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This week's intended series of posts have been condensed into this one mega-post, but that doesn't take away any of the awesomeness of the subject. It's all up in the air for today, literally speaking as all of these photographs here were taken from a higher than usual altitude. Featured here are the works of Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Vincent Laforet, Bryan Solarski and Alex Maclean. All of these talented photographers and artists  are at the top when it comes to examples of awesome aerial photography.


The first of today's featured aerial photography masters is Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Veteran blog readers may already be familiar with his name as he's already been presented on this blog before for his portraiture work with prize-winning farm animals. Arthus-Bertrand's name is also well known because of his 2009 film, Home, which focused on the environmental impact of rapid industrialization and urbanization of all countries.

Arthus-Bertrand's aerial photography (the four example images above) has a strong emphasis on patterns, both man-made and natural. He has visited over 100 countries in order to document them from above, and the best part is that many of his images are available for free on his website.


The preceding four pictures were taken by our next featured photographer, Vincent Laforet. Laforet's work has been featured in dozens of publications, including National Geographic, Time and Vanity Fair. Aside from his aerial photographs, he is well-known among video enthusiasts for his cinematography work using modern DSLRs.

Laforet uses both traditional and tilt-shift lenses for his aerial work (although only his straightforward pictures are presented here).


The third of today's photographers is Bryan Solarski. His photography stands out from the rest in that he uses tilt-shift lenses to achieve his desired effect. In tilt-shift photography, the lens is, as the name suggests, tilted and shifted relative to the camera's sensor or film to produce the blurred, miniature effect. To illustrate this point using traditional photography, the image passes through the lens which is parallel to the sensor, thereby ensuring that the each portion of the scene has an equal chance of being in focus in the final image. In tilt-shift photography, the lens is maneuvered in such a way that only one portion of the image is in focus relative to the sensor.

If the explanation is a bit mind-boggling, don't worry about it and just enjoy Solarski's images.


The last of the featured aerial photography masters is Alex Maclean. His images (including the cover photo at the top) show complete mastery of the field. As wuth Arthus-Bertrand, his images show strong contrasts and lines, as if the structures and landscapes in his images were meant to be seen from above. This may come from his training in architecture. It's interesting to see how he selects certain parts of the scene below him to frame; through his lens they become little landscapes of their own and exist in a reality that can only be seen from above.

If you want to see more high-flying action shots, check out the websites of each of the photographers presented above. There's Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Vincent Laforet, Bryan Solarski and Alex Maclean. There's more awesome examples of aerial photography from three of the mentioned photographers through their published books. There's Earth from Above Tenth Anniversary Edition by Arthus-Bertrand, Over: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point by Maclean and Visual Stories: Behind the Lens with Vincent Laforet (Voices That Matter) by Laforet. Prints by Solarski can be purchased from his website.

 
It's been awhile since the Reel Foto blog featured any animals, so this week will be devoted to just that. While the last posts on the subject were focused on strange creatures underwater and close encounters of the wild kind, it's time to come back to those animals that are closer to man's heart. Man's best friend has already graced the Reel Foto blog twice, but nothing has been said of man's other best friends. Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand seeks to amend that by presenting fine and furry farm animals in all their glory.


You may have already heard of Yann Arthus-Bertrand, although his name may have been attached to another equally commendable project: in 2009, he released the documentary film Home which he directed. The film shows the beauty and devastation of planet earth from the air, and is freely available for viewing from the Home website.

Aside from his gorgeous aerial photographs (which have been published in the book Earth from Above), Arthus-Bertrand has dedicated most of his time to portraiture. He already has an impressive portfolio of studio shots of different professionals and peoples from his native France, but it is his magnificent portraits of animals that sets him apart from other photographers.


While the whole world cannot get enough of exotic creatures in the wild, people seem to overlook those animals that have helped humans become more civilized: cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks and many other farm animals have been comparatively neglected in the photography world. Arthus-Bertrand has changed that by not only documenting these creatures and their different breeds, but doing so in an elegant and formal manner.

In order to get these farm animals to a studio setting, Arthus-Bertrand and his team traveled to different farms and set up their make-shift studio which consists of a 10m x 10m or 6m x 3m canvas along with a couple of strobe lights on either side. Of course, all of this technical information won't do much good if the animals and their human handlers didn't light up the stage as they did in these photographs.


Originally, the farm animals were supposed to be photographed by themselves when Arthus-Bertrand visited an agricultural show in the early 1990s. When setting up the shot however, the animals would quite predictably become agitated and stressed out from being separated from their human owners and being put in front of foreign looking cameras and lighting equipment. Back with their human counterparts however, the animals would light up, giving the photographer the shot he needed. What started out as a documentary on different farm animal breeds turned out to be a testament on the meaningful and lasting relationship between man and beast.

Aside from farm animals, Arthus Bertrand also extended his man and animal portraiture series to include household pets such as cats and dogs, as well as a special focus on horses around the world. These additional two series show just how much man relies on animals for food, clothing, security and companionship.


Yann Arthus-Bertrand's website, which has more portraits of these furry and fine farm animals, is here. If you want higher resolution images, you can go here. The photographs are freely available as wallpapers, although they are a bit small for today's monitors. Still, it's a beautiful collection well worth browsing. For hardcopies, the farm animal portraits are collected in Good Breeding: Chunky Version. His other projects on animals have also been published in their own titles: Horses, Dogs and Cats.