The Aerial Horizon
Forget where your feet are and simply enjoy the view.
A Broken Calm
As the sun descends below the horizon, the earth is left in darkness while we continue to experience the soft warm glow on the aerial horizon seven miles above Liberal, Kansas…A storm erupts with explosive energy shocking the silhouetted clouds with bright orange, yellow and white flashes of light that break the calm of the evening. The mature radiant light of the sun is unaffected by the bright demonstration of kinetic energy hovering above the plain and we pass through the field of storms, continuing on our flight into the perpetual sunset.
Winding Through Heaven…Almost
The Ohio River winds westward through West Virginia toward Huntington and collects the crimson glow of a cloud veiled sunset…As we momentarily divert our eyes from the bright red glow of the sun, we see the illusion of a second sun riding a spectral arc scribed on the veil. The sundog increases in intensity, each band of refracted light glowing more brightly in different shades of red until vanishing with the dissipating mist.
Light from Within
Above the lights that light our small spaces and blank out the stars and indigo of the night sky, there are degrees of darkness…The space above and around us is dark, but there is a greater darkness that feels dense and undefined as it obscures our view with an absence of light…Then, suddenly, there is light from within.
Lightning in a thunderstorm over western New Mexico as it blows out to the west.
Last Rays
In the last second of the day, the last defined rays of sunlight emit in sharp radiant lines from a crisp aerial horizon before being extinguished by the green of the spectrum as it flashes below the horizon to leave us with the blue and violet hues of night.
This is the light spectrum as painted on the horizon over Kansas this evening.
A Saturated View of the District
Rounding the District of Columbia at altitude, we are given a great gift as we peer into the Pierre L’Enfant’s urban planning masterpiece…We departed the earth during the golden hour and ascended back into broad daylight. Beneath us, we catch the gleam of the sandstone as the western facades of buildings and monuments reflect the warm colorful light from the setting sun. In this light, we are able to clearly see the patterns of its gridded streets with their overlaid diagonals and ovals. One could spend a day, or a week, or a year studying the details of the District, but we have but a moment as we make a tight turn to the south and accelerate toward our destination.
True image, color saturated, polarized, and skin smoothed (slightly).
Controlling the Landscape – Washington, DC
We perceive the ability to control the landscape…When we are close to it and the irregular shapes of the river appear as straight lines and gracefully curving boundaries in our oblique perspective. We fill the spaces they create as if to occupy them were to fulfill some spatial destiny and we imprint our sense of order by overlaying grids, diagonals, ovals, and polygons…as we rise above the cityscape of Washington we get a new perspective and we realize that while we order and artfully shape our world, we cannot match the beauty of a meandering muddy river that naturally shapes the world as it wanders to the sea. Perhaps the real dream of design is simply to be the river.
Dreaming of Zion
As we look up the Virgin River into Zion National Park, we experience it as if a dream of monumental stones thrust upward from the heart of the earth to expose the soul of the landscape for all the world to see…Our focus on the articulated rock formations makes the surrounding terrain seem to fall away into a dreamlike blur.
In this image, the pixels of the surrounding landscape have been smoothed to convey that sensation in an effort to share the visual emotion of this spiritual place.
The Advancing Storm
The utter calm of the Everglades sets the scene for the approaching drama as a storm advances from the Gulf of Mexico…The surface of the sea does not convey the destructive power that churns in the sky above, as the storm bears down on the stillness of the coastline and cuts the aqua plane with graceful waves of falling rain. Meanwhile the cumulonimbus cloud form blows out and we witness its anvil top forming. As the ledge expands toward our position downwind, the sky grows dark and the calm of the sea is shattered by the downward blasts of convective energy.
Wrinkles in the Landscape: Moab
The deep wrinkles on the sandstone of the Utah desert warm and humanize the barren scene as we reach approach Moab. The cut-stone character of this face bares the wisdom of ages washed clean by receding tides and millennia of erosion. The Colorado River winds through the rocks and eventually leads us into the Canyonlands, but here we see the unheralded earthscape surrounding Kane Creek as it peels off and forms its canyon to the south, meandering toward an unnamed horizon.
Treasures Revealed
On those days that we wander the country over a thick blanket of cloud and yearn for a clearing in which to catch a momentary point of reference on the earth, our patience is sometimes rewarded as the clouds part and grant us a private vista and the most stunning treasures are revealed. We are blessed to behold the Grand Canyon framed by dramatic rolling clouds as though a treasure chest uncovered by the churning surf.
Havasupai Vision
Lingering over the Havasupai Reservation, we look across the Grand Canyon toward the North Rim…The color and depth of the scene blur together into a dreamlike vision that remains in our memories like a misty emotion-filled sunset…abstract and indistinct yet unforgettable.
Consumed by the Advancing Night
Looking eastward into the advancing night, the terminator approaches from the horizon. The last light of sunset illuminates a solitary stormy cluster.
Nearing the storm, the illuminated mass shrinks as the earth’s shadow grows and the terminator approaches.
The terminator gradually overtakes us and the night consumes the storm as the last small sliver of sunlight vanishes.
Dawn in the Catskills
Rushing to escape the city before first light, we find ourselves rounding the Catskill Mountains as dawn breaks over the aerial horizon. Misty wisps of warm heavy air line the recesses of rivers and streams in dreamlike shrouds. As daylight penetrates the humid air and scatters reflections of the atmosphere on the white canvas of stratus clouds, the view is warm, colorful and comforting…a welcome start to busy day.
Night Light in the Desert
September 11th always sets me off in a dark somber mood as I remember waking up in LA that morning in stunned horror and that confused hole-in-my-gut feeling that comes from losing people, coworkers and strangers that we should have known better…or that we feel guilty for not having known at all…and whose spirits now float like heavy smoke on the landscape of our memories. With maturity, the guilt vanishes and questions subside as we we realize that our experiences are ours alone. Though they twist and wrap around those of other travelers, we cannot trade or alter paths; we can only control how we choose to interpret and respond to the events of our unique journeys. Sometimes chance events will collide in a nexus of lightning and energy in the peace of a smooth dark soundless night…and that moment will be illuminated for all the world to see…until the dark rises to recapture its spiritual solitude and restores the peace. We will never forget that moment. This lone thunderstorm blew up over the Mojave Desert and was illuminated by the super moon as its lightning flashed in the flat desert air before it vanished back into the stillness of the night.
Kansas’ Whimsied Skies
The whimsied rainbow sherbet colored skies of youthful summer memories surround us and command us to daydream as though we were kids again.
Escalante Moonlight
Moonlight illuminates the landscape in eerily muted tones as we turn toward the Escalante National Monument. Scanning the landscape with an afocal gaze, the rods of our eyes detect the contours of earth as the motion of the aircraft cues our senses to the details of the landscape hidden in darkness. We interpret the black and white and apply colors with our mind’s eye while the moonlight allows the lens to capture more of the colors of the desert than we may perceive with our feeble vision.
Grace Beyond Noise
There is a grace to the landscape that has the ability to relax and sooth even the busiest of travelers as it strips away the noise of the day, carrying it off to a distant horizon in one single great exhalation. I am reminded of this as we turn southward toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. Taking in the view, I feel utterly calm and unburdened as I experience its meditative value. In black and white, the effect is exaggerated as the distractions of color vanish and leave us focused on the graceful curve of the mountain range as it twists away from us.
Dispersed in Indigo
As the indigo of night consumes the landscape over Oklahoma and the light recedes to a narrow curve of twilight on the aerial horizon, the energy of the day dissipates and the towering clouds twist and disperse into the fluid night. One dreamlike cloud lingers and swirls as though it were a cloud of ink dispersing in water. Illuminated from the twilight above, it’s motion is highlighted against the deep blue field of night and we watch the would be storm transform into fodder for our dreams.
Broken Lattice
In the Everglades, the twisted lines of earth that encircle Gate Bay and creep slowly into the Gulf of Mexico appear as if some grand failed latticework…broken by the ebb and flow of tides yet still possessing of a beautiful delicate quality. These apparently fragile lines demonstrate resilience in the face of storms and merciless eroding tides. They are intertwined, networked, and codependent…and this gives them strength to stand up to the force of the sea. Though each minor strand of earthly fiber seems insignificant on its own, they act in concert to filter and gather drifting soil while absorbing and diminishing the awesome power of a lonely tide. A fascinating abstraction and a lesson in cohesion.
Into the Face of the Storm
As many of us enjoy the holiday and relax with our family and friends, there are many others among us who fly into the face of the storm each day…They labor and toil in their professions to ensure that the engine of our economy keeps running even when the nation takes a day off to go to the beach. Reflecting on the meaning of Labor Day, it is to celebrate the American worker and the American Labor movement…For those that have gone before us, thank you for paving the way for workplace safety and fair wages so that we may fly into the face of the storm each day and return home safely to our families.
The Aerial Horizon – Photography
The Aerial Horizon 