WINTER AT 35,000 FEET

On our trip to Utah over Christmas I had a window seat on the leg from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City and grabbed a few photos out the window.  For nearly the entire way the landscape below us was snow-covered, and it was interesting to see how the landscape changed over the course of the trip.  There was little in the way of color, at least from the height of the flight, so converted the photos to black and whites.

The first was of farmlands--and a little hamlet--in eastern Nebraska, I think.  I find it interesting to consider the lives that are being played out in the scenes below me.

I felt fortunate that these shots worked out as well as they did, as my view was to the south, which required shooting into the mid-day sun.  I was also contending with the usual scratches and the other defects in the window.  I tried to minimize those defects by putting the camera right up against the window.

The remaining shots were of more rugged country.

What was striking to me in the above shots was that this land is so empty of any evidence of human activity.

Human activity is evident in the final shot, below.  This is my favorite of the group because I was able to capture the sunlight glinting off the river meandering through the scene on the right of the composition.

John