Aerial | Ibycter

After my recent trip to Houston, I was treated to a clear day of flying back across the great American West. To survey these wide open spaces, flying at 35,000 feet gives a good overview. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

It was raining in Houston when we left, so I snagged this wallpaper-like shot of the sky and the drops on the window.

Much of the saturation drops out over distance, so it is a bit of a trick to adjust colours and shadows. I had some frustration trying to replicate what I saw, so eventually I just decided to fiddle until I had a pleasing image. I guess that is the same thing astrophotographers do!

A big deep mine, probably in Arizona.

On the runway in Phoenix.

At this distance it is difficult to appreciate the size of landforms, but the road gives some scale.

Some crazy bluffs!

One of the bird-frying solar installations in Nevada.

Not sure if this one is operational or not.

An air-to-air shot of another passenger plane.

Mt. Hood.

South Seattle

Banking in for a SeaTac approach.

Uplands Park, a favourite place of mine to take pictures.

This weekend, Catherine and I came over to Victoria to celebrate my birthday in Victoria with my family. As a present, we went in a flight in a Cessna 172 with my brother, who is a pilot with the Victoria Flying club and a photographer as well. This was Catherine’s first flight in a small plane (although she has been in a helicopter), so we gave her the grand tour of Victoria from the air.

Checking the fuel for water and debris.

Victoria on a hazy fall day. This is typical light for this time of year, and you can see the Olympic Mountains across the Juan de Fuca Strait. .

HMCS Regina (foreground) and HMCS Ottawa (behind) at dock in Esquimalt. They have material laid around them to protect the ocean from fuel spills, but I wonder, given our current government’s stance on oil spills on the coast, why they bother.