High above Adirondack Park

The Travel story in the May Spotlight is about the mountains and lakes of Adirondack Park in New York state. Deputy Editor Claudine Weber-Hof travelled there with her husband, photographer David John Weber. Together, they'll tell you the story behind some of the striking photos that accompany Claudine's article.

Claudine:
The opening shot in the magazine is of Long Lake, one of the 2,800 lakes and ponds in the park. David and I were flying in a very small plane when he took the photo. It took us nearly half an hour in the air for him to get the photographs that he wanted. Here is what David had to say about the challenging but very satisfying task of taking photos from an airplane.

David:
The first thing I recommend doing if you are going to go up in an aeroplane for the purpose of taking photos is to have a chat with the pilot beforehand. We were lucky enough to work with Tom Helms, a pilot who has been flying in the Adirondacks for more than 30 years. Tom recommended an evening flight to get the great reflections of the setting sun on the lakes and rivers, and the long shadows of the trees.

Tom's plane is a seaplane, meaning it has giant floats on the bottom of it for taking off and landing on the water. This means that the plane flies more slowly than, say, a regular Cessna. Before we took off, Tom unscrewed the window latch so that during flight, the co-pilot's side window could be flapped right up against the wing. This would allow me to photograph without the glass in the way. This also makes it incredibly loud inside the plane, so if you have anything to say, you have to do it before the window is open!

Click through the photo gallery to see some of the shots I took. I'll explain the details of how I took them as we go.

*Download a PDF of the first two pages of the article.

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