Like many people (I think), when I fly from city to city on a commercial jet, I look out the window - and wonder where the hell I am?? And I would see fascinating geological formations, and wonder - what the hell is that??
So - I decided to find out. I bought a GPS, and a a digital camera, and took them with me on a couple of flights between LA and NYC. Now, the GPS did not work that well in the plane - if I held it up to the window CONSTANTLY, it would pretty much stay in sync - but if it lost posiiton, it took a LONG time to re-sync. On one trip, I was on the NORTH side of the plane, and it seemed most of the satellites were south of me - I wondered if a seat on the south side of the plane would be better? Well - I have not had a chnace to try that.
My original interest was in geological formations. But even if I knew WHERE something interesting was, I did not know WHAT is was. So - I am thinking of taking a geology course at a local college - or maybe save this list of locations for a cross-country drive - so I can stop and see them up close.
But I also found I was fascinated by the small outposts of civilization I could see - tiny towns - even individual farms - and matching these locations to my photos was fascinating. For whatever reasons - because I was one person juggling the GPS and the camera, or because the plane was mving at 500 miles an hour - in any case, the GPS only got me a location CLOSE to the phtot lcoation. I used Mapquest to browse around - and came up with this.
I hope you enjoy. Comments are welcome.
One other point - many of the original phtots were LOUSY - washed out, no color, no detail. I thnk 5 miles of atmosphere will do that to you. But I was AMAZED about how much detail is there - hidden - waiting to be uncovered by simple image editting tools. I use JASC Software's Paint Job Pro to improve these photo's - and was BLOWN AWAY by the improvement. I should post an unimproved photo ...
Click on any thumb-nails for a hi-res version of that
photo.
Red
Rock Canyon and the Blue Diamond Mine, NV
For info on the above location, go to redrock.org. See a topographical map here.
Red Rock Mine is on the high ridge with white roads, in the lower right
quadrant of the photo. The town of Blue Diamond is on the very bottom of
the photos.
Persia, Iowa. I think.
Click here
for a map. Haven't been able to find out much about the town. I think its
about 300 people.
Curecanti National Recreational Area - Gunnison, CO.