# The world from above...



## MikeScone (Nov 21, 2011)

I was fortunate to be able to fly a small airplane from Ithaca, NY, to western Colorado in October. When you do the trip by airliner, you're six or seven miles up, the windows are tiny and thick, and you don't see much of anything. In a Cessna at 2500 feet above ground level with the window open the view is unbeatable. 

As I made my way west I took lots of pictures. I'll post a few of the most interesting here, with more on a web page. 

The weather was nice in Ithaca on the day I left, but in Ohio and points south it was awful - low ceilings, rain and wind. Worse, the weather forecast was for the bad weather to spread east and stay for the next four to five days. So, I headed southwest, keeping the low ceilings and rain to the west. First stop was Johnstown, PA, then on to Charleston, WV, where the ceilings began to drop and the rain started. 







As I went on, it was always brighter to my left, so I kept the rain to my right and continued on, curving around the front, south and west. Finally, as I entered Kentucky and passed Green River Lake, the sun broke through. 






Photographically, you can see the "leading lines" that the lake provides in this picture. Notice that I had the window open, so I wasn't shooting through tinted Plexiglas - if possible, it's always best to open the window, but don't lean out to the point where the wind catches the lens or the pictures will be blurry. If you have to shoot through the window, make sure you don't touch the glass, or the vibration from the plane will transfer into the picture. 

The next day I crossed the mighty Mississippi. I zoomed in on the towboat, but I left some shoreline in to give a sense of place. 









I always like to look for patterns from the air. Here in the east, you almost never get to see a perfect cloverleaf intersection...






In Sikeston, Missouri, they were having a parade. I like the combination of fire trucks and marchers in this shot. 






As you get further west the land flattens out and gets dryer. Coming from the hilly and wet Northeast, I found the circular irrigation patterns fascinating. This one near Guymon, Texas, looks like the farmer was a math teacher demonstrating pie charts. 






I headed roughly southwest from Kansas through Texas, so as to keep south of the high peaks of the Rockies. As I got into New Mexico, the land got higher and desert took over. 

Most of the time I zoomed in enough to just get the land in the picture, but occasionally including the wing gives a sense of place. 






Watch for the changing effects of light - as much true in aerial photography as it is down on the ground. I took lots of pictures as the cloud shadows moved around this mesa:






I was struck by the varied colors of the desert. 






I saw Shiprock off in the distance, and had to divert to fly around it. There are no roads anywhere near the rock, deliberately - it's on the Navaho reservation and is held to be sacred, so they didn't want tourists climbing it. 






From Shiprock I flew over the Four Corners - just a spot in the middle of nothingness, a plaza and four rows of souvenir shops, but how could you be near there and not fly overhead...






Into Utah's Canyonlands, where the Green and Colorado Rivers meet:






As I left the Canyonlands, I was struck by this blue butterfly in the bright red rocks:






The butterfly turned out to be salt-drying ponds at a potash mine. I love the contrast in colors. It just looks unreal. 

Finally, I followed the Colorado to Mack Mesa, the plane's new home in Colorado. 






Twenty-one and three quarters hours flying over four days, and a fantastic adventure. I'd do it again in a minute...


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