aerial – Page 15 – Decaseconds

Lights of the Ready Campus

2022-Aug-222022-Aug-21 adohertyhLeave a comment

I’ll be teaching my first class of the Fall 2022 semester tomorrow morning, so today seemed like the perfect day to reflect on the campus to which I’m returning. The structures amidst the trees sure look good from 100 meters up.

This image also brings up an interesting note on aspect ratios: Since the start of Decaseconds, I’ve largely been formatting my very favorite images in a 1.6:1 (i.e., 16:10) aspect ratio, such that they’d function well as desktops for my various MacBook Pro laptops. The advent of the “notch” and associated added screen real estate means that new MBPs have a 1.547:1 ratio—and thus my favorite images (like this one) are arriving with a new aspect ratio.

Civilization Gradient: Denver

2022-Aug-192022-Aug-18 adohertyhLeave a comment

My favorite feature to capture in landscape images is a gradient from sparsely populated areas to dense, urban ones. A connecting flight through Denver gave me the opportunity to add a mile-high gradient to my collection.

This picture was processed using the Super Resolution algorithm, so it’s definitely worth clicking through to view the high-resolution version on flickr.

After the Vineyard Concert

2022-Aug-152022-Aug-14 adohertyhLeave a comment

The opposite side of Equus Run (in both space and time) from Friday’s post finds a concert letting out and light trails along the normally empty Moores Mill Road.

Dawn on the Shores of the South Elkhorn Creek

2022-Aug-12 adohertyhLeave a comment

Sunrise over northern Kentucky, when captured from a drone, seems to present layers on layers (creek/patio/driveways/vines/forest/interstate/forest/sky) that look like an ukiyo-e print.

Leaving O’Hare

2022-Aug-102022-Aug-08 adohertyhLeave a comment

Runways on runways on runways, with the Rayleigh-scattering-induced silhouette of the Chicago skyline in the distance, on this summer morning over O’Hare International Airport.

Lake and Subdivision

2022-Aug-082022-Aug-07 adohertyhLeave a comment

For once, the arbitrary contortions of a subdivision’s streets seem to have some purpose: fitting within the shoreline of this lake outside Denver, Colorado.

Dawn on Interstate 64

2022-Aug-03 adohertyhLeave a comment

Good news, everyone! A new, much-lighter, yet equally capable drone (the DJI Mini 3 Pro) means aerial photography while traveling in a way that was never possible with my chunky Phantom 3.

In today’s image, northern Kentucky presents a classic American combination: old barns and farms, crossed by the monolithic expanse of the Interstate system.

Colorado Crossroads

2022-Jul-292022-Jul-28 adohertyhLeave a comment

Just as any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, I likewise suspect that any sufficiently populated crossroads is indistinguishable from a town.

Morning Light on the Grid

2022-Jul-13 adohertyhLeave a comment

Sections of Chicago’s hinterlands that were once stockyards and meatpacking facilities have long since been converted to serve as industrial parks, but the sense of an endless grid remains.

Suburbs Outside Denver

2022-Jul-08 adohertyhLeave a comment

Neal Stephenson’s “burbclaves” in Snow Crash are subdivisions-as-mini-nation-states—an intentionally silly idea in the satirical context of the novel’s libertarian dystopia. These Denver suburbs are now my internal vision of how such a burbclave would look.

Suburbs Outside Denver I

2022-Jun-22 adohertyhLeave a comment

Waaay off in the distance, beyond the un-grid of this subdivision, is downtown Denver. Beyond that are the Rocky Mountains. That sense of being sort-of-near spectacular sights while still being trapped within cul-de-sacs is one that I expect is pretty common to people who spent some amount of their childhood living within such developments.

Shield Wall

2022-Jun-15 adohertyhLeave a comment

Dune’s naturally occurring “Shield Wall” always seemed a bit fictional to me—until I saw Denver’s metropolitan area from above. Look at that sharp divide between mountains and the valley floor!

Wind Farm Leaving Coachella Valley

2022-Apr-27 adohertyhLeave a comment

I’ve shown you a far different view of the wind farms at the northern end of Coachella Valley, but an aerial view at dawn provides better documentation of the project’s true scale, and its place in the fascinating geological setting of the valley.

Salisbury’s Ski Jump

2022-Apr-042022-Apr-03 adohertyhLeave a comment

Bright Saturday morning sunshine warms Salisbury, Connecticut and make the town ski jump flash in the distance at the left of the image.

A Seven-Year-Old’s Whole World

2022-Mar-142022-Mar-13 adohertyh1 Comment

Neal Stephenson’s “Fall” suggests that that pattern of one’s childhood hometown is patterned deeply into the brain. This picture captures pretty much everywhere I could get to on my own (i.e., on my bike) when I was seven years old—so, basically my whole world at that point.