Connie's Props Canvas Print

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These engines power a restored U.S. Air Force EC-121 electronic surveillance aircraft dating back to the 1950s. It is based on the Lockheed Constellation (aka "Connie") airliner, an airplane distinguished by its airfoil shaped fuselage and triple tail. I made this photo at the California International Airshow in 1995. It can be difficult to photograph aircraft on public display because there are too many distracting elements. In this case, a lot of airshow attendees were using this plane for shade from the hot sun. In cases like this I tend to focus on details.

Although this aircraft was from the post-WWII era, I think the shapes and lines of this image are more reminiscent of the art deco patterns of the 1930s.

Photo Copyright James B. Toy.

In the fall of 1959, Mr. Toy entered this world at a place called Carmel on California's Monterey Peninsula. Nine years later his family pulled up stakes for the rain-soaked city of Salem, Oregon where he never quite fit in. When he was 12, he and his mother viewed an exhibit of photographs by a Salem newspaper photographer, which inspired him to take his first photography class. During his teenage years he gradually developed his eye for composition and his skills with light and exposure. Though he did not pursue photography as a career, he has continued to document his observations of the world on small frames of film. In 1984, Mr. Toy and his wife Heidi returned to the Monterey Peninsula where his heart belonged. In 1997, on a bit of...