My family and I just returned from a trip to Wyoming. The primary purpose of the trip was to visit family, so I did not have a lot of extra time for photography. However, one of the photographic highlights of the trip was our flight from my home in southern California to Denver. The flight path covers some fantastic topography and it’s always been fun for me to see how many formations I can recognize. On this flight, I decided to try and do a black and white series of the landscape 35,000′ feet below me.
Can you figure them out? Some are super easy…others are not. Images are posted in the order you would see them flying from southern California to Denver.
Mystery Landscape #1
Mystery Landscape #2
Mystery Landscape #3
Mystery Landscape #4
Mystery Landscape #5
Mystery Landscape #6
Mystery Landscape #7
Feel free to post your guesses in the comments section. I will post the locations in a few days. I do not know every detail of each image, but am pretty sure I have the locations correct…maybe you can pinpoint some better than I can.
There were some challenges that degraded image quality in these files. First, I got lucky with a pretty clean window on the airplane. A dirty window would make these sorts of images difficult. Second, the glass plane window and interior plexiglass also make focusing difficult. There are some odd things that happened to some of the files because of my high tech “plexiglass filter.” You can probably see a few things on some of these files…
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on these, as well as your guesses!
Holy. Crap! These are all amazing, Greg. Mystery Landscape #6 literally took my breath away. It’s so luminous and richly textured. I could easily see that one hanging on a wall in my home. No idea where it is but kudos to you for making some seriously original and gorgeous photographs.
Thanks, Bret! I really appreciate your compliments. I’m looking forward to seeing how these print, in hopes of offering them, because I think they’re a lot of fun…
I have no idea about the locations, Greg but the images are stunning!!
Thanks Andrew! I appreciate it.
Great idea. I can’t imagine getting photos this good from a commercial jet. OK, so I am unsure about most of them but I’m going to take wild guesses and see what happens: #1 White Mountains or Death Valley, #2 Grand Canyon, #4 Canyonlands, #7 Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park???
Thanks for the guesses, David! I’ll see if anyone else offers any guesses then give the answers in the next couple of days.
Andrew covered it for me….I have no idea but all the images are quite enjoyable…stunning as Andrew said.
My favorites would be #s 2 and 6, but I really like them all. I think you may be able to build a case for plexifilters. 🙂
These are pretty cool Greg. You definitely had a better plexiglass combo than I typically have on my flights. I very much enjoyed this part of the country from the air last year in our trip from Michigan to San Francisco. I think I spotted a few crop circles then. 🙂
I definitely wouldn’t get all of them right. I am guessing the Grand Canyon for #2 and Rocky Mountains for #6/7. Not sure if you would have crossed the Sierra Nevada range with that flight path, I am thinking not. (?)
Haven’t a clue, though I would agree with Grand Canyon for #2 and Canyonlands for #4.
I would also agree that they are stunning shots from 35000 feet. Good stuff.
Tough ones, Greg, but beautiful shots! The Grand Canyon seems pretty certain, and I’m going with the San Juan Goosenecks for #4. #1 is obviously Basin-and-Range desert, but that covers a lot of territory: eastern Death Valley, or maybe further south, Like Mojave Preserve?
#3 with those long mesas and ridges makes me lean toward the Kayenta area. And #6 has the look of Mancos Shale (what west slope Coloradans call “adobes”); Mesa Verde area? The big, broad shoulders on those mountains make me think Sawatch, but I can’t rule out the San Juans or the Front Range there. I’ll be curious to see the answers!
Wow…great guesses everyone! It seems like #2 was pretty easy (yep…was the Grand Canyon), but that’s OK.
Jackson nailed almost all of them…
#1: Somewhere in the Mojave Desert…probably the very southern end of the Mojave National Preserve (we had left Joshua Tree about 5 minutes before I took this).
#2: The Grand Canyon.
#3: Between the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell; the cliffs in the upper part of the image are the Vermillion Cliffs, making me think this is somewhere near Lee’s Ferry.
#4: The Goosenecks of the San Juan River.
#5: You’re looking at Grand Gulch and the Grand Gulch Plateau.
#6: This is indeed western Colorado, just starting up the Rockies. Probably a little north of Mesa Verde but not far (I could see the La Sals off to the west).
#7: Definitely the Rocky Mountains, and I’m grateful to Jackson for suggesting the Sawatch Range…this was taken on our descent into Denver, and coming roughly from the southwest, it very likely is the Sawatch.
Vermilion Cliffs, of course! I thought about that, but rejected it for some reason. But you can see the highway heading north and Rider and North Canyons in front of House Rock Valley. The Grand Gulch one definitely looks a little different than I expected, scale seems wrong somehow. But that’s it for sure, the Moki Dugway is hidden in the shadow there. Amazing to think that the road goes down those cliffs!
As for the mountains, I finally nailed it down: Sawatch Range, Clear Creek immediately below, La Plata Peak and Mt. Hope making up the ridge in the middle, Independence Pass top center, with Mounts Elbert and Massive at top right.
Can you tell I like this game?
Haha, yes, I can tell you like this game…I’m glad though, because it’s helping me with some of the landmarks that were a little fuzzy. I wish now that I took a few more images…
You’re completely right on the mountains…I had to look it up in a couple of different places, but you’re right on the money. I knew I was over a large cluster of 14ers, but beyond that I didn’t know for sure what I was looking at.
Now, I need to see how a couple of these print!
What an excellent series Greg, I’ve loved them and the series Paul did earlier in the year.
I would have been stumped with the locations, but a wonderful series, and of course Black and White was the way to go..
A great way to get some amazing images without the expense of a charter 🙂
Thanks, Alister! It was really fun to do this series. Paul’s series was definitely in the back of my mind as I made these images.
I made some prints of these images and did learn it’s best when the lens of the camera is parallel with the window of the plane. Anything else and the plexiglass gives an odd effect. A charter would be better for that (not sure if the expense makes it worth it though).