The Aerial Horizon
Forget where your feet are and simply enjoy the view.
Divergent Paths Through Zion
As a thin veil of cloud rolls away, Zion National Park comes clearly into view. Our perspective is governed by the southward run of Cottonwood Canyon. Wahweap Creek flows in rough parallel until its path diverges sending it through a sprawling canyon and into Lake Powell where the cloudy veil now casts a dreamlike blur.
Threading Our Way Through the Storm
Sometimes when the indigo of night and the dark harbingers of violent weather surround us, we see a ribbon of light…a last breath of daylight…some hope for a smoother ride. Weathering the turbulence, we thread our way through the storm and emerge into the soft comfort of twilight. This is what we do. .
Marking the Way to Richmond
Synergy in the darkness. Multicolored lights mark the way to Richmond, Virginia as the undercast is illuminated by the cities and towns beneath it. Individual lights unite in the water vapor produce a singular glow greater than any of the individual lights could produce on its own.
Fissures
A puzzle of ice on Lake Erie, we trace each fissure back to shore. The endless flat expanse of snow and ice that stretches into Ontario masks the rolling textures of earth and foliage so prevalent in warmer seasons. Putting the ice in our rearview mirror, we look ahead and plan for more hospitable weather at the other end of our journey.
Sunrise Over the Carolina Coast
Sunrise over the Carolina coast. Soft light pours into the cockpit with a warm reflective glow. As the sun rises above the horizon, the light shifts to a bright white and the contours of the aerial horizon evaporate into a misty haze.
Casting Shadows in the Twilight
When reality resembles art, you know that you have transcended into a mystical place. Such is the joy of flight. The most mystical times of day are when we witness the transitions from darkness to light. At dawn in the western sky over Southern Virginia, the twilight hangs on the horizon a little longer than normal as the sunrise is stalled behind a line of atlantic thunderstorms to the east. The distorted shadow cast in the twilight emanates from our ship as we cruise southward gently disturbing the air.
Watching Dawn’s Inferno
Watching Dawn’s Inferno…The sunrise was masked by storms off shore that seemed to make sunrise over Southern Virginia last an eternity. Our focus on the rising sun is tantamount to listening to a symphony as the music starts off subtly and builds to a crescendo before the white light of day drowns out the music with the bright cacophony of an illuminated planet.
Spindling Flow
Though they may look like smoke or exhaust from the earth below, contrails hold secrets of barely subsonic circular motion and accelerated water vapor and ice crystals. As vortices flow in our wake from our wingtips, the spindling flow of circular patterns within our contrails quietly tell the story of pressure changes from our movement through the troposphere.
Kodachrome
Overhead the Kodachrome Basin, Our perspective is guided by the southeasterly flow of the Paria River. Its tributaries, having formed deep tendril-like gorges, seem to clutch to the colorful and rocky terrain as the sandy riverbed flows toward its collision with the defined ridge of the Cottonwood Canyon.
Long Shadows
The setting sun casts long shadows of high rise buildings along the east coast of Florida. The canals and Inter-coastal Waterway at Pompano Beach are bathed in a golden light.
Hidden in Plain Sight
Overhead No Mans Mesa at the head of the Paria River, the dynamic landscape of the Grand Staircase overwhelms the senses as myriad canyons meander southward. As we look toward Cottonwood Canyon and the Escalante we overlook ancient ruins of the Anasazi hidden in the landscape between No Mans Mesa and Mollie’s Nipple.
Canyonlands: The Green River
As the Green River winds its way through the Canyonlands of Utah on its way to its confluence with the Colorado, Mesas and other rock formations dot each bend in its path. These places have descriptive names like Dead Horse Mesa that help us to imagine the challenges faced by men and animals wandering through these canyons on their way to who knows where.
Meander in the Mist
In the southwest corner of Virginia, the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains take a turn to the west and disappear into a smokey haze. Their paths meander slightly creating zigzags and bowls seen only as articulated lines in the mist.
Color and Balance
Color and Balance. Defined by the river, Port Wentworth adds primary colors in tightly defined lines of shipping containers anchoring the freely flowing landscape.
Look Away From the Sunset
If you resist the urge to follow the sun at sunset and instead look to the east, you may be rewarded. The subdued yet spectacular glow on the horizon in the eastern sky is the the effect of the earth’s terminator overtaking us. As twilight descends on us, we see the cross-section of the terminator with the light of sunset layered above the purple of the penumbral shadow that is twilight. Sunset over the snow covered Appalachian Mountains northwest of Roanoke, Virginia.
Twists and Turns on the Georgia Coast
As we approach Savannah, Georgia, our view of the earth is filled with twisting and turning rivers that follow circuitous routes through silty soil. This natural abstraction captivates our imagination as we visually wander through the labyrinth and find our way to the sea.
Line of Transgression
Following the Florida coast, the sun casts the heavy shadows of high rise buildings across the beach line while varied currents draw the sand into the sea where it feathers and swirls in the eddies. The carefully ruled streets fade insignificantly into the background as the sun and sea paint the scene.
Yellow in the Landscape
Passing quickly over southern Colorado and the San Juan Mountains, we catch a glimpse of yellow in the remaining foliage. Aspens lend their color to the landscape and add a yellow velvet texture to this autumn scene.
Settling Skies. As evening comes and the sun begins to set in South Florida, the heat that fueled the upward motion of the clouds begins to dissipate. The roll of the cloud tops reminds us of the potential energy within them waiting to go kinetic.
The Aerial Horizon has been blogging this pilot’s perspective from the cockpit for a year, posting over 200 original images to capture a year in flight. Please look back over my archive and let me know which ones are your favorites.
Telluride, Colorado sits in a box canyon along the San Miguel River in Southwestern Colorado. Nestled in this crook of the San Juan Mountains, the airport running parallel to the canyon is the first identifiable feature. This photo was shot in early autumn after the first snow had adorned the mountain tops, flashes of yellow from the aspen trees appear sporadically on the hillsides.
The Aerial Horizon – Photography
The Aerial Horizon 