Brass Bowl

Located at the northwest corner of Ashley Drive and Whiting Street, MacDill Park is currently hosting Big Max.  MacDill Park was established to honor MacDill AFB and the men and women who are currently serving and those that have served in the past.  Over the next three days, the Brass Bowl will showcase some of the plaque’s that are scattered along this riverside park.  These give us a glimpse into the history of MacDill Air Force Base.

(click on any of the following pictures to view a 1200 x 900 image.)

The Brass Bowl took in MacDill’s Airfest 2009 on Sunday.  It started out a damp cool morning, with overcast skies and drizzle,  forcing us to take refuge in a 5 ton truck for twenty minutes early on.  But the squall line was moving fast, and it cleared up nicely in the afternoon. 

The lighting conditions for photography were problematic.  The sun, once it did come out, was shining directly into the lens on most shots.  Combined with the rapid movement of most jet aircraft,  the majority of my pictures were not worthy of posting here.  These are marginal, being off angle from the sun, but still having metering problems. 

Here an F-15 makes a high G turn, with extensive condensate due to high humidity and high G’s.  

An F-18 makes a slow roll as it passes by the crowd. 

One of my favorite aircraft of all time, a P-51D Mustang, sitting on the flightline.

A P-51D Mustang, a A-10 Thunderbolt II and an F-15 Eagle made several passes in formation. 

This was painted on the propeller of an AC-130 gunship.  I tried several times to get a picture of the guns on this aircraft, but people were enthralled by them, creating a constant crowd that blocked everything.   The AC-130 is a modified cargo aircraft with a 105mm cannon, a 40mm Bofors gun, and a 20mm Gatling gun.  Packed with sensors, it can detect targets all across the electromagnetic spectrum, including the infrared and visual spectrum’s.  It’s bad news for bad guys. 

The Thunderbirds flying F-16 Fighting Falcons.

This is another colorful piece, but the placement of the sculpture is less than ideal for photography, at least for my experience.   Surrounded by light, but shrouded by shadows, the colors show up as muted and backlit.  I have attempted to restore some of those colors by tweaking the image, but my skills were lacking on the day I took this picture.  See it for yourself on the corner of Tampa Street and Twiggs Street.  I think you will agree that Ms. Friedman has gone three for three in this medium.  Her other works that I have been lucky enough to capture are Leaves and Life and Freedom.

This colorful piece is the second sculpture by Cecilia Lueza (the first being what I called Art in the Park, but the correct name is Landing).  Both of these works show high contrast and vivid colors.  I like it!.

In celebration of this minor milestone, I would like to take a look back and show some of my favorite posts from the previous 12 months.

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Filling Park With Song

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Severe Clear On a Millpond

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Field Trip

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Steel Dragon on 12th Street

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Tampa Fire Rescue Tiller Truck

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Publix Cake Water Tower

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This is just a quick sample.  There are hundreds of posts.  Take a few minutes and check out some of our past posts, and let us know which one’s are your favorites.