In this week’s Plane & Pilot Photo of the Week, we share a photograph by Long Bach Nguyen. While on a flight in his T-34 to catch some sunset shots, Nguyen spotted this once-in-a-lifetime view, the powerlines at Lake Complex Natural Area in Enumclaw, Washington, lit up in orange by the setting sun lighting up the ground fog along the power line road. What had to come together were the angle of the sun, the time of day, the cloud cover’s exact position and this exact spot on earth and altitude above it.
This photograph is part of our feature on the air-to-ground photography of Long Bach Nguyen, a Seattle-based corporate pilot who in his spare time captures stunningly beautiful photography of the spectacular Pacific Northwest’s land and seascapes.
Boeing 737 Max in different liveries parked at Grant County Moses Lake airport. Nguyen took this shot through the passenger window of an Embraer jet during training while he was waiting his turn to fly the approach. Photo by Long Bach NguyenClimbers at Grant Peak on Mt. Baker with the North Cascade Mountains as a backdrop. A friend was seeking to summit Mt. Baker and asked if Nguyen could photograph his group. Flying the Cessna 182 at 11,000 feet, he had no way to tell which group was his friend’s. After 40 minutes, he took one last shot before heading back. And it turned out to be the right group. Photo by Long Bach NguyenA strand of evergreens seem to huddle for warmth in a hollow created by mountain winds gusting around them. Photo by Long Bach NguyenWhile on a flight in the T-34 to catch some sunset shots, Nguyen spotted this once-in-a-lifetime view, the powerlines at Lake Complex Natural Area in Enumclaw, Washington, lit up in orange by the setting sun lighting up the ground fog along the power line road.The photographer Long Bach Nguyen in the front seat of a T-34 with his wife, Katherine, celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary and reliving their wedding night, when the couple spirited for their honeymoon in a different T-34.Nguyen and his friend were doing mountain search flying proficiency in his friend’s Cessna when the photographer noticed the dramatic lighting on this Cascade’s slope. He quickly changed to black/white mode and used spot metering to capture this image. Photo by Long Bach NguyenThe imposing figure of Mt. Rainier towering over the Seattle skyline. Photo by Long Bach NguyenStanding lenticular cap clouds on Mt. Rainier. Long Bach Nguyen spent about an hour loitering here, watching the light change as night grew nearer and capturing this stunning image in the process.Nguyen captured the smoky blue silhouettes of Mount Stuart and the Cascades during a season of forest fires several years ago. Photo by Long Bach NguyenThe Seattle Space Needle rising above the fog. Nguyen took the shot out of a Cessna 182 slowed down and on autopilot as the fog rolled across the Bay and the west side of Seattle while conveniently leaving Boeing Field in the clear. Photo by Long Bach NguyenNguyen was giving a friend a mountain flying lesson while on the way to the Three Fingers formation when he caught sight of the lookout covered in snow. Photo by Long Bach NguyenLong Bach Nguyen got this alpine scene of Twin Lakes in the Cascades with Columbia and Williams Peaks creating a majestic backdrop.Students filled the Quad at the University of Washington (U-Dub, to locals) with the cherry trees in full bloom. Photo by Long Bach NguyenThe Seattle cityscape at sunset. Photo by Long Bach NguyenGeorgia O’Keeffe? Nope. The Cascades created this modernist shape with snow drifts filling a steep feature in the mountainside. Photo by Long Bach NguyenA striking glacial erratic in a farm field. Erratics are glacially deposited rocks different in nature from the local rock, somethings picked up from terrain hundreds of miles away and then deposited as the glacier retreats. Photo by Long Bach NguyenFor perhaps the ultimate wingtip shot, Long Bach Nguyen captured the total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017.A settling pond in deep blue and trimmed in green dramatically contrasting the neutral fields around it. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
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