The Earth from above in monochrome

Monochrom Aerial Photography 01
Mt. Jefferson | Oregon | 2017

As the job that pays the bills denied me any time to go shooting these past days I need to dig in last weeks archive to send you into the weekend. All these photos are from past Thursday and I took them on my Delta flight from Portland to Los Angeles  on my way home to Nuremberg. Camera was my Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. I post the images in sequence from Mount Jefferson that we passed soon after Takeoff from PDX to the streets of Los Angeles while landing in LAX. For the full series continue after the jump….

Monochrom Aerial Photography 03
Unknown Lake | Oregon | 2017

I took my usual approach using manual focus set to infinity and a wide open aperture to minimize image degradation from the airplane window. The raw files were converted to B&W in Lightroom CC using a preset I have developed for this type of aerial shots as a starting point for my tweaks.

Monochrom Aerial Photography 02
Farms and Mountains | Oregon | 2017

On this flight I looked specifically for textures and patterns that I was sure would look great in monochrome.

Monochrom Aerial Photography 04
Distant Tahoe | Northern California | 2017

 

Monochrom Aerial Photography 05
Squares | Northern California | 2017
Monochrom Aerial Photography 06
L.A. Basin | Southern California | 2017
Monochrom Aerial Photography 08
Los Angeles | Southern California | 2017
Monochrom Aerial Photography 07
Hollywood Hills | Southern California | 2017

Can you spot the famous Hollywood Sign ?

Monochrom Aerial Photography 09
Inglewood | Southern California | 2017

It was an amazing, crystal clear day and I was lucky to have gotten a window seat. I was not so lucky on my next leg from L.A. to Amsterdam, I could only peak over my sleeping neighbor down to the crisp landscape of the western US as we headed back to Europe on a very southerly routing, crossing the USA towards New England where we headed out into the Atlantic.

Next Monday I’ll head back the other way for two weeks in the Rose City (aka Portland, Oregon).

I wish you all a great weekend!

Marcus

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20 thoughts on “The Earth from above in monochrome

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  1. Beautiful shots and love the dramatic black and whites showcasing the concrete jungle. And once again you were so so close to me. I waived 😉

  2. These are cool Marcus! I don’t see the sign. 🙁 And do you know I just googled it and I live 7.5 miles from it… and I have NEVER been there. What the heck?!? I’m going to try that this weekend! Love these images. The squares is really cool. It’s like looking at a map! I’m still looking for my house. 😉

  3. I could spot it! Stunning pictures. You really had a good seat on the plane. Especially like the one with all the farmland that looks like a chess board!

  4. Such great pictures. Maybe someday I will get a window seat that is not obscured by a wing so that I can follow your advice for good pictures! (Where is the Hollywood sign?)

    1. It will happen 😀👍! The Hillywood sign is the white dot on the right hill in the Hollywood Hills Image. I also got a closeup with my tele zoom as we passed it but didn’t post it as it doesn’t fit the series…

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