The Aerial Horizon
Forget where your feet are and simply enjoy the view.
Light Creeps In
As the light of morning slowly creeps into the Everglades, its glancing angle reveals the contours of the apparently flat wilderness and highlights the detailed lattice of the coastline.
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Sunrise Over a Sea of Cloud
Cruising into the sunrise, the crests of cloud tops cast soft shallow shadows across the vaporous plane as they catch the early morning light and assume the appearance of gently rolling waves on a sea of cloud.
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Juncture
As dawn reaches Florida and the terminator drifts across the peninsula, the Gulf of Mexico slowly emerges from twilight. At this juncture of night and day, another meeting occurs between two air masses…Although we cannot see it in front of us, we note the change in winds and, as we scan the earth below, we see a scalloped edge of an overcast layer casting shadows on the Gulf and marking the juncture of these unseen masses.
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A Separate Place
Under the wing, the Martin Luther King, Jr. monument comes into view…The carved stone monolith, surrounded by visitors, stands out from the landscape of the park. The monument takes visitors to a separate place, perhaps due to the scale, perhaps due to the warmth of its features, or perhaps due to the gravity of what one great man of vision accomplished in his tragically truncated life…Regardless of the reason, we all look upon the monument and feel as though we are alone in our reflection no matter how many others are sharing our experience.
Go visit; you’ll be glad that you did. Otherwise, ask for a window seat on the left side of the plane (any numbered seat with an A will do…this one was taken from about 22A) when you next fly into Washington, DC…and share my view.
Wisps of Weather
Staring into the thin wisps of cloud that speed toward us as we round the earth, the scene is at once soothing and unsettling…We find a moment of tranquility in the soft and somewhat delicate looking high clouds drifting far above a scattered layer of cumulus that speckles our view of the Atlantic Ocean…As these wisps race toward us, we encounter a rolling wave action and cross check our instruments to find that the driving force behind this vision (and our ride) is the wind blowing at 170 knots out of the northwest…A sporty ride thanks to the jet stream’s southern flow.
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Encores
When the sun sets beneath the aerial horizon, it goes unheralded by those of us above it…It’s a continuing performance to a new audience somewhere to our west…but on those occasions where the sunset if followed by the parting of clouds to reveal a second event, it is as though the curtains are opening for an unexpected encore of your favorite song. A delight in the evening sky.
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A Grey Period – Foment
A brief grey period exists as we transition from the color of autumn to early winter and it seems drizzle and fog pervade the scene on earth…in this grey, the foment churns and lofts as we grow unsettled and true winter nears…soon the energy laiden clouds will begin dispensing snow across the country and we will have to draw on our memories to see the vibrant colors of the season past.
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The Titan
In the Fisher Valley, closely cropped lines of groomed earth collect a light dusting of snow, draping the valley floor in a light winter blanket while the features of the cliffs lay exposed to the wind. The cliffs, Fisher Towers, and the Titan, above, glow in the afternoon sun as their structures are highlighted by the deep vertical shadows.
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Twisted Flow Through Labyrinth Canyon
Following the twisted flow of the Green River as it slowly carves its path through the landscape to create Labyrinth Canyon…a twisted snarled sprawl of exposed earth like a ball of twine unravelled on the desert floor.
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A New Day Ahead
On the horizon, a new day approaches and we assume nothing…As the light follows the tangent of twilight above our heads, it appears in divided waves of spectral light…We read the colors as if part of a script for the coming day…no reassigning of roles, no reinterpreting the colors, we accept them for what they are and we open our minds to the possibilities that that this fresh light brings…Today, may we see the world as it is meant to be, not through our partisan interpretations, but through a clear lens of understanding and admiration of its wonders and the beautiful simplicity of the natural balance between light and dark.
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Best Images of 2015
As I mark the end of another year of blogging “The Aerial Horizon,” I decided to take part in Jim Goldstein’s Blog Project where he challenges other photographers to review and post their best photographs from the year. After looking back over the year, I have found these to be my top ten aerial photos for 2015. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
If you want to see more, please look back through my blog posts of take a few minutes to watch my short video, “2015 – A Year in Flight”
Happy New Year from the Aerial Horizon.
2015 – A Year in Flight
I have put together a video for 2015, capturing my year in flight and setting it to music. I hope that you will take the time to watch it and fly with me again, in spirit, as we look back on the sights of this year gone by. Please feel free to share this link…Enjoy.
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Bull Canyon
An abstract geological wonderland of hoodoos, arches, buttes, and mesas cast among a dizzying array of dark vertical shadows on burnt orange-hued rock and earth.
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Below the Mesa
Dolores River flows past Steamboat Mesa. A tributary of the Colorado River.
Layers of earth stacked upon layers of earth, each misaligned just so to create a pathway for water to flow…with each twist and turn of the river’s course, the mask of terrain is swept away to reveal the weathered wrinkled contours of the face beneath…and in that face, we witness the earth bare its soul to the heavens.
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The Watchman
Along the ridge that frames the southern bank of the Virgin River where it passes through Zion National Park, the Watchman stands over the town of Sprindale, Utah. Solid, dominant, yet unassuming, the peak appears more a part of the landscape than a monument as the towering West Temple and Altar of Sacrifice, along the north bank, bask in the afternoon sun and lead our eyes toward the horizon. Here, there is depth in every shadow that beckons to us and begs to be explored.
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Raison d’être
One hundred and twelve years ago, the Wright brothers took to the air and the spark of imagination found purchase on the wind…For aviators, this day is our collective birthday for it marks the day our souls came alive discovering our raison d’être. Before we learned to fly, its pursuit consumed our dreams…with the gift of wings, it now consumes our waking vision as we move through the heavens each day of our lives.
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Contour from Shadows
As we cross Castle Valley, Utah in the afternoon sun, we are blessed with the spectacle of shadows sprawling from the edges of mesas into the valley below, giving contour to the landscape…As the purple wash of umbral light overlays and contrasts with the burnt orange and ochre of the desert, patches of snow highlight the sculpted faces of rock.
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Bidding Goodnight to Texas
Looking back over our shoulders as we cross through Texarkana, we bid goodnight to Texas and as we watch her day draw to a close behind the languid drapes of sundusted stratiform clouds.
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Into the Dawn
On days like this, when clouds cover the earth around us and I find myself confined to my manuals in a building with few windows…this is where my mind wanders…As we fly into the dawn of a new day, we discover a moment that gives purpose to our labours.
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Rolling Through the Golden Hour
As we turn down river and the golden light of the hour illuminates each molecule of vapor in the atmosphere, the air itself takes on a warm golden hue…rich and lusterous as though one could touch it…so real and alive, yet like a dream and in a moment it will vanish and leave us in the darkness with only the memory of its warmth.
The Aerial Horizon – Photography
The Aerial Horizon 