Sunday, April 23, 2017

View from an airplane window...

HALLIE EPHRON: For all the negatives about air travel, the one enduring virtue is the view out the plane window.

For an unobstructed view, I try to pick a seat behind the wing, as far back as possible without being too close to the bathroom.  And then, willing the absence of cloud cover,  I can Zen out for hours at a time watching the landscape and sky.


The perfect flight leaves Boston at 5 PM and heads west: buckle up for for a three-hour sunset. Sometimes I remember to take a picture. 

So for your Sunday moment of Zen, here are a few of my favorites. I'll bet you can tell which one was taken flying near the Grand Canyon and which was over the Caribbean Turks and Caicos 
Islands.

Today's question: What makes you pull our your camera and make a memory?














48 comments:

  1. The view from the plane is often unparalleled . . . the photographs are great.

    What makes me grab my camera? It used to be the children; now it’s the grandbabies . . . .

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    1. Oh, Joan, my granddaughters are definitely my favorite photo subject.

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  2. I like to take pictures in my garden, but I am most likely to wish I had my camera with me when I'm out in the yard with my dogs. I have three dogs, and two of them are flat out, other-people-comment-on-it gorgeous. The third one is also fab, of course, but something of a punk, who rarely strikes a pose so folks can admire him. I love to catch all of them being their own beautiful selves, whether they're standing still and looking noble, or flying up the side of a tree after a squirrel.

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  3. At the risk of sounding like Apple pays me for placement, I am addicted to iPhone pictures.
    Would they be better with a camera? Of course, and I've a drawer full of them. None have a charge on the battery.

    I take a morning walk every day of my dogs' lives, and I have instructions never to leave the house without a phone. (Because I am old and frail and might fall and can't get up. By the way, bubbles bounce you know. I tripped over the handy man's tool chest last week and sprawled in the front hall. An ugly sight. But I didn't break the leaded glass in the foyer door.) I take pictures of flowers and the neighborhood version of a standing stone, hereafter known as the Weeing Rock. I capture Penny trying to raise her little short hind leg as high as her brother and therefore peeing on her foot. I find carefully constructed fairy villages, and capture them for posterity. Then I return and take a picture of every part of the kitchen reno/wall painting/tulip blooming paradise that is my home.

    I am so irritating.

    However, I digress.

    Digital cameras are dah bomb. Somewhere in a box are rolls and rolls of undeveloped film and thousands of pictures that I never look at. But I can whip out my phone and show you every shot I've ever made of Toby, Penny Lane and Eliot. Good and bad.

    What was the question again?

    Ann

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    1. ah yes, those undeveloped pictures. Fortunately my husband had been diligent about printing the best and we have wonderful photo albums to wallow through.

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  4. I too have taken airplane window pictures, although these days if I'm flying solo (which is the majority of my flights since I'm going to conferences) I pick an aisle seat. Flying west, once we're over the Rockies I feel like I can breathe again. Something about being raised in California, I guess!

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    1. Aisle or window... I wonder if the choice says something about us?

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    2. I prefer window seats for shorter flights. Aisle for longer ones so I don't have to climb over everyone to make that inevitable trip to the restroom after all the coffee and water I drank while waiting to board!

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    3. What Annette said - that's what it says about those of us with membership in the Frequent Peeers Club!

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  5. Great airplane window photos, Hallie! I have been travelling a lot this past year but I rarely take any from the plane since I prefer an aisle seat and have been going on a lot of redeye flights. But I especially love taking photos of awesome natural scenery. Also I take foodie photos of great meals both at home and abroad. I have plenty of memorable photos from my recent trips to Iceland and Hawaii for sure.

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    1. Grace, please, what are your tips for surviving a redeye??

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    2. Hallie, Five redeye flights for me this past year, so here are some tips: take the latest flight possible (11:30 or midnight so you are already tired and ready to sleep), get a window seat, wear warm comfortable clothes, use accessories such as earplugs and an eye mask, and don't drink too much before/during the flight (less bathroom trips). Unfortunately the redeye flights to North America or Europe are only 5-7 hours long, so you only get 2.5-4 hours sleep, but that's enough for me.

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    3. What about pillow? Do you use one of those neck thingies?

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    4. No, I never use one of those neck pillows. I was surprised when Icelandair gave me both a pillow and blanket as soon as I sat down for that redeye flight. Too used to getting neither from the North American airlines and I sleep just fine without either!

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    5. I'm with you, Grace. I like a red eye window seat where I can sleep. Earplugs and an eye mask or a hoodie over my head and I'm out.

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  6. Yes, nice photos Hallie! I have to be on the aisle too, for practical reasons relating to bladders:). I wish I'd had my phone out two nights ago. We were walking in DC with our son and Tonka. While T sniffed around a dog park, a mockingbird began to buzz him. He's getting old and didn't even notice, so the bird came closer and closer and grabbed a hunk of his fur. I so wish I'd taken a video of that!

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  7. Poor Tonka! Mockingbirds are brazen.

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  8. I'm a window seat person, too, and for the same reasons, Hallie. Where else can you see the earth from that perspective? I'm always shocked more people aren't fighting to glue their noses to the windows along with me, frankly.

    And I've also taken photos from the air: of the amazing patchwork fields of the breadbasket of the country in Kansas and surrounding states. Of wind farms with turbines so large their movement was visible from 30,000 feet. Of the clearcut destruction of our Pacific Northwest woods. Of the island in the middle of Crater Lake, visibly showing a shockingly large "bathtub ring" of low-water mark. Of the amazing skyline in NYC. And of our farm, when a friend asked me to join her on her monthly flight; she flew over our place as a special treat. On that same trip she also flew over my mother's house, 75 miles away, on a wonderfully clear day.

    I can watch a movie or read a book any time, but it's a great day when there are cloudless skies and a view of our beautiful planet!

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    1. Going across country you can almost tel where you are by the terrain. When I'm in an aisle seat I feel so disoriented.

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    2. Same here. And even at night you can tell, by the lights below.

      It fascinates me to see how many more lights, ie, population, there are now, compared to twenty, thirty, and forty years ago. Vastly more.

      By the way, that would be disconcerting, to see Bigfoot on the wing! LOL

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  9. I take the aisle, since I hate to scoot by sleeping people to go to the bathroom, but wow, I am always mesmerized by the window. I love to watch the terrain change as we fly east to west, it goes from green to Tetris-looking plains-state squares, to the Rockies to desert and California. The Mississippi. I can never understand why people close the windows…

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  10. To sleep! And oh how I wish I could on a plane but I cannot. Even on overnight flights which I why I won't fly red eye unless there's no other way to get where I'm going.

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    1. NO red eyes. It seems like it's so efficient, but then the next day is a total loss.

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  11. Great shots. I like nature pics myself, but I never seem to have a phone with me for the best shots (we haven't had a "real" camera in years - I gave my digital to The Girl and she lost it years ago).

    Mary/Liz

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    1. Well, sounds to me like The Girl should know what to get you for your next birthday.

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  12. Hallie, these are lovely. What makes me pull out my camera? Every. Thing. I rarely leave the house without it slung around my neck. It's the one expense that, to me, was worth every penny. Considering how much money I spent on film and developing "back in the day" digital cameras have been a Godsend. When those "oh, wow" shots show up I feel like I've won the lottery.

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    1. Thanks, Kaye - and we LOVE your photos!

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    2. Kaye, you and Don take such wonderful photos. I'm lucky enough to have one of your New Orleans photos displayed in my home. xo

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  13. I am an aisle person on long flights, for the aforementioned practical reasons. But on short flights I love sitting next to the window. One of my most fun book tour flights was from Key West to Miami, in the window seat, watching the Everglades go past beneath me. But I didn't take a picture!

    I have a good digital camera and am often castigated by Hubs for not using it. But I LOVE the camera on my Samsung Galaxy and I take photos every day, of everything. Garden, my animals, flowers, food, sunsets, projects--and of course the grandbaby, but the only time those are in focus are when she's asleep. She's a busy girl.

    Last year I bought a little Canon Selphy printer, so now if I want a print it's easy as pie, and the quality is great. It prints 4 x 6, but there are collage apps you can use if you want to put several images on a print. I do put the prints in my journals, although not as often as I intended.

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    1. That printer sounds amazing, Debs. I'm going to check into one.

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  14. William Shatner was your seatmate for that last one?

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  15. Yes, Hallie, love the Twilight Zone shot! We watched that clip on You Tube not too long ago. Hysterical.

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  16. When I remember to bring my phone on a walk I generally take pictures of flowers blooming to post for my neighbors up north. I'll take pictures of funky looking yard art and murals painted on buildings. Half of my shots get erased because I can't hold the phone still. Really aggravating.

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    1. My husband's hands get shakier as he ages, but his camera has some kind of setting that adjusts for that. Of course it's a camera not a cell.

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    2. Hallie, will you ask him for me what that is? I've had tremors for awhile now, but they're progressing to my hands, and getting worse. It's so annoying to take a photo and then see nothing but a big blur.

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    3. It's Optical Image Stabilization

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  17. I'm definitely an aisle person, but on the rare occasions I end up in a window seat, I do enjoy the view. One of the best views is leaving Seattle when we turn east and, if the weather allows, Mt. Rainier looms off the right side of the plane. It is huge and majestic, and I never tire of seeing it. I have to stop myself from nudging the person next to me who isn't interested; how can you not be interested in that awesome sight!

    I also like the approach into Boston because the plane often circles north and goes over my hometown. We're usually low enough that I can pick out the neighborhood where I grew up.

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    1. LOVE that view of Mt. Rainier. Great views, too, coming into Portland or Vancouver. And YES on Boston. I can often see my neighborhood coming in.

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    2. I'm with you, Hallie, as a member of the can't sleep on airplanes club. There's something so frustrating and lonely when it feels like everyone else on the plane is snoozing, even if you know that isn't true! I avoid red eyes like the plague.

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  18. I love window seats for short flights, or flights over new territory (to me). Everything else, aisle, please for all of the above-mentioned reasons. I love my Cannon camera, but it is too heavy to lug along unless I know photo ops are ahead. I'm still trying to find a nice point and shoot that's pocket friendly, but now that Debs has spilled the beans on a printer...may be no reason to look any further because my biggest complaint is the inability to print and keep! Thanks Debs!

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  19. My favorite photo subjects these days are my two granddaughters, as they change so fast, and I want to capture each stage. In my recent trip to Hawaii, like so many tourists there, I took loads of ocean pictures. I love to get an unusual picture, though, and two red-crested cardinals cooperated with me by the Honolulu Zoo. The whale was rather less cooperative. On my first trip to Hawaii, in 1977, someone mentioned that there weren't many photos of my husband and me, so I endeavor to include some photos of whoever is on a trip. Bouchercons are constant photo ops and definitely people photos.

    On airplanes, I usually get a window seat in case I do want to take a picture or two or three. I don't sleep well on planes either. I can sleep occasionally, but rarely. I did purchase a neck pillow for my trip back from Hawaii this last time, and I thought it was a great addition to my comfort level.

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  20. The sound of the engine knocks me out on planes, trains, and automobiles so I don't get many window pictures. My fave subjects aside from my sons are sunsets and sunrises, flowers in bloom, sunlight through tree branches, water both calm and turbulent - nature, I love it.

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  21. When I fly, I prefer to sit in the aisle because often someone would move the seat backward too far! Sitting in the aisle means that I can get out of my seat!

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