Dazzling Aerial Displays

(View of NYC Harbor taken in August 2011)

I have always loved flying.

To be sure, I relish the speed of take-offs and landings and I have never lost my sense of wanderlust, but over the years, I have learned to enjoy the aerial journeys as much as the final destinations!   America is so vast. I am as fascinated by the sinuous turns of the Mississippi as I am by the snow- topped craggy peaks of the Rockies!  I love the time warp as I fly on east-west flights.   I am mesmerized by the billowing thunderheads along the Gulf Coast and the dramatic lightning displays - especially at night!

As a child, I thought the villages beneath the plane were just for me - similar to the imaginary
villages and train displays set up at FAO Schwarz during the holidays in Manahattan!  Flying has never lost that magic;  thus,  I still ask for a window seat even though the use of cameras is now prohibited during takeoffs and landings,

Two years ago, my husband and I visited San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We were fortunate enough to
visit during an exhibit of spectacular aerial photography by the French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand.  Bertrand developed his passion for photography while living with the Maasai  in Africa and studying the behavior of lions from hot air balloons!   He would later photograph the work of Dian Fossey with the gorillas in Rwanda.

In 1994, UNESCO sponsored Bertrand to create an inventory of the world's most beautiful landscapes from helicopters and hot-air balloons. The book from this project, Earth from Above (‘la Terre vue du ciel’), sold over 3 million copies and was translated into 24 languages.  In 2000, his "Earth from Above"  exhibit was set up on numerous big posters.    This free exhibit travelled worldwide from Lyon to Montreal, to 110 cities,  and was visited by 120 million people.  This was the exhibit we saw in San Juan.

Bertrand's lens captures the stunning beauty of our planet and he is a passionate advocate for the preservation of our environment and global resources.  I encourage you to click or copy the following, if lengthy, link into your browsers to visit his virtual gallery (or just type his name into your browser and follow the links to his websites).  Enjoy a real master, with a unique view!

http://www.google.com/images?q=yann+arthus-bertrand&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VuZiTce9BcbUgQeB_c2ZAg&ved=0CEUQsAQ&biw=980&bih=1208

(View of the Yucutan Coral Reefs taken January 2011)