Air travel offers a unique photographic opportunity with a bit of planning. Unless you have some other means of personal air travel, taking advantage of seating on a plane can offer wonderful views. Plus, if you’re lucky, on some trips the flight attendants guide you during the photogenic parts!
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been take more trips requiring air travel. I used to loathe flying. One of my earliest memories was over 20 years ago of taking a 22hr trip to Thailand. We were flying Thai Airways and the turbulence was unbearable. Motion sickness coupled with little sleep did not make me very happy. With advances in technology, nowadays I find myself actually preferring to fly, taking full advantage of seating whenever I can. I like to do a bit of scouting before a trip to see where the best seats will be on the plane.
SNA <> SLC
For example, during a trip to Salt Lake City, I took a look at Google Maps and saw that flying into SLC would put the Great Salt Lake on my left.
This meant that as I planned my trip, I tried my hardest to get a window seat on the left side of the plane. Returning home, I wanted to get some shots of the mountains and the city, since I was flying during golden hour. Therefore, on my way home I also got a window seat on the left side to get a great view of the sun’s glow hitting the mountains. Unfortunately for this trip, my camera was in the overhead bin, so I had to take the shots with my phone.
As I arrived in Orange County, I got a shot of the artificial lights:
No wonder light pollution is so bad in my area!
SNA > PDX
For this trip, I was better prepared. Pro tip: wearable luggage goes a long way! For example, I wear this jacket on all of my flights now. I can store a couple of lenses, my Switch, a water bottle, and some other small items without taking up space in my carry-on or personal item. Another pro tip: wear your camera around your neck! This frees up space in your luggage for other things.
I sat on the right side of the plane for this trip and was treated to a surprise shot of the Pacific Ocean as the plane took a little detour to avoid some turbulence.
On the way to PDX, I got a gorgeous view of Crater Lake. Although I didn’t get to visit the lake during this trip, the view from the air satiated my appetite.
You might have noticed dirt spots from the window in the previous photos. After playing around with the settings for a bit, I found that zooming in and adjusting the focal plane helped reduce the dirt spots from getting captured. Another pro tip: even in Airplane Mode, you can still use your phone’s GPS to see where you are. I did that here and discovered that we were flying over the Three Sisters mountain range. Here are a couple of shots of the Three Sisters during my air travel:
Mt. Hood
Mt. Hood is so majestic that it deserves its own section!
Of course, as we passed Mt. Hood, I had to capture it. Here’s one of my first shots from really far away:
And here’s my favorite shot of this post. I had time to frame and align the shot. I love how you can see the buildings in the foreground, which just illustrates just how big Mt. Hood really is.
All of these shots wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t do a bit of planning. The next time you have some air travel, I encourage you to plan a bit and see if you can capture some unique aerial shots!
As usual, comments, questions, and feedback are always welcome!