Up, up and away.

December 23, 2009 6:50 PM

George Steinmetz takes aerial landscape photos from lightest powered aircraft in the world, a motorized paraglider (and sometimes a helicopter, a motorized hang glider, and a hot air balloon). Some of the places he has photographed include Arabia's Empty Quarter; Africa; the Dead Sea; the Altiplano; the Salt Deserts of Iran; and China. Warning: Flash based image display.

He's also done more conventional location photography of other people places and things including Antarctica; tree-dwelling people in Indonesian New Guinea that had no prior contact with anyone outside their language group; the Jackson Laboratory Mouse House which ships over two million mice per year for medical research.

posted by Mitheral (16 comments total)

nitpicking -- it's not the lightest powered aircraft in the world but the lightest powered manned aircraft. You can buy a remote control r/c plane that weighs 2.6g and is much smaller than the palm of your hand... but good luck with a camera...
posted by unSane at 6:54 PM on December 23, 2009

Cool stuff. Reminds me of the book Earth from Above.
posted by exogenous at 6:58 PM on December 23, 2009

Thanks for the Flash navigation warning. Grrr. Seems like I'm going to have to issue my yearly warning.
posted by jsavimbi at 8:03 PM on December 23, 2009

Sometimes I see these flying around my work...
Sparely populated, 6500 ft. , edge of "society". No tea and crumpets up there.

I want one, but I fear they will be outlawed as soon as Al Taliban uses one successfully.
posted by Balisong at 8:05 PM on December 23, 2009

That Laboratory Mouse House link is borderline disturbing.
posted by pjern at 8:05 PM on December 23, 2009

I love tea and crumpets.
posted by Balisong at 8:06 PM on December 23, 2009

That Laboratory Mouse House link is borderline disturbing.

It's like a testicle with appendages.
posted by gman at 8:13 PM on December 23, 2009

I've seen similar aircraft flying in the Flint hills of Kansas. Where oh where can I buy one?
posted by jlowen at 8:52 PM on December 23, 2009

Put some pointy ears on those tree dwelling folks and make them blue and you have the makings of a 3D movie. (Except maybe leave out the cannibalism part).
posted by eye of newt at 9:38 PM on December 23, 2009

Ever think to yourself that you live in a podunk town, a million miles from nowhere, with nothing going on? Well, go to Steinmetz's AFRICA collection and find the Sahara desert village of Arouane, conveniently located between Timbukitu and Taodenni. Then think again!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:38 PM on December 23, 2009

Arouane looks like a rocking little town, yup.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:17 PM on December 23, 2009

The photos are pretty, but it's the powered paraglider that I want.
posted by Forktine at 6:02 AM on December 24, 2009

Ah, Rub' al Khali, The Empty Quarter. What an amazing place. Even the Bedouins say, "There's nothing there."
posted by sidereal at 6:03 AM on December 24, 2009

I love the star shaped dunes; who knew such a thing existed.

Does anyone know why the housing pic in Cape town has blocks that feature long buildins set in a herringbone pattern. It's the image that originally put me onto his work via a stack image dump sites (Hint artists, flash means tin eye can't find your site either). But I can't seem to find an explanation. My best guess is it was some sort of housing project originally.
posted by Mitheral at 8:27 AM on December 24, 2009

My bet is that the long buildings were originally housing barracks for workers; notice how the open spaces have been completely filled in with small informal structures.
posted by Forktine at 8:35 AM on December 24, 2009

The part I was wondering about was the herringbone pattern yet layed out in blocks.
posted by Mitheral at 8:44 AM on December 24, 2009