Alan Taylor at The Atlantic is compiling images of the earthquake in Japan. The collection will be updated.

Dutch photographer Gerco de Ruijter recently got in touch with an extraordinary series of aerial photographs called Baumschule—some of which, he explains, were taken using a camera mounted on a fishing rod.

The series features “32 photographs of tree nurseries and grid forests in the Netherlands.”

Fantastic stuff. Would be fun to make mosaics out of these.

[via Kottke.org]

Helmand province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the southwest region of the country. The Helmand River flows through the mainly desert region, providing water for irrigation. Much of the fighting between NATO and Taliban forces is taking place in this province and Helmand is said to be a Taliban stronghold.

Associated Press photojournalist Kevin Frayer recently sent out a group of stark black-and-white aerial images that show the rugged, inhospitable terrain of the province. Frayer made the images while flying in a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army’s Task Force Shadow “Dust Off”, Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment.

Spectacular collection.

Professional photographer Joe McNally gets to the top of the beacon mast on top of the Empire State Building to get a shot.

The Big Picture has an absolutely stunning collection of aerial images of housing and other human created landscapes in southwest Florida. I love this stuff, reminds me of macro images of microprocessors.

Over Ontario, California. I had a whole row to myself last week on my trip to California and took this picture on approach to LAX. I haven’t done a lot of shooting out plane windows for a while, preferring to sit in aisle seats on the now crowded planes but during this flight I had an entire row to myself and it took me the entire breadth of the US to realize I could both sit on the aisle and shoot out the window.

That’s East Mission Blvd running at an angle to the airport and South Archibald Ave. tunnels under it. The freeway winding east/west in the background is Interstate 10, the San Bernadino Freeway.

I love seeing patterns from the air and I miss taking pictures like this.

This is a flash site so I can’t give you a direct url but click on Photographs/The Earth from Above and cycle through the various continents. Fabulous aerial photography of the earth. I couldn’t find a way to turn the music off. Ugh.

[via Scott James]

The Denver Post has put together a fine collection of aerial images of New York City (mostly Manhattan). Most of the images were taken by Daniel Acker for Bloomberg News but there are other photographers represented as well. This is one, fine collection.

The [Canon Hack Development Kit (or C.H.D.K. for short)] software has allowed photographers using more than 50 models of Canon PowerShot cameras to reprogram the time lapse instructions to record construction projects or to use motion-sensing programs to capture animals in the deep woods. It can also be used to alter the camera’s exposure control to produce imaginative images in difficult lighting.

Wow, fantastic piece by Peter Wayner on a loosely knit group of developers who write and share firmware hack scripts for Canon PowerShot cameras.

The New York times asked for reader submissions of aerial images taken on commercial flights. I was too late to offer up mine but there are some great ones in this collection.