The Aerial Horizon
Forget where your feet are and simply enjoy the view.
Intersections
In the silence of the skies, there is no sound ahead of us. Near us, we hear only the electronic whirring of the boxes and instruments that help us control and navigate our craft while the rumble of friction from our nose pushing through the atmosphere surrounds us. Behind us, that rumble trails as the sound waves expand joining with combustive roar of our engines and fading out as it dissipates with our contrail. The sky ahead of us appears empty as the silence is broken by a traffic call on the radio. As we search the horizon, the reflective dots rapidly transform into familiar shapes of aircraft with flowing contrails and we all race for the intersection. In a moment, our contrails form crosses in the sky and then we all vanish from one another’s view and resume our soft rumbling journey through the silence.
A Dreamlike Mist
The earth is completely obscured by clouds all along our route westward. The only visual clues we have to help us identify the hidden landscape are the subtly changing textures of clouds as the heat radiates from each mountain, plain and canyon in distinctive patterns. The Grand Canyon is a tumult as if water churning in a wide stream were forming in a single harmonious swirl that lapped up and over its banks. Meanwhile the more varied texture of the Mojave desert creates a chaotic pattern of small sharp upward brushstrokes crossing in every direction. As we near the west coast and the end of our journey, the San Bernardino Mountains emerge from the water vapor and the surrounding valleys bring order to the clouds and the landscape beneath their peaks and ridges is shrouded in a dreamlike mist illuminated by the setting sun.
Capillary Lines – Life in the Desert
From our vantage point six miles above the Mojave Desert’s floor, we cannot detect any sign of life. The earth is scarred by millions of years worth of erosion, radiation and assorted geologic events. As we trace each line and crease in the landscape, we come to understand that the landscape is just as alive as if we were tracing the wrinkles and crags of an aging face…The signs of wear are signs of life borne by experience. The face is scarred, but deep in its recesses we discover capillary lines concentrating color in the emotions of the earth whose tears flush the color away in white streaks of dry creek beds. The desert is far from dead, it is life transformed into a monument to our earthly experience.
True image, color saturated and polarized to evoke the colors from the landscape.
Flying Without Parachute
As we fly from Denver to Grand Junction following the Colorado River and the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, we pass through the valley and over Parachute, Colorado and it is at this moment that my thoughts go off on a tangent… We all follow paths to our destinations. Some of those destinations are definite while others are expressions of serendipity. While we have different goals and terms to define our pursuits, no matter how relaxed or resolute, we take our journey with the electric spirit that drives us.
We are all wired to power a forty watt bulb but the differences in our designs determine whether that bulb is a mood light or a laser beam. So, perhaps, our differences are more an indication of the intensity of our spirits and that intensity is measured in vectors, velocity, acceleration, force and mass. Each variable may change the overall equation and outcome on any given day. We connect with our environment and it affects our experience.
As a traveler, the unknown destination provides me with the greatest wonder and it is that sense of wonder that fuels my imagination and intensifies my spirit. There are no shortcuts along the journey because it is the journey, not the destination, that is the goal. There is no need to bring a parachute, we are best to fly without it because there is no jumping off. On that note, my tangent returns to Parachute and our journey westward…
Plunging into Darkness
With the foment and tempests that broil in the moments between our nights and days, we make a choice…to face them in the light of day or to descend back into the blissful ignorance of darkness. Storms begin to swell along the line between night and day like the churning of the sea where two great masses of water meet. Since launching in the dark, we have been flying with dawn on our heels. At this moment, the forces of dark serenity and warm radiant light collide and the resulting foment is visible in the swirling clouds beneath us as we ride on the edge of twilight. Just as the turbulent air begins and it appears that we will be overtaken by the dawn, we are commanded to descend. A direction we follow, powerless to exercise freewill. We plunge back into darkness and escape the tumult of the dawn…for a time. Once safely on the ground, another dawn overtakes us and we surrender to the day with a new perspective.
[Dawn’s terminator crossing somewhere over Indiana.]
Red Rocks and Sycamore
Sycamore Canyon etches itself from the Coconino wilderness like a giant red runcible spoon dragged scraping tines across a sculpted playground of sandy clay. We overflew Sedona, Arizona and tracked across the Coconino National Forest following the Canyon’s lines northwestward. Having been mesmerized by the red vertically structured rocks to the south, the horizontal lines of Sycamore Canyon break the spell and start our eyes moving again toward the horizon.
Albemarle: A Framed Snowy Memory
Albemarle in a single frame – Though Spring rains bring blooms and new growth to the landscape of Central Virginia, the interminably slow dripping from that life-giving overcast can set a gloom over the winter-weary as they await its colorful effects…A stark contrast to the memories of winter when the frigid snow covered every outcropping and exposed surface on the landscape while holding Spring at bay. Though we had to wait for the change in seasons, the morning sun illuminating the snow brought a visual warmth to the landscape.
In this photograph, we follow the James River from Scottsville, Virginia through twists, turns, and gaps into the heart of Albemarle County and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The snow covered mountains are illuminated by the rising sun and cast a pale golden hue across the landscape.
From the gray overcast and drizzle of Spring to the glistening white blanket of Winter snow, to the blue of the sky above it all…it helps to remember that it’s all water and, gradually, it all feeds life.
“The Glory of the Pilot”
We see it all the time, but seldom perceive it fully. The rings of light appear in water vapor downsun (if it’s not a word, I am coining it now) from our position like rainbows in the mist. This optical phenomenon is called “glory” or the “Glory of the Pilot.” Though we don’t realize it until we get up close, our shadow is centered in the bullseye as we are positioned directly between the sun and this phenomenon. It occurs due to classical wave tunneling when light tunnels through air in water droplets and reflects back at the source.
Ascent
Following the peninsulas toward the brightly lit aerial horizon, one can feel as if they are ascending to the top of the world. Overhead Traverse City, Michigan the snow covered fields line the fingers of earth as they stretch into the icy flows of Lake Michigan and reach for the horizon.
Chocolate
Chocolate in abstract…The Chocolate Mountains in Southern California line the desert east of the Salton Sea. To the naked eye they have a slightly brown hue like cappuccino and they are surrounded by sandy earth colored by ash and magma. Once saturated, other colors reveal themselves and the chocolate brown stands out in a sea of aqua and foam. The texture of rivulets and erosion lines from millions of years worth of wind and water flow give motion to the scene and remove it from our perceived reality. Zooming in on these elements and filling them with color creates an entirely new world and perception of the desert terrain.
True image, color saturated and polarized.
Seeing Through to Another World
Lost in the saturated riverbed, we follow the river through the Grand Canyon and trace time in reverse. The color merely provides a context for our dimension, meanwhile we are drawn into its depths as though moving through a hole in the scene…a glimpse of something otherworldly is given to us as we cease looking at things and begin to feel the relationship of those things in creating this moment. In this moment we transcend time and see earth from a new perspective.
True image, color saturated and polarized.
Abstract Scene: Colorado River
When we look so closely at a scene that it resembles nothing we know, we are transported from our time and place by our imaginations. We are left standing in a gallery of abstract art with no frame of reference, knowing only the emotions that the image conjures and perhaps not knowing what to say.
True image, color saturated and polarized
A View from the Time Machine
It’s little understood, but it makes perfect sense…Sunset is perennial. As we sit in our time machine traveling westward, time slows down and the sunset consumes our view for hours on end. A glance to the left or right reveals the terminator on whose slope we are surfing across the sky. The science is simple; if we launch just prior to the sunset and travel across three time zones, sunset will last at least three hours. But, we are traveling slower than the rotation of the earth and the result is that we observe sunset long before we fall into the twilight and continue watching it as the shadow envelops us. This sunset lasted for four hours…four hours of blinding sun directly down our course and reflecting off our nose…four hours of anticipation of the glorious colorful illumination of dust and clouds that comes in the final minutes as the sun slips below the horizon. All the while our passengers rest in the purple haze that surrounds our craft, ignorant of the workings of our time machine…”Wake-up, reset your watches, Welcome to LA…”
Appalachian Morning
Early morning haze dusts the air as we begin to make out the colors of the sunrise on the eastern ridges of the Appalachian Mountains along the border between Virginia and West Virginia. The nearest town, Wardensville, WV, lies in the clearing. The irregular border once defined nothing more than two regions of a single state with different economic interests based on their varied landscape and resources. The borderline seems random in the single dimension of a map, but it becomes more clear as we see it for what it is and we begin to define all the tangible features of the networked mountains and valleys. As with anything, there are multiple dimensions to our realities and our perspectives that define the world in which we live.
Good Morning, Virginia
Leesburg, Virginia emerges from the shadows as dawn’s light illuminates the aerial horizon and the early morning twilight recedes. Traveling up the Potomac River from Washington, we passed Great Falls and watched the densely packed suburban terrain give way to the more rural native lands of northwestern Virginia. The soft pink glow above the blue hues of earth warms the scene as we await the arrival of the day.
Perception and Imagination
Flying over Northern Michigan, I glanced out the window at the Manitou Islands and the first thought that came to my mind was, “Is this the face of an old hag or a beautiful young lady?” Like the sketch, so often used in CRM classes to discuss the situational awareness and varying perceptions of reality, the face of the old lady popped out of the landscape. Upon a second look, I saw a bearded man. It’s fun to stop an use our imaginations to entertain ourselves on our journey.
Grassland Edges: Patterns in the Montana Landscape
On the edge of the grasslands in Montana, the confluence of patterns is mesmerizing. Oblong gridded fields are laid out in similarly oriented rectangular patterns. The grid fills a single plane without regard for the irregularities of the terrain. The irregular flow of earthen mass from the forces of erosion upon the grasslands appears in a different plane, unbothered by the surveyor’s grid. Each plane is further etched with furrows, paths, and waterlines cut by wheel, plow, or flood. The early Spring snow highlights the texture of the terrain and gives us the sense that the scene was brushed by a single hand.
Subdued Drama of Burro Creek Canyon
Burro Creek Canyon sprawls out across Arizona’s low desert west of Prescott, Arizona. The canyon is a deep chasm cut through the bedrock by Burro Creek as it flows into the desert. The desert grasses and umber tones of earth that surround the canyon give it a subdued look in contrast to the dramatic etching of the desert’s terrain.
Racing the Dawn
We walked to the aircraft in total darkness and readied it for flight. As we took off, the only visible light came from the lights lining the runway. Once airborne, we made our way up the river to depart and the lights vanished as we entered the clouds. On the other side of the clouds we continued to fly into darkness, but with one quick look over our shoulders we could see the dawn peeking up over the horizon. The light did not yet touch us as we flew on the other side of the terminator and it appeared a race was on. Gradually the night slipped away in front of us and gave way to the lighter shadow of twilight but before the sun could touch our tail, we descended back into the earth’s shadow and ultimately watched the sunrise from the ground.
Light and Vapor: Lighting Up LA
Turning back toward Los Angeles, the full moon illuminates a high thin layer of stratiform clouds as they drift over the coastline. The beams of our landing lights illuminate water vapor suspended in the air. Beneath us, the mountains along the California coast are lit by the moon from above so that their surfaces appear as if in soft evening shadows. Meanwhile their silhouettes are defined by the backlighting from the towns along the coast and in the valley beyond. A scattered layer of low clouds shrouds much of the scene in a bright misty veil.
The Aerial Horizon – Photography
The Aerial Horizon 