P3 At Salem 1980 Art Print

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One would think it unusual to see a US Navy P-3 Orion at a landlocked airport like McNary Field in Salem, Oregon. But surprisingly, I had seen this type of aircraft, used for hunting submarines, in Salem on three occasions, two of which I had my camera with me.

In my late teens and early twenties I would often stop by the airport to watch things come and go. It wasn't the most exciting airport in the world, but it did provide some entertainment value and a few decent photo opportunities.

One day in August 1980 this plane happened to arrive at the little airline terminal. The two engines on the left wing were shut down to allow one man to safely exit the plane. The other two engines were kept running. Once the man was inside the terminal the left engines were restarted and the plane quickly departed. It was pure luck that I and my camera were on the scene to record this unusual visitor's very brief stop...

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...