Originally I started drafting this post while I was in the middle of putting together an article. Since the article was due to go to press in a magazine, I was circumspect about exactly what I was writing. That made it hard to write anything that was terribly interesting since I was always trying to avoid saying anything specific.

Since the piece has now been published, I can be a lot more open about it. The article is in the latest edition of Warbird Digest and, if you want a copy, you can go to their website at www.warbirddigest.com to get the latest issue and back issues (I think!). The topic is the great operation at the Warbird Heritage Foundation based up at Waukegan IL, people who have appeared in a bunch of things I have done.

In putting together the article I spent some time with the people who are the subject of the story getting their perspectives on what they do. This can be such an interesting process. When you are working with people who are so into what they are doing, you can’t help but get swept up in the whole thing. In writing about them, I obviously wanted the piece to reflect well on them as well as me but when you find out how willing they are to be helpful to get what I need, you do feel very grateful.

Getting people to sit down and talk about things is often a little more challenging. Not everyone is a self-publicist but the heart of the story is the people involved and so their story is what I was after. It is surprising how quickly people will open up when given the chance. We were also trying to get a little bit more of the background to the team included so I hope they are glad to see the way their role is portrayed.

Since it is a combination of text and photos, were were able to show the aircraft at work and the people doing what they do. Some of my shots were sued but WHF also had access to many other shots that had been taken by others. If time (and aircraft availability) had worked out, there are some other shots I would have liked to take to illustrate the piece but you can’t get everything every time. However, it still came out reasonably well and I hope they are happy as a group.