Aerial Photography

It is very interesting to see how different something can look when seen from a different perspective. Perspective can give a whole new meaning to an image. When taken from above, pictures can show very rare, but at the same time beautiful abstract images. As we learned in class, Nadar started with the practice of aerial photography to give a different look to his photos, but nowadays, aerial photography has become so popular that there are photographers who specialize in the practice of aerial photography. Aerial photography serves now for different purposes like the making of maps and environmental studies, but it is also seen as artistic. It is amazing how aerial photography can serve many purposes. Aerial photography is a clear example about the power of perspective.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a French photographer specialized in aerial photography. His love for photography and nature helped him create the GoodPlanet Foundation, which helps to raise public awareness of environmental protection and to bring concrete solutions to the Earth’s ecological crisis. Here is a link to his gallery: http://www.yannarthusbertrandgalerie.com/

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7 Responses to Aerial Photography

  1. Romaine says:

    I personally found his photo to be very interesting, perspective is a powerful thing. I would know these photographs would look in comparisons if it was just of the landscape and not aerial. The aerial views of the environment are beautiful and shows a different aspect of landscape photography. I can see why Yann Bertand has such a strong passion for it.

  2. Arthus-Bertrand’s photography is indeed a great example of the power of perspective. Aerial photography entails many things, including: having an eye for positioning of the subject; paying close attention to the details within the shot; and, capturing the perfect perspective (among many other aspects). It seems to be a branch of photography that requires experience, and access to important (and expensive) toys–including digital cameras and helicopters! I can only imagine how great it would be to work as an aerial photographer and get paid for it–and the process sounds like an exciting experience in and of itself.

  3. ahna0812 says:

    Yann Arthus-Bertrand have a lot of great example of perspective. almost all of his pictures are about nature, his photography always have a focus point in different photography. also, this foucus poin it will be different color and when you look at the photo, the focus point will pop out from the photo. it’s an amazing photography that Yann Arthus-Bertrand took. also, his passion of photography is very strong.

  4. mohsensoofi says:

    Aerial photography is a difficult form of picture taking as it requires being from an altitude. Aerial photography is a very brave work. It supports more to humanity when it works for a purpose and in this gallery of pictures, the answer is, photography is for good earth. More respectably pictures of earth taken from an altitude make a person worry and falls in affection for the planet. Pictures of Yann Arthus-Betrand rightly speak for the subject and for the purpose too.

  5. jcrawford says:

    If I had a plane / $4000 to flagrantly blow on renting a helicopter + pilot, I’d probably be a master of this craft in a matter of time as well.

    The pics are nice, I really like “Glace dans l’archipel de Turku, Finlande (translation, anyone?).” You’d mistake it as something other than aerial photography (possibly microphotography), because it just looks like a bunch of shards of rock.

    I’m still not sure what the pic is though (the abstractness of it is why I really like it). . . but yea, somebody help me out here?

    • aleckzzz23 says:

      If you think that this level of overall quality could be easily reached by just flying and taking pictures randomly then you probably would not succeed in this type of photography. It is not just the matter of having enough money. Of course, you will need the money to cover the traveling expenses, but first of all you have to be a very good photo journalist with perfect sense of visual balance. If you noticed some of the pictures were taken from relatively close distance and because of that the pictures look less abstract, having less ambiguity. You can clearly define people and what they are doing. My point here is that, even when Yann Arthus-Bertrand is dealing with almost normal angles, lengths and perspective, his composition skills and other technical aspects are still perfect. So he is a great photographer regardless of money.

      Now, regarding your favorite picture. The translation would be: Formation of sea ice in the Turku; archipelago, Finland.

      I personally found this picture just OK. It is a good example of pattern type photography, when you cannot define the object from which the pattern was made, unless it is signed. I would add some kind of clue for the observer to suggest that it is ices.

      The true value for me of aerial art photography is if you look at the picture from the distance you see the nice very artistic abstraction, but as you get closer you start finding details, that help you understand that it is also a landscape in front of you.

  6. superartist says:

    seeing life through point of view is always interesting, Aerial photography is just another way of doing photography yes you can take a normal picture using a front view of it or you choose to step outside the box and do something totally different and take a photography differently by taking an aerial point of view . I really have to say that Yann Arthus-Bernard point of view of his work is amazing never would have thought that capturing a photograph from an aerial point of view is very breath taking and impacting I also have to say that the picture are taken in such a way that it looks just as beautiful as a portrait . Aerial perspective is a real interesting way of looking at things and it’s really interesting how it is viewed

    This is my post!

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