Postcard from Tucson

It’s me again, just playing around. Am back from an extended visit to see my son in Yuma.

As you know from a recent post, he and I recently visited the Pima Air and Space Museum and  took photos with my iPhone. Such a great little camera. Well, there are other fun photo tools for the iPhone (and iPad). One of them is called My Sketch.

So, one day out at the pool, I took the original photo of this seaplane and did a quick sketch with My Sketch. And with some small finishing touches in Photoshop, I created the sketch you see here. Trust me when I say not all the sketches turn out this well, but I got lucky here. I like it which is why I am showing it.

If you would like to see the original photo…well, here it is.

For your information, this is a Columbia XJL-1 seaplane. This particular aircraft is only one of three ever built. All three were built in 1946, just after the end of WWII. The Columbia XJL-1 was intended as a replacement for the Grumman J2F Duck amphibious bi-plane for the United States Navy. The plane bears a strong family resemblance to the Duck and has often been referred to as "a single-winged Duck."

This aircraft was assigned to Patuxent River Naval Air Station for testing. However, the plane did not live up to the expectations of the Navy with repeated structural failures of various parts reported during testing. So, it never went into production. This is the last surviving aircraft of the three.

As I’ve stated many times here before in many different ways, its fun to try different experiments with your photos, like sketches and paintings. Give it a try and see what you can do…expand your horizons. If you photograph with your smart phone, no matter what brand, there are many photo applications you can experiment with. So, what are you waiting for…go for it!