The Aerial Horizon
Forget where your feet are and simply enjoy the view.
Dreams of Passage
It is fair to dream of passage to a better place…Whether a passage of time or space, it doesn’t matter to the dreamers who long to find themselves in a more perfect world…Whether that world is imagined or real, it is a goal, it is a destination, it is a dream that may be achieved either through determination or perseverance…As we embark on our journey, we stop, we look toward the horizon, and we see the telltale signs that others have passed this way…and then we realize that we are not alone…WE are not alone…WE ARE NOT ALONE… We share a dream…We are connected and we all seek another place and are willing to set out on a journey… We are not alone…None of us…Not in our dreams…Not in our realities…Not in our faiths…Not in our futures…We are together and together we follow a path toward the light of a new day.
Abstract Landscape – Defined by Shadows
The red rock cliffs materialize out of the Navajo back country as their shadows grow, as if an invisible design, reacting to light, emerging from a monochromatic canvas. Ward Terrace is located below the Adeii Eechii cliffs in the Navajo back country. The area includes varied and distinctive cliff faces as well as numerous hoodoo rock formations.
Fires Along the Appalachians
As we work our way home along the ridge lines of the Appalachians, we see numerous fires in our field of view…though summer has passed, it is a dry season and our forests are in jeopardy. Hope springs eternal that, after the fires have gone and spring returns to the mountains, there will be rejuvenation and a healthier forest will emerge.
Desert Morning – Light Obscured
Cloud cover over the Nevada desert obscured first, the moon and then, the morning sun. The obscured light illuminated the desert morning in a cast of autumn and we followed a vaguely light path into the clouds.
Abstract Landscape – Standing on the Ridge
A smudge of color on a distant ridgeline, invisible lines of trees standing sentinel. Together and alone, they await their moment in the sun. In a brief exchange of light and darkness their lofty forms momentarily break away from the mountainside and float on a field of shadow.
Pulsating Vision
In the mist shrouded middle altitudes above Georgia, the intensity of the sun fades in and out as the density of the cloud layer varies, yielding a vision of pulsating light flanked by intense sundogs.
Abstract Landscape: Desert Mosaic
Arches National Park appears on the desert floor as though an elaborate arrangement of terra-cotta tiles illustrating an ancient flow earth…a ghostly mosaic of warm earth, stone, and shadow.
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A Sign of Hope
“Moderate chop, all altitudes”…Turbulence abounds and there is no avoiding it…We see the building weather ahead but must drive headlong toward our destination…our fated path…We duck under the weather in hopes of not feeling its full effect and we look for a sign of hope, a light on the horizon to guide us along our path.
Abstract Landscape: Autumn in the Appalachians
Breath. Time to remember that red and blue are just colors…looking upon the landscape, there is a sense of balance. All colors change with the turn of the seasons and the light of day. Stand tall, be well, and love each other.
Appalachian Autumn
Listening to the silent music of an Appalachian autumn far above the cacophony below. Graceful, rhythmic, warm, and soothing…a mountain song reverberating in shadows across the landscape.
Following the Ridge to Hopeville
Following the ridge south toward Hopeville, West Virginia comes alive in autumnal splendor…The sun illuminates the warm colored foliage as morning clouds continue to hug the low places all across the Appalachians. Across the ridgeline lies an advanced season as the colors around Mount Storm fade to the solid burnt red of late autumn.
Transitions
Leaving the comfort of a perfect autumn afternoon, we turn up river to find weather advancing across the Blue Ridge. We skim the tops of clouds on our climb out as though skipping across wave tops that rise from deepening swells as we move westward. Once over the valley, we encounter large nimbus clouds that heretofore had been trapped by the mountain range, but now seem eager to break free. An autumn storm over the mid-atlantic states seems a funny thing in all its misplaced fury, while all the world around it seems soaked in the golden serenity of evening air glowing in the hues of transitioning foliage.
A Tap on My Shoulder
Settling into the shadows of the cockpit as night consumes the course ahead of us…suddenly I feel a presence, like a senseless tap on my shoulder that beckons me to look toward the horizon behind us. As I look toward my wingtip, the light of a distant sunset builds from the horizon and bathes the atmosphere in an orange glow that colors the clouds and fills the cockpit with soft warm light…and suddenly it is gone and we are left in the dark with the electric memories of the moment when we were one with the heavens.
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Around and Through
The Green River flows through the fissure that divides Split Mountain…the Racetrack rounds the outside curve and meets the river at the Red Wash. Around and through Dinosaur National Monument, earth and water flow to create an abstract masterpiece at the foot of the Uinta range.
A Progression Toward Night
Silent light plays on the cloudscape casting deep shadows and illuminating a temporal landscape while would-be spectators rest in the darkness beneath the overcast, unaware of the changing world overhead.
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Turning into the Twilight
Turning into the twilight…a shroud of loosely woven clouds, glowing purple beneath the aerial horizon, covers the earth in the solemn radiance of the approaching night.
Abstract Landscape: Disrupted Waves
Looking southward along the San Rafael Swell, irregular forms rise out of the waves of earth as they advance through the Gobin Desert. The disrupted motion creates the sense of fluid rippling in shallow disjointed waves as it runs over an immovable field of stone in its path downstream.
Navajo Bridge
Spanning the Colorado River as it runs through Marble Canyon, Navajo Bridge provides a modern physical pathway across the visible remains of geologic evolution spanning the millennia.
Aspens Color the Landscape
Flying over the Spanish Peaks in southwestern Colorado, we watch a scene unfold that repeats on every hillside across Colorado as the Aspen trees gradually color in the dark tree line with their distinctive yellow canopy.
The Outside World
“Please turn off you personal electronic devices, raise your shades, and direct your attention to the world outside your window” …this is truly the outside world, not the one we think of on our phones…this is the one that should absorb our attention to the point of distraction while enriching our lives with every gaze. Turn off the noise and look outside; I promise you will be happier.
The Aerial Horizon – Photography
The Aerial Horizon 