Portfolios

Runway 35 at Kona International Airport.“ My tiedown at Kona International Airport is about 300 yards from the ocean, and the airspace around the Big Island is wide open as soon as you leave the airport area. Flying over the ocean takes some fortitude. If I fly from Kona to Kaui, that typically means about two and a half hours over the ocean. You have to know where you are and keep in touch with ATC. I think quite a lot about how I would get the airplane down in the water safely in an emergency. Even if the weather is clear, there are times in the winter when you’ve got big waves coming out of the north Pacific, and it’s not unusual to see 30-foot seas being blown by 40-knot tradewinds. That’s intimidating.People are friendly in Hawaii and the airports are relatively close. The runways are pretty well aligned with the prevailing winds, so strong crosswinds are rare. I don’t remember the last time I had to land in a strong crosswind.”

“I added a custom photo window on the pilot’s side. A high-wing airplane without a strut like a Cessna 177 would be ideal, but my Piper is pretty good. The photo window is slightly ahead of the leading edge of the wing, so I’ve got a pretty wide field of view. Doing both flying and photography takes some practice. You’ve got to divide your attention between the two tasks, but with proper planning it can be done safely and well.”

Short final to Runway 17 at Kona International Airport, Kona, Hawaii.

Pu’u o’o crater, Kilauea volcano, Hawaii. “Volcanos create their own smog—we call it vog—and it can be very disorienting. It’s like suddenly being in the Los Angeles Basin during a Stage-4 smog alert. I’ve had vertigo while flying in circles in the vog. It was like being in a cloud with no horizon, only a white haze.”

Surfers at “jaws” on the island of Maui. “When I shoot surf photography from the airplane I’ll see a set of big waves approaching and time it so that I’m turning at just the right moment, as the surfer is dropping down the face of the wave. It becomes intuitive. Doing it right requires knowledge of surfing, flying, and photography—and when all those things come together, it’s magic. A surf spot called ‘Jaws’ on Maui is an incredible place. Every winter, people gather there from all over the world. I’ll have my airplane ready, watch the surf, and fly an hour to get there. If I’m lucky and it’s clear, and the water’s a deep blue with 30-foot waves, it’s amazing. There are always a couple of helicopters there, and we’re all on the same radio frequency, so we work it out.”

Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. “The volcanos are spectacular. We have beautiful valleys on the northwest side of this island. The Haleakala Crater in Maui is incredible, but the summit is more than 10,000 feet, so you’ve got to go high.”

Humpback whales, Waikoloa. “One of my favorite things to photograph is the humpback whales that gather off the Waikoloa coast. They come here to breed, and they’re all over the place for about five months from November to April. On a clear day in the wintertime I’ll loiter at about 1,000 feet over the ocean. You can clearly see the whales below the surface. You see them coming up. You set up the airplane in rotation, throw the wing over, and start shooting. If you get it right, you get the whole sequence as they come up and out of the water. I’ll stay in the area shooting that for two to three hours at a time. The underside of a humpback whale’s flukes are white. You’ll see a flicker of whire below the surface and know they are about to come shooting out of the water.”

Na Pali coast on the island of Kauai. “So much of this island you can only see from an aircraft. Craters are hundreds of feet deep, and you can’t get there by road. Very few people ever go to the interior of the island, it’s open and empty and just beautiful. There are all sorts of things you can only see from above. The island of Molokai is about an hour away and Molokai has some of the tallest vertical cliffs in the world on the North Shore. The cliffs go from 3,000 feet right down to the water. Flying beside the cliffs at 1,000 feet, there’s a wall of green that reaches 2,000 feet above you and all the way down to the ocean’s surface. There are many times that I’m looking down on these incredible scenes and wish I had someone with me to experience them. It’s amazing what pilots get to see in Hawaii.”

Runway 35 at Kona International Airport.“ My tiedown at Kona International Airport is about 300 yards from the ocean, and the airspace around the Big Island is wide open as soon as you leave the airport area. Flying over the ocean takes some fortitude. If I fly from Kona to Kaui, that typically means about two and a half hours over the ocean. You have to know where you are and keep in touch with ATC. I think quite a lot about how I would get the airplane down in the water safely in an emergency. Even if the weather is clear, there are times in the winter when you’ve got big waves coming out of the north Pacific, and it’s not unusual to see 30-foot seas being blown by 40-knot tradewinds. That’s intimidating.People are friendly in Hawaii and the airports are relatively close. The runways are pretty well aligned with the prevailing winds, so strong crosswinds are rare. I don’t remember the last time I had to land in a strong crosswind.”

Surfers at “jaws” on the island of Maui. “When I shoot surf photography from the airplane I’ll see a set of big waves approaching and time it so that I’m turning at just the right moment, as the surfer is dropping down the face of the wave. It becomes intuitive. Doing it right requires knowledge of surfing, flying, and photography—and when all those things come together, it’s magic. A surf spot called ‘Jaws’ on Maui is an incredible place. Every winter, people gather there from all over the world. I’ll have my airplane ready, watch the surf, and fly an hour to get there. If I’m lucky and it’s clear, and the water’s a deep blue with 30-foot waves, it’s amazing. There are always a couple of helicopters there, and we’re all on the same radio frequency, so we work it out.”

Short final to Runway 17 at Kona International Airport, Kona, Hawaii.

“I added a custom photo window on the pilot’s side. A high-wing airplane without a strut like a Cessna 177 would be ideal, but my Piper is pretty good. The photo window is slightly ahead of the leading edge of the wing, so I’ve got a pretty wide field of view. Doing both flying and photography takes some practice. You’ve got to divide your attention between the two tasks, but with proper planning it can be done safely and well.”

Pu’u o’o crater, Kilauea volcano, Hawaii. “Volcanos create their own smog—we call it vog—and it can be very disorienting. It’s like suddenly being in the Los Angeles Basin during a Stage-4 smog alert. I’ve had vertigo while flying in circles in the vog. It was like being in a cloud with no horizon, only a white haze.”

Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. “The volcanos are spectacular. We have beautiful valleys on the northwest side of this island. The Haleakala Crater in Maui is incredible, but the summit is more than 10,000 feet, so you’ve got to go high.”

Humpback whales, Waikoloa. “One of my favorite things to photograph is the humpback whales that gather off the Waikoloa coast. They come here to breed, and they’re all over the place for about five months from November to April. On a clear day in the wintertime I’ll loiter at about 1,000 feet over the ocean. You can clearly see the whales below the surface. You see them coming up. You set up the airplane in rotation, throw the wing over, and start shooting. If you get it right, you get the whole sequence as they come up and out of the water. I’ll stay in the area shooting that for two to three hours at a time. The underside of a humpback whale’s flukes are white. You’ll see a flicker of whire below the surface and know they are about to come shooting out of the water.”

Na Pali coast on the island of Kauai. “So much of this island you can only see from an aircraft. Craters are hundreds of feet deep, and you can’t get there by road. Very few people ever go to the interior of the island, it’s open and empty and just beautiful. There are all sorts of things you can only see from above. The island of Molokai is about an hour away and Molokai has some of the tallest vertical cliffs in the world on the North Shore. The cliffs go from 3,000 feet right down to the water. Flying beside the cliffs at 1,000 feet, there’s a wall of green that reaches 2,000 feet above you and all the way down to the ocean’s surface. There are many times that I’m looking down on these incredible scenes and wish I had someone with me to experience them. It’s amazing what pilots get to see in Hawaii.”