Photographic Serendipity – Dogford Studios

ser·en·dip·i·ty the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

I love finding shots like this old Ford pickup truck in Tucson, Arizona.

For all the pre-planing I do on my trips, trying to map out locations, planning out shots, researching areas – I keep my eyes open for flukes, chance and opportunities when they present themselves.

That morning I drove two hours from Phoenix to visit the Pima Air & Space Museum. Pima is one of the world’s largest aerospace museums and THE largest privately-funded non-governmental air museum.

I was excited to visit Pima because a large portion of its over 300 airplanes are actually outside where there is plenty of light to photograph! But it does take its toll carrying around a 30 pound backpack of camera equipment over the 80 acres of outside displays.

For those less inclined to walk, there is a narrated tram ride that travels around the outside exhibits. Inside there are four or five hangers full of fully restored aircraft from World War II and beyond.

After a few hours I was cooked, stopped in at the cafe for a cobb salad and then hit the roads around the Tuscon Air Force base to see if I could get a glimpse of the famous “boneyard”.

The “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan AFB stores unused aircraft that is cocooned under a layer of material like you see on flat roofs. The idea is to store aircraft that might not be used now but might be used in the future. It began after World War II as storage facility for military aircraft began after World War II, and proved to be useful when the Korean War and Vietnam Wars rolled around.

Davis-Monthan is the logical choice for a major storage facility because of the low humidity and low rain fall in the area and the geology of the desert allows aircraft to be moved around without having to pave the storage areas. They can simply bulldoze back the desert and move an aircraft into place.

I was surprised to find out how visible the boneyard is from the road. Only a chain link fence surrounds the various areas and residential areas back right up to the fence. At one sport there was even a bike path running up next to the fence.

This is where I spotted this great old Ford pickup with years of beautiful desert patina. The desert is so cruel to paint. Sure there is little rust in these climate but sun damage to rubber and paint is brutal over the years. The paint just slowly cooks off. The UV rays of the sun oxidizes the paint over time. The more sun, the more oxidation and Arizona has plenty of sunshine.

I shot the vintage Ford pick up truck with a Canon 300mm lens which gives the resulting image a bit of a toy like feel with the “diorama” effect of selective focus.

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“Old Ford Pickup Truck Tucson Arizona” by Edward M. Fielding – https://edward-fielding.pixels.com/featured/old-ford-pickup-truck-tucson-arizona-edward-fielding.html

This fine art photograph is available for purchase as cards, prints, framed and matted artwork, canvas, metal, wood and acrylic prints as well as on products.