July 19 2022 - From the Air

 

The first aerial photograph shot in Canada was taken over the Halifax Citadel in 1883, when Captain Henry Elsdale of the Royal Engineers attached a camera to a small balloon and sent it upwards. The camera was fitted with a time-sensitive automatic shutter release which enabled it to work at various heights, and at least one vertical photograph taken that day still exists, showing the Citadel from about 1450 feet. And today? What are we photographing from the air?   "Scientists have discovered that ancient cities really did exist in the Amazon. And while urban ruins remain extremely difficult to find in thick, remote forests, a key technology has helped change the game. Perched in a helicopter some 650 feet up, scientists used light-based remote sensing technology (lidar) to digitally deforest the canopy and identify the ancient ruins of a vast urban settlement around Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon that was abandoned some 600 years ago. The new images reveal, in detail, a stronghold of the socially complex Casarabe Culture (500-1400 C.E.) with urban centers boasting monumental platform and pyramid architecture. Raised causeways connected a constellation of suburban-like settlements, which stretched for miles across a landscape that was shaped by a massive water control and distribution system with reservoirs and canals. The site, described this week in Nature, is the most striking discovery to suggest that the Amazon’s rainforest ‘wilderness’ was actually heavily populated, and in places quite urbanized, for many centuries before recorded history of the region began.  From the Smithsonian Those are the professionally curious explorers.   Each of us looks at the passing landscape on an airplane flight,  There's a web app that guides you through the landscape you are flying over. Gregory Dicum, the inventor,  said he's currently working on getting his "Mondo Window" installed on planes so that you can get information about what you're seeing below on your airplane console as you're flying.

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April 25 2020 - Message in the Sky?

Skywriting could return to the UK for the first time in 60 years.  What did they write in the sky?  WASH HANDS.  Skywriting was banned there in 1960 due to safety concerns. I can't remember seeing any skywriting in my adult years.  However, there are a number of companies who do this:  Aeogram says they are Canada's leader in aerial advertising since 1984.  Another is Flysigns Aerial Advertising operating in Toronto for more than 20 years. Pricing is by square meter of the billboard.  There's even something called sky typing. What is there to learn about this interesting activity? Most sources attribute the development of skywriting (1922) to John C. Savage, an Englishman. In that year, Captain Cyril Turner wrote “Daily Mail” over England and “Hello USA” over New York. The American Tobacco Co. then picked up the technique for their Lucky Strike cigarettes. A letter can be as high as one mile and take 60-90 seconds to create. A message can stretch up to fifteen miles. The best conditions of course are few clouds, little or no wind, and cooler temperatures. Then the letters may be seen for 30 miles in any direction and can last 20 minutes. Writing occurs usually at altitudes from 7,000-17,000 ft. The paraffin oil vaporizes at 1500° in the heat of the plane’s exhaust and is environmentally safe. The skywriting that appeared in the movie, “Wizard of Oz,” was done by special effects in a tank with an oil and water mixture. One company in New York “writes” more than 50 marriage proposals a year in the sky.   I was at the Orchid Show in February at the Royal Botanical Gardens this year.  The poor lighting conditions and crowdedness of the plants and people are always challenges. This isn't like visiting Longwood Gardens and being able to photograph at one's own pace.  Somehow there always is a lovely shot to capture amidst the excitement and appreciation of this wonderfully diverse flower.

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