All photos by Mitch Rouse. Used with Creative Commons permission.
If the unique abstract quality of aerial photography is your cup of tea, you must have been on the lookout for our next featured body of work. To inspire you today, we bring the stunning work of Wyoming-based Mitch Rouse, showcasing a variety of landscapes and terrains that look otherworldly when viewed from above. As latest additions to our favorite aerial snaps, they make perfect examples of how changes in perspective can reveal nature’s artistry and penchant for abstract imagery.
Rouse’s aerial photography exemplifies well the shapes, colors, and textures that mostly lie hidden from our everyday view. His chosen locations range from familiar seascapes and rolling hills to intriguing wetlands and alien landscapes. The most prominent of these is The Palouse in eastern Washington and the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. With its wheat fields-covered hills, the former is hailed as the most serene and pastoral of the so-called Seven Wonders of Washington state. Meanwhile, the latter is especially noteworthy for its striking rainbow colors and being the third-largest hot spring in the world.
Rouse, a transportation entrepreneur and photographer, began his aerial photography with high-tech drones. However, he was unsatisfied with their limitations, so he resorted to shooting aboard aircraft. To shoot stunning aerial abstracts such as these, Rouse now uses a Phase One XF IQ3, lenses like the Schneider Kreuznach 35mm, and an F1 Shotover gimbal to mount his camera for these helicopter flybys. He is currently working with a retired NASA scientist for a really cool project: exploring photo-realistic mapping with 10x the resolution of Google maps.
Meanwhile, do check out Mitch Rouse’s website and Behance portfolio to see more of his high-quality aerial photography.
