Colorado

Fülszöveg

WITH 92 FULL-COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS
Flying above an ocean of white at 15,000 feet, nature photographer Tom Till closes in on Capitol Peak as it rears up through the clouds. At nearly 17,000 feet above the Sneffels Range, a near infinity of ranges and peaks appears in the San Juan Mountains. Seen from on high, the broad arc of a dune sweeps across Great Sand Dunes National Monument, hay bales punctuate the landscape near Iliff, shadows play across the slopes of Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.
In Colorado, Images from Above, Tom Till takes us on a most unusual trek across Colorado's landscape. Trading in his large-format camera for the speed and versatility of 35mm, Till crossed the length and breadth of Colorado's air space in light planes and hot air balloons. He braved buffeting winds, close encounters with alpine ridges, and stall warnings to preserve views no airliner would dare dip to get. Till's reward is an aerial portrait of Colorado that is as much a work of art... Tovább

Fülszöveg

WITH 92 FULL-COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS
Flying above an ocean of white at 15,000 feet, nature photographer Tom Till closes in on Capitol Peak as it rears up through the clouds. At nearly 17,000 feet above the Sneffels Range, a near infinity of ranges and peaks appears in the San Juan Mountains. Seen from on high, the broad arc of a dune sweeps across Great Sand Dunes National Monument, hay bales punctuate the landscape near Iliff, shadows play across the slopes of Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.
In Colorado, Images from Above, Tom Till takes us on a most unusual trek across Colorado's landscape. Trading in his large-format camera for the speed and versatility of 35mm, Till crossed the length and breadth of Colorado's air space in light planes and hot air balloons. He braved buffeting winds, close encounters with alpine ridges, and stall warnings to preserve views no airliner would dare dip to get. Till's reward is an aerial portrait of Colorado that is as much a work of art as a collection of 92 unique images.
The first book ever published depicting Colorado from the air, Colorado, Images from Above is a study in contrasts. We see a panoramic view of the Platte River crossing eastern Colorado on its braided path into Nebraska, then zoom in for a close-up look at the intricate pattern of farm furrows near Cortez. We compare wild and virtually untouched peaks in the Gore Range/Eagles Nest Wilderness with the human-scarred Pawnee Buttes casting shadows across the Great Plains. We see Lone Cone Peak blanketed in a week's worth of snow, and a summer-baked arroyo awaiting rain.
Each chapter of Till's Colorado portfolio focuses on one element of his unique aerial perspective. Beginning with "Landscapes from the Air," we see, from high above Poncha Pass, the Sangre de Cristo Range drop precipitously into the San Luis Valley. South of Colorado Springs, a distant Pikes Peak looms above wild granite ridges. Flying high between Denver and Boulder, we look down at Hogback sandstone formations marching below the Front Range.
"Patterns of the Land" leads us to speculate why a Great Plains farmer would disc such bizarre, artistic patterns across his fields. Through Till's lens we see eroded desert foothills in the Book Cliff Mountains, and ridges of shifting sand spreading like tentacles toward Medano Creek in Great Sand Dunes National Monument.
"Color" brings a fruit orchard taking on spring greens near Colorado National Monument, while Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle are bathed in sunset's lengthening rays. "Courses of Water" follows Tomichi Creek's serpentine path across the Gunnison River Valley, the deepening canyon of the Rio Grande River near the Colorado/New Mexico border.
"Microcosms from Above" satisfies two paradoxical human desires: to escape the earth, but also to take a closer look at what has been left behind. Through Till's finely tuned eye, we see a thin line of aspen and pine trees penciled into the barren high plains of South Park, and
a solitary snowbank contrasting with the red sedimentary rock of the Elk Range.
"High Rendezvous" proves beyond any doubt that Colorado's great wildernesses are as inspiring and spectacular from the air as they are from below. From on high, we observe with sudden clarity how the Green River flows around massive Steamboat Rock just past its confluence with the darker waters of the Yampa River. We see the ridges of the Holy Cross Range buried with a season's heavy snow, the Needles standing sentinel above Chicago Basin in the Weminuche Wilderness, the Boulder Flatirons rising before a distant Longs Peak.
"Moments in Time" are particularly fleeting when zooming past a sheer cliff with a camera pointing out an open plane window. Till preserved images of peak shadows pushing into South Park in the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and a rainbow hanging briefly in the sky before fading above the morning mists in the San Luis Valley.
Whether you've never set eyes on Colorado's diverse landscape, or you've scaled every one of the state's fourteeners and traversed a few plains to boot, Colorado, Images from Above is bound to bring you fresh, new perspectives on the natural beauty of the Centennial State.
Tom Till photographs the American landscape from land and from air. An avid river runner and hiker, he uses both means of transport when photographing our country's most inaccessible locations from ground level. While not a pilot himself, Till knows virtually every barnstorming pilot from Topeka to Tucumcari. He has also departed terra firma in hot air balloons to preserve the images in this book.
A resident of Moab, Utah, Till is presently at work on his second book forWestcliffe Publishers—Utah, MagnificentWilderness. His photographs have appeared in a wide range of calendars, books, and magazines, including Arizona Highways, Audubon, Sierra, and Wilderness. Vissza