I flew to and from Salt Lake City within the last few weeks. As I planned, I got a window seat to take photographs; there I found an infinitely variable, ethereal subject. Clouds, the nice puffy ones that dotted the sky created beautiful shadows down below, and through the openings in between them I could see and photograph them, clouds and their shadows. Most of the time I used my Canon G7, modified for infrared, which gave even more penetrating views of both the clouds and the shadows they cast. I took altogether over 300 photographs during the flights, mostly cloud shadows but also great views of natural and man-made shapes, forms, textures, and the abstract, fractal-like world they created. At the end of this post you will see a small collection of these photographs.

Shadows can be extremely powerful components of photographs, they evoke different feelings, and convey different meanings. Philosophers from Plato on, perhaps even from earlier time have used shadows as metaphors and written about them. They are indeed fascinating, now I am planning to acquire and read Seeing Dark Things by Sorensen. The more I thought about the cloud shadows the more special they have become for me. Cloud shadows are unlike any other shadow we normally see. In fact, photography is as much about the shadows as it is about the light reflecting off surfaces. Yes, sometimes the shadow may be so diffuse, so soft we may think that there is no shadow. Make no mistake about it, if light strikes an object it must cast a shadow, no matter how soft or diffuse. What distinguishes the cloud shadows from the shadows of most objects we see around us (including our own shadow of course) is their continual change and eventual disappearance. I do not mean the disappearance of the shadow only, but also, and more emphatically the disappearance of the object that casts the shadow along with the shadow.

Cloud formations have purely random patterns, size, shape, and density. Therefore, the shadow they cast has a random shape to begin with. The surface upon which the shadow is cast, and thus becomes visible, also has random shapes, terrain, texture, and reflectivity. The intersection of these give birth to infinitely variable shadow shapes. Additionally, the clouds constantly change, they move over terrain, grow, shrink, get thinner, and eventually disappear. It is this continual flux that makes the cloud shadows ethereal and special to me. Of course, in the long run, everything changes and eventually disappears, shadow and all. But we rarely get a glimpse of this phenomenon as it routinely occurs in the cloud shadows, often without anyone noticing and perceiving their special qualities. Now, they give me a wonderful feeling of seeing something magical, something fleeting, something joyous, something to celebrate.

Next time you see a cloud passing over, try to be aware of its shadow and fleeting nature. I think you will find it at least fun, if not outright wonderful.

Cloud Shadows

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My pilot Simon was the most pleasant guy who moved to this country from New Zealand. He seemed to enjoy flying and seeing the nature equally well. As my surprise birthday gift was planned by my wife, and my daughter and son-in-law, we drove to Ogden airport where Simon met us. We later found out that we could have started the flight in Salt Lake City. All in all, the whole experience was truly a great birthday gift. Thank you Jan, Tolga, thank you Elif for organizing it and driving us to Ogden in heavy traffic. Of course, thank you Mina for being such a good sport during the whole long day. Thanks to all of the above people, I have a truly memorable birthday, my 65^th. Below are a very preliminary selection of photographs with minimal to no editing, the nature speaks for itself.

Preview

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The flight to the Vineyard was very smooth and comfortable and I tried to get a feel for aerial photography. Although the front seats had windows that could be opened, I was sitting in the back and had to shoot from behind the glass. The weather was not the greatest with much haze and I was getting a little disappointed. We landed in about 35 minutes or so and Barry did a fine job landing the plane. Maybe it is like riding a bike, once you learn the basic skills you never forget.

We made our way to the small restaurant at the airport and ordered salads and Barry and the flight instructor started talking about planes, flying and other airborne subjects. Suddenly, Barry said “look who’s coming, look, look!” I turned around and there they were, Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney with their wives. They sat at the table next to us and Barry kept asking me to shoot from the hip, under the table and get some pictures of them. I told them I would not do paparazzi style photography but could not resist the temptation of asking them if I could take a couple of photographs as we walked out of the restaurant. Cronkite said, in his typical deep voice “that’s fine by me” and I snapped the photograph, turned around and photographed Andy Rooney. I am grateful for his agreeing to have their pictures taken, the man I saw on TV so many times became a real person, a kind and gentle one at that. Andy Rooney, well he was his usual self, probably did not care much about my taking the photographs, did not look at me, but did not object either.

Thank you both guys.

You can see the photographs from the trip in my personal gallery. This could be habit forming!

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