Taking Photos from the Skies

Taking photos has been a long-time hobby for me, what with taking site photos for my work, family photos, and plain old “I just want to take pictures for the sake of taking them.” I barely leave the house without some form of photographic equipment.

Nowadays, it’s the smartphone (with my DSLR coming out of the cabinet only in very specific circumstances), but way back in 2014, I was using my dear old Olympus XZ-2, what was once called a Micro Four Thirds or compact DSLR. This camera had a specific setting that allows me to do a tilt-shift lens effect allowing me to take photos of things that look like toys or dioramas. I use this setting the most whenever I am on an airplane, specifically the approach for the landing. This is when the landscape outside the plane is still high enough for tilt-shift to work well, but low enough for details to emerge.

The plane ride over Japan was the flight in which the magic of tilt-shift came alive to me, since the landscape was so much more different than the ones you see in the Philippines. It isn’t the orderly roads or buildings of Japan vs. the general mayhem of the Philippine cities from the skies, but the simple point that the Japanese have a different mindset from Filipinos in terms of site layouts and sensibilities.

Here are some of my favorite photos from that flight:

This is a view of a small farming town—I have no idea what they are farming, but it might be rice or tea due to the vibrancy of the green fields. You can see how the residences stick together in a centralized spot while letting the green spaces have areas to expand. Note the national road on the left that connects that town to the wider area of the space.

This one shows a main road beside a river channel. These show how far away from the river the towns are so as to make sure the buildings are safe in case of flooding events. The red bus was a nice splash or vibrant color in the greenery of the photo.

A photo of a country club with a golf course. It was fascinating to see the sand traps and the little golfcarts from this angle as they indeed look like a toy diorama from the airplane.

It took me a long time to figure out what this was…it’s a memorial garden. Before, I assumed it might be some form of public grounds with lots of green spaces but closer inspection shows that these are tombstones. It is incredibly well planned, and very orderly as can be seen from the air.

This is a photo of a factory complex. It seems to be creating pre-fabricated concrete elements for construction if you look closely at the blue mobile cranes.

My last shot before fully landing in Japan. I like the contrast of the green spaces with the urban elements like roads and vehicles.

Overall, the high angle provided by airplanes creates unique opportunities for images like these. Maybe you can try to do these types of images as well in your future trips.

"The plane ride over Japan was the flight in which the magic of tilt-shift came alive to me, since the landscape was so much more different than the ones you see in the Philippines. It isn’t the orderly roads or buildings of Japan vs. the general mayhem of the Philippine cities from the skies, but the simple point that the Japanese have a different mindset from Filipinos in terms of site layouts and sensibilities."