The Aerial Horizon
Forget where your feet are and simply enjoy the view.
Out of the Shadows
Alone in the silence of the tropopause, we watch the light pry its way into the dark shadows of storms…then a traffic call, and out of the shadows our compatriot appears, winding his way through the weather beneath us…together and alone, we share the sky for a moment as we bask in the rays of the early morning light.
First Light
At first light, a spark of illumination reveals the amorphous forms of dreams drifting silently in the darkness above the earth.
Wait For It…
Think of it in any way that you wish, but it is beautifully metaphorical…This is the moment just before the light overcomes the dark. Enjoy the moment of anticipation and wait for it with the same faith that lets you believe that day will always follow night.
Reflection on Lake Chelan
Cruising above the Cascades, we look into deep, tightly spaced, jagged crevices and find ocassional pools of deep blue water…free of ice, they rest as mirrors to reflect the the surrounding grandeur. One such mirror, Lake Chelan, winds into the distant northwest where it captures the spirit of the surrounding snow capped peaks.
Signals and a Sunset Over Atlanta
A tap on your shoulder, a whisper in your ear, a tingling sensation on your neck…turn around…look at me…turn around… Steaming eastward toward Atlanta, into the gloaming as the sun sinks in the western sky behind us, something beckons me to look over my shoulder…call it a feeling…and I look into a brilliant sunset filtering through a low scattered cloud layer. The silent spectacle demanded to be seen, it called out to me, and I listened. This happens everyday, but often we fail to heed the signals and we miss the opportunity to witness the mysticism that surrounds us.
Happy Spring
There seems to be an immense amount of snow in the mountains for the first day of spring…As we passed by Mount Rainier this morning, the depth of snow beneath her mask of clouds seemed palpable. Though spring is here, the long slow melt has yet to begin, so let’s content ourselves to dream of a greener season ahead and to be thankful for the snowfall.
Coming Off the Desert
Coming off the desert into the foot hills of the San Bernardino Mountains, we transition from imagined warmth in the burnt sienna landscape into the colder snow dusted elevations of the mountain range above…the earth shades the edges of the snow in an ochre hue as the deep shadowy stripes of hollows give us perspective on the severity of the landscape.
Through the Canyon
Leaving Durango behind us and following highway 89A through Oak Creek Canyon, the red-orange ridges dominate the landscape, eventually giving way to the city of Sedona. From the air, we often see the distant red hue of Sedona’s landscape long before we can detect the details of its ridges and canyons…as though possessed of a spirit that transcends heaven and earth, this aura ambiguously guides our way westward and informs us of the landscape’s mysteries.
Zion Revealed
I just spent a few days on earth exploring a place that, previously, I had only dreamed of from the sky above…and I was overcome with a sense of wonder…A truly fascinating place where earth has chosen to reveal herself to us, granting a rare moment of spiritual connection with a place that is both alien and strangely familiar. Now when I look upon these canyons from the air, I can feel the warm breath of evening floating on a twisted highway through the rocks and I can see the curtain of twilight dragging its shadows across radiant golden faces of stone…Thank you, Zion National Park, for filling my dreams with tangible memories.
Temple on the Summit
Amid a grand series of canyons in southern Chihuahua, Mexico, a butte rises from a mountaintop as though a stone temple erected on the summit. This is a remote place that is not represented by a name on my chart…As it is such a singular sight, regardless of its isolation, it surely must have a name…but to me at this moment, it is only represented by a number…25°47’29” N 106°50’46” W.
Depth
In the early hours following dawn, we cruise over Zion National Park and observe depth…it’s emotional, the depth of color that infuses the visual depth of the landscape with a feeling that transcends the visual scene to stir our souls.
Receding Snow Line
Call it a chance for a little weather recce…21 degrees this morning in Central Virginia as we head for warmer climes, wondering when the season will break and spring will arrive with a sense of permanence…and then we see the snow line as it recedes across the border into West Virginia and feel a sense of reassurance that winter is on its way out.
Abstract Landscape – Mystifying
When the earth is mined in pursuit of its buried wealth, the very nature of the landscape is forever changed…it is resculpted and coerced into a new abstraction…Here in Bagdad, Arizona, the unearthed prize is copper…from our aerial perspective, out of the dust and gravel, what we have gained is a new pattern, a new earthly face, a new memory…what we have lost is an appreciation of the spiritual world over that of the material…yet, perhaps that spirit is still with us, as we imagine hearing earth’s voice in the whir of our engines and the hum of our electronics, all enabled by the conductive nature of metals mined from her…and all the while she whispers, “continue to be mystified by me.”
Drifting in the Green Mountains
We rise before dawn so that we may experience this moment, drifting into the Green Mountains of Vermont. As the sun slowly rises, the vapor in the lower atmosphere illuminates to form a thin veil over the earth that gradually disappears to reveal the bare red-brown forests dusted with snow.
Peeling Back the Night
Tugging at the tattered edges of night along the front range of the Appalachian Mountains, dawn peels back the night as the showers diminish to virga that hangs in the morning sky as though expressing darkness’ reluctance to yield to the light of day.
Following the Night
We follow the night…Breathing deeply the cold indigo air we relax in our pursuit with no sense of speed, but for the rapidly growing contrails in our wake, painted on the luminous pre-dawn sky.
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Time Exposed
Flowing through the high terrain, running off of the Rockies’ steps, time exposes invisible earthen flows while rivers flow in small measure through the windswept crags of desert canyons…The passage of time is expressed in the collision of Arches’ striations with the winding flow of the Colorado River as it reverberates in meanders through the Canyonlands.
Abstract Landscape: San Juan Topoglyph
Following a twisted course, sinking into the landscape, the San Juan River recedes from its epochal peak flows and creates a topoglyph in the steps of its meander…a layered abstraction of earthen art with depth and motion.
The Rough Edge of Darkness
Cruising along a tangent spectral line as the sun’s first rays kiss the troposphere, we look into our Brocken Spectre at eye-level as if caught in a purple limbo between night and day and we bear witness to the spectacle of dawn over the Three Sisters… Light shines forward; light reflects backward, upward, and downward; light bends in all directions; light illuminates and projects…Light has direction and resolve as it constantly moves forward…But darkness has no path; darkness has no direction; darkness is ambiguous and irresolute as it marks only the void hidden behind the light…While we may perceive the void of darkness, we can only see it along its rough edge as it is illuminated by the light of day.
Nevertheless…
When earth planted obstacles in her path that threatened to stop her progress toward the sea, she kept going. The sun and desert warned her that they would sap her of strength, that she was too small, and that she would evaporate in the face of their power. The mountains explained that she was too low, slow, and timid to challenge their greatness. Still, she moved on, slowly but surely defeating the brutal landscape and wearing away at the harsh edges of earth…removing or circumventing all obstacles, she stripped away the austere and threatening facade to reveal the nature of earth…peace and beauty flourish when all parts flow together in harmony…
“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
And through persistence, the nature of all things will be revealed.
The San Juan River.
The Aerial Horizon – Photography
The Aerial Horizon 