Helicopter views

London helicopter tour

Our aircraft arrives

Last year I bought my husband a helicopter flight with The London Helicopter. We finally got around to booking it earlier this summer.

London

Westminster

I love helicopter flights. I love the change of point of view and the crazy angles you don’t get from an aircraft.

London

The City

Photography is challenging. Windows are not where you want them and never clean enough; viewpoints disappear before you have time to frame them; and then there’s those pesky reflections.

London

Battersea

It doesn’t stop me trying though.

London

Millenium Dome

We were blessed with a clear afternoon, luckily. It was so much fun seeing parts of London we know well from a whole new perspective.

London

Docklands

This was not my first helicopter sightseeing experience. We have taken a ‘copter over the Grand Canyon.

Aerial view

Can you see the other ‘copter below?

We have also enjoyed a flight over Kauai’s spectacular Na Pali coast.

Hawaii

A scene out of Jurassic Park

And, perhaps most spectacular of all, a flight over Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii’s Big Island.

volcano

Lava meets the Pacific

I kept the crazy angle in the next shot, to show that it was taken from a helicopter.

Hawaii

Lava + ocean = steam, and lots of it.

I was much happier seeing this from a helicopter than on foot!

Hawaii

Lava travelling underground vents through ‘skylights’ in the crust.

I would love to do a ‘doors-off’ flight next. I think I am hooked.

Hawaii volcano

Infernal Eye

A Perfect Getaway

Kauai from the air

Yesterday I posted a shot taken in August 2009.  In August 2008, we were somewhere rather different.  Our trip to Hawaii has to be one of the most memorable holidays we have enjoyed so far.  And one of the stand-out highlights was the helicopter flight over the beautiful Garden Isle, Kauai.  This view is of the Na Pali coast, which recently featured as the setting for a surprisingly good thriller, A Perfect Getaway.  We didn’t meet any crazed serial killers on our trip, thankfully.  The helicopter ride was thrills enough!  If I am ever lucky enough to go back, I want to do the doors-off flight. Now that’s one thing I never thought I would say.

 

Red

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Red is such a very photogenic colour. It looks great against snow and ice.

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And makes a vibrant focal point for a colour-popped black and white.

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We love red over here, on our buses, phone boxes, and postboxes.

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It is the colour of earth, from the slopes of Kauai’s Waimea Canyon…

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…to the raw power of the mighty Kilauea.

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It is the colour of fire, and those who fight it.

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But it is also a colour flowers use to lure bees,

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the colour of a robin’s breast,

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and of Christmas.

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From a boat on Lindisfarne’s fair and ancient shore,

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to the far more ancient walls of Egypt,

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deserted cliff-dwellings,

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and the roof of a Quebec church,

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red is all around us.

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It is the colour of our very life’s blood,
and of remembrance.

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Earth Day

 

To celebrate Earth Day, here are some images I have taken over the years of our beautiful planet.  The top one is, of course, the Grand Canyon.

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Painted Desert, Arizona

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Haleakala Crater, Maui

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Monument Valley, Arizona and Utah

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New earth forming, Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii

Northumberland National Park, England

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The Olgas, Australia

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Champagne Pools, Rotorua, New Zealand

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Vermilion Lakes, Alberta