Picture: Sunrise over the Sierra crest and the Lake Tahoe basin from 33,000 feet above the California / Nevada border.
I’m here at the Nanpa Summit in Destin, Florida this week. I knew from experience during last year’s summit in Palm Springs that there would likely be very little time for actual photography during the conference. Therefore, I figured the bulk of any picture taking would be on the plane ride.
Knowing that I was going to have to fly, and having a basic familiarity with east / west flight patterns, I was able to plan my flights so that I would be passing over the Sierra very shortly after sunrise. The only variables would be the weather, and my seating. As you can gather from the photo, I got lucky on both those points. As for the seating, I made sure I was on the side of the plane opposite the sun, so I wouldn’t get any glare off of the double pane windows. I also tried to make sure that I would be in front of the wing, so that I wouldn’t get any distorted air from the exhaust coming out of the engines underneath the wing.
In the picture, Lake Tahoe is the large basin in the upper left, and the Carson Valley is to the right of the Sierra crest. My return trip should have me flying over the Rockies at sunset.
Hope you have a fun trip Gary. This is an awesome shot. Last time I flew over that region, I saw two specter of brockens. They happened too fast to shoot them though.