Wait, what?
CRAP - the Central Repository for Aviation Photos. Like most of us, I've been doing a ridiculous amount of right-click/save over the past 15 years or so, and the recent dust-up over Mark Mansfield's photo collections got me to thinking... what the heck good are all these pics doing just sitting, gathering digital dust in this external hard drive? I've been organizing them since first getting online back in 199mumblemumble, and it occurred to me it would probably be a pretty good idea to put them out in a photo gallery online in an organized fashion, because that's really the downfall of most other sites- a lot of times, you can't find squat. There's a whole goldmine of info in the LIFE archives hosted by Google, for instance, but the search algorithms suck and you rarely get ALL the pics of a given set, you have to dig and dig to find them. Other online archives organize their stuff by the name of the collection, so you'll have SBDs scattered across 73 different albums and no real good way to dig them out other than to just go through every collection, hoping you'll strike gold.
So I figured, why not put something out there that's organized in a fashion that would be most useful to modelers, researchers, restorers, etc, organized by type, or photo set (as in the LIFE stuff, which you'll note is fully credited), or theater, etc. I talked with Mark for a while on this to get his thoughts- I've saved an awful lot of his stuff, as you can imagine- and he thought it was a great idea, and has been sending me more of his stuff as well. Additionally, since I announced this over on Hyperscale last week, I've heard from numerous other folks who have offered the use of their own photos, which is immensely appreciated.
Thus, I bring you CRAP. This archive is not intended to be the "biggest" or "best" or assume any other superlative; I am intentionally not looking to upstage other really useful sites and archives, there's a place for all of us in this big digital world. All I want to do is bring forth stuff in a useful, easy to use manner, and I'm making an effort to note sources and photographers wherever I can... although to be fair, there's a LOT I've saved over the past 15 years that came from a discussion board or what have you, and often I don't have source info. So, just like the New York City Subway, if you see something, say something. If you see a pic in there where you recognize the source and I don't have it noted, by all means drop me a line and let me know, and I'll update it. If you happen to see one of your pics and want it taken down, send me a note with the info, and BOOM, it'll be gone. Easy as that. I'll respond with professionalism and I do ask that you approach me in the same spirit - your time is valuable as is mine, and it would make more sense to simply fix it and move on than get into a back and forth pissing match. Again, this is not a for-profit venture, I am investing a significant amount of time but not receiving any $ in return, and that's fine - I just want to be helpful, and I hope that will be obvious to my visitors.
Plus, now you can honestly reply to your significant other when he or she asks you what you're doing at the computer late at night:
"I'm just looking at CRAP online."
So without further ado, welcome to the CRAP!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133697406@N05/albumsCheers all,
Lynn Ritger
PS: Submissions are always welcome, and will of course be credited.
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