Comments on: Up, up and away.

Up, up and away.

Mitheral — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:50:22 -0800

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.

By: unSane

unSane — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:54:19 -0800

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...

By: exogenous

exogenous — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:58:37 -0800

Cool stuff. Reminds me of the book Earth from Above.

By: jsavimbi

jsavimbi — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:03:33 -0800

Thanks for the Flash navigation warning. Grrr. Seems like I'm going to have to issue my yearly warning.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:05:06 -0800

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.

By: pjern

pjern — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:05:22 -0800

That Laboratory Mouse House link is borderline disturbing.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:06:41 -0800

I love tea and crumpets.

By: gman

gman — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:13:42 -0800

That Laboratory Mouse House link is borderline disturbing. It's like a testicle with appendages.

By: jlowen

jlowen — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:52:10 -0800

I've seen similar aircraft flying in the Flint hills of Kansas. Where oh where can I buy one?

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:38:01 -0800

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).

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:38:09 -0800

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!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:17:11 -0800

Arouane looks like a rocking little town, yup.

By: Forktine

Forktine — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:02:17 -0800

The photos are pretty, but it's the powered paraglider that I want.

By: sidereal

sidereal — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:03:44 -0800

Ah, Rub' al Khali, The Empty Quarter. What an amazing place. Even the Bedouins say, "There's nothing there."

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:27:49 -0800

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.

By: Forktine

Forktine — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:35:13 -0800

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.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:44:37 -0800

The part I was wondering about was the herringbone pattern yet layed out in blocks.