Shadows on the Tarmac

Four of us set out early that June morning for the WWII Weekend Air Show in Reading, PA. Loaded for bear we stepped onto the airfield, wielding an assortment of cameras, with satchels of film slung over our shoulders. Each of us with a different approach, yet the same vision: to photograph everything that caught our attention and struck our fancy. A sweltering summer day, its effects were compounded by the heat pouring up off the tarmac. That didn’t matter though -- we were relentless in our pursuit of “that one image” of the day, framing shots ranging from restored WWII bombers to classic cars and living historians to memorabilia. Hours slipped by like minutes as we roamed up and down the runways, around and underneath the aircraft, inside the bombers, along the vintage automobile alley, and through the military encampments. We stopped only long enough to grab a beverage at the authentically recreated Officer’s Club -- the real draw: they gave a steel penny as change if you plunked down $2 for a soda.

The Shadows (left to right)

Adam - Double fisted a pair of Minolta 7xi’s (35mm SLR‘s): one for color film,

the other for black & white film.

Greg - Hasselblad Medium format camera with separate backs for both color and
black & white film; store bought 8x10 Large format camera.

Tim - Leicaflex 35mm SLR for color slide film and black & white film;
Bender 8x10 Large format camera built by his father from a kit.

Tom (Tim‘s father) - the purist photographer of the group with the skills to back it up: shot only black & white film with his Minolta 35mm SLR.