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Flying the Friendly Skies
By sirsnapalot | August 15, 2008
Something I have been emphasizing so far is to photograph things from a different perspective. Flying is no exception- though you may fly a lot (I certainly do), you still spend a small percentage of your time in the sky, and it can be a good opportunity to get some great shots.
I recently flew from Dallas to San Francisco and for a change, I had a window seat. I’m a pretty tall guy (nearly 1.9m), so I generally prefer an aisle seat. But, luckily I got a free upgrade to First Class, and a window seat at that. So on approach to San Francisco, we flew over Yosemite. I was sitting to a rather large fellow with some rather smelly habits, so I hesitated to make him get up so I could get my camera. But, as the beautiful terrain kept scrolling by below me I finally had to get up and get the camera. I had missed the best shots over Yosemite, but got some great ones on approach to the San Francisco Airport.
Wetlands near Fremont, CA on San Francisco Bay
San Mateo Bridge
Later in the week on my return flight, I just kept the camera with me in the seat. Conditions were not quite as good over Yosemite, but I did get some good shots over Nevada of some rather strange looking stuff- here an Army ammunition depot.
Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot, Nevada
In 2006 my wife & I honeymooned in Africa- a lifelong dream of mine to visit. On both the inbound and outbound trips, we flew squarely over the Saraha, what would seem to be a vast, featureless plain. It was anything but, to the trained eye 
I shot these two shots over the Sudan on the way from London to Nairobi:
Sahara Desert in the Sudan
Sahara Desert in the Sudan
I especially like the second one. From the shadows you can see the wind down there must be brutal most of the time. What I especially like about these aerial Sahara shots are that they look like photos taken by a NASA spacecraft, yet they were taken by me and my Nikon Coolpix 8800 digital camera from the window of a 747, back by the lavatory.
On the return flight from Zambia to London, we took a bit more westward path over the Sahara, taking us over Chad, Libya and Tunisia. The following un-Earthly shots are from those respective countries.
Sahara Desert in Chad
Sahara Desert in Libya
Mediterranean Coastline of Tunisia
When shooting the ground from an airplane, your photos will likely come out a bit flat. You can fix that in a photo editor by adjusting the brightness and contrast. All the shots above (except for the Nevada shot) were contrast enhanced to bring out the detail, but otherwise are unaltered.
The Africa shots are perhaps a bit “out of this world”, but lest you think that you can only get great shots in faraway places, I’ll leave you with two more shots- over Idaho and Tennessee. The clouds themselves can be in endless, fantastic formations and are well-worth photographing if you’ve got the sun at a good angle (behind or in front are the best).
Flying over Idaho
Clouds over Tennessee
So, the next time you fly, just keep your camera stowed under the seat in front of you and be ready shortly after takeoff or until shortly before landing, and of course, during the flight, and get a window seat if you can.
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Topics: Tips | 1 Comment »
August 19th, 2008 at 18:26
Jeff, nice site. I’ve seen these same views on the flight to SFO or SJ, usually very overcast but looks like you got some clear shots.