tampa to albuquerque

Hello Everyone,

I moved the CT plane this past week from Clearwater, FL. to Albuquerque, New Mexico flying along the Gulf to Houston. I photographed more phosphate mines just east of Tampa and then progressed up along the gulf coast to shoot the Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant which had a long canal that went out into the Gulf to get rid of the wasted hot water. I find it amazing how much energy is wasted cooling these plants.

After, I spent a night in Cross City and then continued along the Gulf toward New Orleans to photograph the intense coastal development as well as the extensive storm damaged caused by Katrina. It was incredible to see how many people were still living in FEMA trailers two years after the hurricane.

From New Orleans, I went to the mouth of the Mississippi which was interesting impart for the loss of wetlands and the people who manage to inhabit and live off this unique landscape. A large percent of the wetlands have been lost due impart to oil companies digging canals for drilling barges. Not only do these canals destroy the wetlands but also they further exasperate the problem by allowing salt water to infiltrate the marshes and kill the vegetation. Flying in this region I could really sense the power of heat and moisture with the building of towering cumulous clouds and afternoon thunderstorms.

Continuing on to Houston and Galveston Bay I could see the build up of the oil industry which is very extensive along deep water channels and that reach incredible intensity in the Houston Ship Channel.

From Houston I flew northwest to Albeline Texas to photograph the vast windfarms running for miles. I then traveled to Midline Texas and Roswell New Mexico. Roswell was interesting among other things for the mega-sized feedlots.

The next leg of the trip should take me out to the west coast going via Phoneix Arizona and the Imperial Valley.

Alex

The Plane

I am back in Cambridge from photographing in Florida. I spent a couple days in Miami on the ground waiting out tropical storm Berry to pass. I flew 10 more hours in the new plane going from Fort Lauderdale down to the Keys and then to Tampa via Lake Okeechobee.

The new plane draws a lot of attention wherever I land. The Flight design CT is classified a light sport plane it weights 650 pound with a useful load of 650 pounds; for more detailed specs see http://www.flightdesignusa.com/ (the CT stands for composite-technology). As anticipated the plane with its high cantilevered wing with no strut is great for aerial photography. Without the strut in the way I have an uninterrupted expansive view which allows me to shoot easily with a 17mm lens, before in my Cessna aircraft I could barely use a 24mm lens; the wider angle views offer new and interesting photographic possibilities. The new photo window is very usable but needs to be enlarged to enhance the planes true utility.

The CT’s lightness and clean design makes it incredibly fuel efficient getting 4.5 to 5 gallons an hour (it can use high test auto fuel with 10 percent ethanol) as opposed to 12 to 15 gallons of 100LL with my old Cessna 182. The CT if fun to fly with its stick control (as oppose to a yoke) and is very maneuverable. It slow flies easily at 50 knots and has a top cruise speed of 120 knots. Now I just need more practice adjusting to its flight characteristics and trimming it up for different air speeds. The trim tabs and throttle are not as easy to adjust as Cessna’s.

Working on getting images from Florida up on the blog in the next few days.

-Alex

Next Leg: Florida to Texas

I am back from Chicago, and will be in Boston until May 30th.

The roundtrip flight to Columbus, IN from Chicago proved to be interesting flying across beautiful agricultural lands and being surprised by the number of mega dairy farms with 3,000+ cattle, huge enclosed sheds and manure lagoons. Also, interesting were the new ethanol refineries.

I will be returning to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up my CTSW plane and will be doing more photography in the Miami area now that the fires have died down. I will then follow the Gulf Coast West to New Orleans, from there I will continue on to Austin, Texas.

Please let me know of any ideas or locations that would make for interesting climate change images. It was great on my last leg being able to upload your Google Earth locations right into my GPS unit and be able to track directly to your suggested sites.

Alex

In Chicago

Hi Guys,

I almost canceled my helicopter ride over Chicago this morning because on gusting winds and cloud cover. The weather turn out pretty nice by the time we got to downtown. I leave for Columbus, IN this afternoon. Hope to get that track into Google Earth with imbedded pictures.

Alex

Chi-Town and Columbus

So I have finally gotten the hang of Google Earth. Hopefully you will be able to use the placemarks I sent along. Mai, jus to keep you in the loop, I found a number of ethanol plants in IN and some locations of green roofs in CHI. I can send to you in an email if you like.

I had a difficult time located manure lagoons, but assume you will spot those when you fly over them.

Green roof fire stations in Chicago, having trouble finding them on maps, but there are four:
http://www.greengridroofs.com/projects/government/projects_firestations.htm

You can search this database for all of the locations in Chicago, IL, I unfortunately don't have enough time at the moment to track down all of the them, but sent a few of the bigger ones in Google Earth.

http://www.greenroofs.com/projects/

Hope this helps.

Chicago & Columbus

The new plane is great: http://www.flightdesign.com/index.php?page=product&p=1. The photo window was successfully installed last week; I then flew down to Miami from Sebring, flying in and out of plumes of smoke from the wildfires in the Everglades. The following day I flew in heavy smoke over to Ft. Lauderdale to fly home commercially. The atmospheric conditions made for interesting photographs, though not the typical pristine images of the Florida coast.

I am back in Cambridge and leave tomorrow for Chicago, IL where I will fly down to Columbus, IN and back, as well as shoot in the Chicago area. In Chicago I am hoping to capture green roofs, heat islands, blvd. tree plantings, McMansions in Hinsdale, energy and recycling facilities, and anything else that looks interesting. Going to Columbus, IN, I will be looking for ethanol plants, industrial agriculture and methane producing manure lagoons.

If possible, it would be great if you could send links either through Google Maps or Google Earth showing the locations of some of your site suggestions. In Google Earth you can do this by adding “Placemarks” to the Google Earth image. On the top menu bar there is an icon that looks like a thumbtack, click that and it will create a new placemark, you can then move the placemark around on the map, and rename it so that it is easily identifiable. To email placemark, go to: File > Email> Placemark (you can only do one at a time).

-Alex

nuclear reactor in Athens Alabama

I dont know if its too late to check this site out but it looks interesting.
Browns Ferry - Athens Alabama (picture included)
the north shore of Wheeler Reservoir in north Alabama
it is a nuclear reactor being reopen
- the site says that nuclear energy can bring large amounts of electricity without contributing to global warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/business/11nuke.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
-mai