The Beauty of Flight :: New York, LA, Tokyo, Denver

I recently had the most disastrous trip of my life. The reason for the trip was a complete bust. Worse than a bust. But at least I did manage to capture an extraordinary set of images that really illustrates why I love to fly.

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American Airlines (and TAM) at JFK Airport in New York City

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JetBlue sunset at JFK

Sunset over The Rockaways in NYC

JFK Airport in the foreground, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan receding into background

Sunset over Manhattan

Sunset on the Hudson River at a Dutch Angle over New Amsterdam

Los Angeles

LA LA Land, metaphorically; Los Angeles.

LA LA Land, actuality; in Tokyo. My seat mate was watching it. Normally the reflections in the windows drive me nuts, but Emma Stone isn't quite normal, so I decided to make the best of the situation.

American hangar

Those Qantas A380s at Los Angeles are some of my favorite rides.

Sunrise over Los Angeles

Sunrise over Redondo Beach, Los Angeles

LAX World Airport sunrise

Sunrise over LAX

The shining Denver airport in the sunset

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Watching a plane land while waiting for takeoff at Denver

Delta Denver sunset

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Sunset from the air over the Denver Rockies, taken with iPhone 7+ with Lightroom's HDR function

Calton Hill :: Edinburgh, Scotland

We spent our last evening in Scotland on beautiful Calton Hill in downtown Edinburgh. With a short 2 minute walk, you can walk around the edges of the hill getting an incredible view of most of the city. There are half a dozen different views and hundreds (if not thousands) of compositions. Calton Hill is an absolutely essential sunset stop in Edinburgh. It's likely great for sunrise as well, but unfortunately we had to leave for the airport before sunrise.

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We had a long, spectacular sunset over Edinburgh

We stayed at the wonderful Sheraton Grand Edinburgh for only 12k points per night. For a hotel that was going for 500 GBP in peak summer season, it was a fantastic value. My Starwood Platinum status gave us lounge access. They have a really beautiful club lounge with a delicious, filling evening supper spread.

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The streets of beautiful Edinburgh from the foot of Calton Hill. Handheld A7rII 55mm, f/1.8, ISO 800, 1/60th.

This post is part of a series of posts about my family's British Isles trip in July/August of 2016. My parents and four siblings joined me as we went from London to Dublin and everywhere in between in 2.5 weeks. Here's our itinerary:

1. London (England)
2. Stonehenge (England)
3. Oxford (England)
4. Bibury, Cotswolds (England)
5. Wales
6. Peak District (England)
7. Chatsworth House (Peak District, England)
8. Yorkshire and Staithes (England)
9. Foggy Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
10. Bright Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
11. Kilts & Bagpipes (Scotland)
12. Edinburgh (Scotland)
13. Northern Ireland
14. Waterford/Dunmore East (Ireland)
15. Western Ireland and the Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)
16. Dublin (Ireland)

Sunset at Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

We spent one awesome night at the Gold Coast. The sunset was absolutely incredible. And I stupidly missed its peak by not getting out there early enough. Always get to sunsets and sunrises early and watch them unfold. Don't wait until you see they're nice before going, or you'll be late. Learn to recognize the clouds and future paths of light that will make for a great sunset or sunrise.

Sunset over the main Gold Coast strip shortly *after* sunset had peaked. All the clouds on the left had been brilliant pink and orange mere seconds before. Taken with DJI Phantom 3 Pro.

We stayed at the fantastic Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort Gold Coast! I paid 12,000 Starwood points for one night. As a Plat75/Lifetime Gold member, they upgraded us to a ginormous 1000 square foot one-bedroom suite! It was an incredible deal as a Platinum member. If we hadn't had a super-early flight out of Brisbane the next morning, we could have also enjoyed free breakfast as a Platinum member, which I'm sure would have been great. I wish I'd've taken the time to photograph some of the beautiful grounds, including gorgeous pools. Ah well, there's always next time. All in all, the Sheraton Grand Gold Coast for SPG Platinums is a fantastic value on either points or cash. Highly recommended.

Sunset over the Sheraton Grand Gold Coast. Taken with DJI Phantom 3 Pro.

Long exposure photo taken by Fineas of me flying the DJI Phantom 3 while concentrating carefully on photographing the sunset. I was concentrating so closely, I didn't realize he was still taking a photo and I moved halfway through the exposure. But I kinda like the effect!

Shot taken down the Gold Coast island, away from the strip. Taken with DJI Phantom 3 Pro.

Sunset walk on the beach

Another happy accident photo. This was on my second flight of the evening. My first battery was nearly empty, so I dove for the beach, landed, swapped batteries, and took off again as fast as I could. I failed to notice that when I landed, my camera had buried its lens in the sand, coating it with sand. When I took off again and took some pictures, the red landing lights of the Phantom reflected off the grains of sand, creating a dreamy bokeh lights effect over the whole photo. Or the photo has chicken pox, depending on whether you're a pessimist or optimist. :-)

Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road :: Victoria, Australia

The Great Ocean Road's Twelve Apostles needs no introduction. My buddy Fineas (an Australian, pilot, and photographer) and I visited a week or two ago. We were blessed with a terrific sunset. In contrast, the sunrise wasn't much to write home about; but that's likely structural, given the way the Twelve Apostles are oriented--the sunrise was at about 4-5 o'clock over my right shoulder. It was cloudy enough, I don't know for sure, however.

Twelve Apostles Sunrise

Did you know that there are only eight apostles left? (The other four were "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine" and collapsed.) Wikipedia writes: "The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park, by the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Their proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction. Currently there are eight apostles left, the ninth one of the stacks collapsed dramatically in July 2005."

Twelve Apostles Sunset

If you walk further down the boardwalk, you can get a view of more of the apostles, but in my opinion, this is the best composition there is.

Fineas photographing Twelve Apostles sunset