of about 1500 of these aircraft. I know of two of them that have crashed during the delivery flight from the factory, so I know that I will NEVER have a shot of those two planes. Insanity, isn't it?

If you like what you see here e-mail  me with any suggestions or comments.

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