From 35,000 Feet: Finding Stillness in the Sky

I know I’ve mentioned more than a few times that I LOVE traveling; air travel is a big part of that love. Maybe I’ve loved it lately because I could be upgraded to business class, which was much more comfortable than usual.

Using the Leica Q2 Monochrom makes the photos much more special. There are no colors, just varying shades of light and dark, and I love the idea of dark and moody shots.

Daniel K. Inouye International Airport

The funny thing is, my favorite photos from this last trip weren’t taken on the ground.

They were taken from my seat on the plane, somewhere over the Pacific, heading home from California back to Guam.

I didn’t plan it. I wasn’t even in the window seat at first. Thankfully, I got a window seat from Hono to Guam. I got lucky, and there was that endless layer of clouds, the soft gradient of the sky, the way the light hit the wing just right.

I pulled out my camera and just started shooting.

There’s something about being in the air that slows everything down. No notifications, no errands, no expectations. Just you, the engine hum, even though I was wearing my AirPods Pro 2, and whatever the sky is doing now.

These shots weren’t about perfection. They were about presence. About watching light shift across the clouds. About shadow lines on the wing. About feeling small in the best possible way.

When I looked back at the photos, especially in black and white, they felt timeless, clean, and calm, almost like film.

Sometimes the best moments happen in transit, not at the destination.

This wasn’t part of my Leica comparison or some big gear test. It was just for me.

But I’m sharing it here because it reminded me that you don’t need the perfect conditions. You just need to look.