Big day! Delivering the Amarillo Flights manuscript to Texas A&M University Press

Paul Chaplo at TAMU Press

manuscript in hand!

(College Station) Big day last Friday! My wife Cynthia accompanied me to hand-off the Amarillo Flights manuscript to Texas A&M University Press. We had a delightful visit with the awesome team on Lewis St.

Amarillo Flights: Aerial Views of Llano Estacado Country is packed with Texas-sized color aerial photographs of the Llano Estacado country of Texas and New Mexico. The book is Chaplo’s third collaboration with TAMU Press.

The book features a introduction by Walt Davis, former director of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas; former curator of vertebrate collections at the Dallas Museum of Natural History; and along with his wife Isabel, coauthor of the book Exploring the Edges of Texas. He lives in Campbell, Texas. He is author of Building an Ark for Texas: The Evolution of a Natural History Museum.  Armed with his experience in museums and as a practicing watercolor painter, Davis bridges the worlds of history and art in his writing.

Paul Chaplo is a Texas fine art and commercial photographer. His first book was Amarillo Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country. Chaplo’s commercial work as an aerial and oilfield photographer can be seen at www.oilpics.com 

Along with his latest proposed book Amarillo Flights, Chaplo is planning a traveling exhibition of select color photographs from the book, and is already moving forward with a prospectus, complete with professional art moving services. 

Preparing for my next exhibition Amarillo Flights: Aerial Views of Llano Estacado Country!

NEW UPCOMING EXHIBITION: The Amarillo Flights book will be accompanied by a traveling exhibition of select photographs. I have to admit it -- I'm a paper snob. Having been trained in both traditional printmaking including etching/intaglio and darkroom techniques, I have developed a love for fine papers. As fine art photography has moved into the era of making collectible limited edition photographs on injet paper, I have gone on a hunt for the paper for printing my next exhibition. Also, being a person who likes locally-sourced products and talent, my search has led me to Red River Paper in Dallas! What a tremendous resource to have a world class fine inkjet paper company right here in the Dallas - Fort Worth area!

In reviewing the papers from Red River Paper, and getting ready to do some test prints, I am immediately drawn to their "Palo Duro" line of papers. I have to say, it is the "perfect storm" of product and subject -- after all, the new book and exhibition will feature some breathtaking photographs of Palo Duro Canyon and the Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River!

Art lovers may recall that Georgia O-Keeffee did her early work in Palo Duro Canyon, which she described as "a cauldron of color and light."

Read more about Red River Paper at their website:
https://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/fine-art-papers.html

I am really liking Red River Paper's Palo Duro Baryta Fiber 300 gsm which is a spitting image for the traditional paper that Ansel Adams often often used to print his most famous image, “Moonrise, Hernandez.” That paper Oriental Seagull G has often been called the "Cadillac" of photo papers.

Now, Red River has created a fine injet paper that feels like that iconic paper, and with it being made in Texas, it sounds like that Cadillac now has long horns on the hood!

Stay tuned for updates as we do test prints and prepare for both publication and exhibition! Buckle your seatbelts!

-Paul Chaplo, M.F.A
Photographer: Amarillo Flights: an upcoming new book from Texas A&M University Press, and a new traveling exhibition! #TAMUPress #TAMU #photography #books

Red River Paper, Dallas, Texas

Photographing the Bonnet Carre Spillway Bridge, Louisiana

Paul Chaplo, MFA, AIA-Assoc. Architectural Photographer

Imagine a historic two-mile long railroad bridge at the edge of Lake Pontchartrain and your photography assignment is to capture this marvel of engineering before it is replaced -- and you need to do it with large format film! Our camera and tripod weigh about 30 pounds--a modern version of what Ansel Adams used. That was our assignment for the Bonnet Carre Spillway Bridge just north of New Orleans. After extensive training for working on-track and at heights, we gained access to the bridge by airboat and by hi-rail. The latter is a truck that is equipped with retractable train-wheels that can ride on the tracks. It was quite an experience, and we needed to work between trains and maintenance vehicles. Crew and equipment were scrambling to do work before the spillway opened. The Bonnet Carre Spillway is a massive flood control structure that releases flood waters from the adjacent Mississippi River. On the bridge, we wore safety harnesses with fall-arresting lanyards attached to an anchor that literally slid on a train rail on the bridge over the water. In the swamp around us were numerous and venomous Cottonmouth water moccasin snakes, and a few alligators, but we completed the assignment with flying colors. Later, I learned that the bridge was originally Illinois Central Railroad, and literally crossed by the train "The City of New Orleans" that is immortalized in the Arlo Guthrie song by that title.

T. Lindsay Baker and Paul Chaplo Collaborate on a New Book: Architecture of Glen Rose

Paul Chaplo (left) and T. Lindsay Baker at Barnard's Mill, Glen Rose, TX

Author/historian Dr. T. Lindsay Baker and photographer Paul Chaplo have teamed-up to collaborate on a new book tentatively titled "A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Glen Rose, TX." The book has its roots in research conducted by historian Baker with his graduate students from Tarleton State University. That groundwork led to a successful NRHP application.

Now T. Lindsay and Paul join forces to create a beautifully illustrated book with great stories about the town and the amazing homes, buildings, and structures in Glen Rose, many of which are covered with petrified wood.

The beautiful town of Glen Rose is located on the banks of the Paluxy River. The first building in the town was Barnard's Mill, shown in the portrait of Baker and Chaplo above. The mill used water power to grind wheat into flour.

The Glen Rose book will be published by Texas A&M University Press. The book release will be accompanied by a book-signing in Glen Rose.

Proposal for Paul Chaplo's new Amarillo Flights book accepted by Texas A&M University Press

Palo Duro Canyon helicopter mission ©2016 Paul Chaplo

How delightful to have TAMU Press invite me to do a second book of fine art aerial photography! The working title of the new book is "Amarillo Flights: Aerial Views of the Llano Estacado" by Paul Chaplo. Now we turn our airborne lens toward the Llano Estacado region of Texas in a far-ranging visual adventure to capture the many moods and textures of this amazing land! The vermillion-colored caprock canyons, Canadian River, salt lakes, breaks, and historic sites beckon to explore this land of wind and sun. Meanwhile our book Marfa Flights is available from the press bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookseller: http://www.tamupress.com/product/Marfa-Flights,7882.aspx

My Next Book: "Amarillo Flights: Aerial Views of Llano Estacado Country"

Waiting to fly behind the clearing storm on the Llano Estacado for my next book "Amarillo Flights: Aerial Views of Llano Estacado Country," which will be published by Texas A&M University Press.

Paul Chaplo Presents "Marfa Flights" at West Texas Historical Association in Abilene!

Dr. Glen Ely (right) and Paul Chaplo at WTHA 2016
 

It was a pleasure to present to an overflow audience at WTHA Annual Conference 2016 thanks to our popular session titled "Trails and Roads Across Texas." We were honored to have our session chaired by Glen Ely.

My co-presenters Sylvia Mahoney and Barbara Brannon shared information-packed exciting papers about famous Texas trails and roads. Then I shared aerial photographs and historical information about the scenes from Marfa Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country my book published by Texas A&M University Press.

WTHA provided a unique opportunity to sit down and talk with Glen Ely the author of “The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858–1861" (University of Oklahoma Press). Glen spent 25 years researching the stagecoach trail and locating tracks, ruins, and artifacts in the field. Here we are looking at topographic maps on my iPad and scoping-out the old stagecoach trail in the area of my upcoming new book Amarillo Flights: Aerial Views of Llano Estacado Country to be published by Texas A&M University Press. I can't wait to see what old tracks may be visible from the air! More soon...

The book Marfa Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country is available from TAMU Press:
http://www.tamupress.com/product/Marfa-Flights,7882.aspx
and Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Marfa-Flights-University-Southwestern-Humanities/dp/1623491681