Unlike Google Earth, you’re not relying on a satellite for your aerial images. Let’s talk about the logistics of how you get these shots from way up high.
I have a network of pilots, and I work with the individuals who are located where I want to photograph. But they’re also committed and believe in the project and contribute their machines and their time. It’s very touching.

One of your more recent flights was over the Gulf of Mexico this summer over the oil spill. Tell me about your response to that.
It was very intense. I constantly wanted to know what was happening at all times, so even if I wasn’t down there, I was talking to my pilot about what he had seen that day, and what rigs were coming and what rigs were going. And I keep a long list of articles about all of the aspects of the issue – I still do. We in America are bombarded by so much stuff that we sort of entertain it for a while and then we have to filter it out, and the same thing happened with the Gulf. It went on for so long. I think people now are immune to it, whereas in fact the issues are really just beginning. Okay, what is spraying all of that dispersant going to mean for the Gulf? And what about all of that oil? So the issues are really just beginning.