Aerial boundaries

[peteryoung]

Approaching Vancouver, Canada, 19 July 2005



Sunset, 150 miles south-west of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 20 August 2005
If it looks too dark, brighten your screen as there's plenty of detail in the clouds.



West coast of Greenland, 18 July 2005



Sunrise over Marseille, France, 2 May 2005



Moon over Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, 20 July 2005



Over Jordan, Arkansas, 1 July 2005



Sunrise over Luanda, Angola, 31 March 2005



The shadow of the Earth seen from over Uusikaupunki, Finland, 11 December 2004
(When seen as clearly as this pilots sometimes refer to it as 'the wall'.)

Comments

[dyfferent.livejournal.com]

whoa.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Fantastic in every sense. I love your affinity with shape and texture in your photographs. I particularly admire the sunset over Addis Ababa and the shot of Greenland.

[scribeoflight.livejournal.com]

These are brilliant - I meant to comment on the last set... How do you get them as clear while shooting, presumably (!) through a window? Do you need to edit them very much?

And what camera are you using?

Also, I may need your help on hotels in faraway places, sometime soon - tips on cheap\safe\convenient places...

Can't wait to see more images.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

The only Photoshopped picture of these is the Addis Ababa one but that was only to erase some of the flare, which is particularly difficult to avoid when shooting through scratched aeroplane windows. It was too good a picture to let it be spoiled by bits of stray light, but I kept some of the flare to the left of the sun because it throws your eye back into the rest of the picture. Flare is a pain in the ass, when photographing the sun at the edge of fast-moving clouds or on an ever-changing horizon you have to capture it when it's not too weak and not too bright which, when you're doing 500mph, gives you no time to plan a shot's exposure. I have plenty of well-composed photos of the sun that have too much flare that I wasn't quick enough to avoid.

Re. clarity, at altitude there is a greater amount of ultraviolet light which is why most photos taken from planes have a boring blue 'flatness' with little depth. Getting an exposure right is difficult and when you only have time to compose a picture and no time to adjust for white balance, it usually has to be left to chance. But these days, with care you can correct just about any obvious colour deficiencies with software to give a weak picture more impact if the composition is right. I use a digital Canon EOS 30D, either with a standard 18-55mm lens or a 75-300mm zoom.

Re. your trip, I've never been to Russia and in China I only know Hong Kong, so my available knowledge would be minimal!

[scribeoflight.livejournal.com]

Over Jordan, Arkansas, 1 July 2005

This is my favourite.

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

and mine - like a brace of Chinese dragons glittering in the sun.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

Wow - those are good - especially the Jordan one!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Yep. And here it is on Google Maps.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

Hee - yeah!

It took me a while, but in the end I figured out it was this bit of the squiggles...

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.405534,-92.303696&spn=0.052501,0.108447&t=k&hl=en

[del-c.livejournal.com]

No, zoom back out and look sideways at the bit I showed—tilt your head to the left. Pete's photo is taken looking west, ie. west is "up"; the map is oriented with north as up.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

You're right...

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=36.412909&lon=-92.26372&z=11.8&r=90&src=0

I stand corrected! :-)

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

the Addis Ababa photo - just wow!

[cobrabay.livejournal.com]

Wow, these are great. I particularly like the Greenland and Addis Ababa pictures. The wide ones would all make great wallpapers.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

The weird thing about that Greenland shot is that it's difficult to get a sense of the scale. It looks like a miniature, or a close-up of a detail. Ooh, fractal disorientation!

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Each and every one of those is just mind-bogglingly beautiful. D'you mind if I link to this posting from my own LJ?

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Of course! And thanks.