See the Big Picture with MetroAir Photo

I became an aerial photographer in the summer of 1997 when I first went aloft with my Olympus 35mm taking pictures from a Robinson R22 helicopter. That experience led me to organize MetroAir Photo LLC on October 31, 2005.

As MetroAir Photo passes it's second anniversary I have had the privilege to photograph hundreds of sites throughout Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania feeling the winter chill and the summer wind from 10 feet over the Chesapeake Bay to 10,000 feet above a highway intersection.

Throughout all that variety of work I strive to provide the sharpest, clearest, highest resolution photographs that help people understand and appreciate better the land and buildings in which they live and work. Sometimes the photos are for display in a living room others will be published in reports to investors while still others will help prospective buyers to understand the value of the property.

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03/03/2009 01:30 PM
March 5, 2009 - Gallery Opening

I am proud to announce that starting March 5th MetroAir Photo has work that will be featured at VisArts at Rockville in their “How You See It” photography show. The photos include my aerial photo, FEMA Folly. My fiancee, Brandy Snedden, will have one of her equestrian photos, Dandelion Kisses, on display.

In conjunction with this event I have created a gallery to allow our customers to view and order selected art prints. Included are some of my unique and general interest aerial photos as well as Brandy Snedden’s equestrian photography.

Click here to view this new gallery of art prints.

I invite you to attend this opening with us to see our work and that of other artists throughout the area. If you cannot make the opening, the exhibition runs through May 10th.

For a flyer on the event, click here.

VisArts Center
155 Gibbs St.
Rockville, MD 20850
Opening Night: March 5, 2009 6:30PM-8:30PM
The exhibition runs through May 10, 2009

01/27/2009 07:57 AM
Singing about the Miracle on the Hudson

Much has been said already about the quick actions of Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III and his crew of Flight 1549 that had to ditch in the Hudson River following engine failure on January 15, 2009.  I personally appreciate their quick thinking and reactions.  Flying as often as I do with various pilots for photo missions it gives me an appreciation for the skills and quick thinking that come along with being a commercial pilot.  We expect so much of our pilots, yet they never receive the credit they deserve for their hard work every day.  So it was special treat when I discovered Garrison Keillor had written a song for the crew of Flight 1549: Garrison Keillor’s Flight 1549 Song

Thank you to all those who have piloted me in blue skies and gray!

Steve

11/29/2007 10:45 PM
Echos from our past

Today I was up flying, this time near Urbana, MD between Gaithersburg and Frederick. As my subject property was only a couple of miles away from the Monocacy Battlefield I asked my pilot to take a detour over this hallowed ground.

Not having tried to find this battlefield from the air before I simply knew generally where it was situated and recalled what it looked like from the ground when I visited there a few years back in 2004. I saw a familiar landmark, the bridge over MD-355 (Urbana Rd), the road that runs from Frederick through Gaithersburg, Rockville, and ultimately finds the Potomac River in the middle of Georgetown in Washington, DC. This landmark I had photographed before on one of my first trial photo flights, not realizing it was on the battlefield.

It was around the site of today’s bridge that in the late afternoon on July 9, 1864 that Union soldiers, exhausted from a full days battle facing a Confederate force nearly 3 times their numbers, made their final stand before retreating from the field with over 25% casualties.

These soldiers faced nearly impossible odds to win a spoil greater than land–time. Their actions delayed the advance of Confederate General Jubal Early’s force of 15,000 allowing Union forces to reinforce the fortifications around Washington, DC. Those forces arrived in time to defend and repel Early’s raid. The war would last 10 more months.

To learn more about Monocacy National Battlefield click here.

And that’s just one example of land that tells the story of who we are.  A snapshot in time that in our busy lives we zoom by.

Steve

Urbana Rd. bridge of the Monocacy River

11/28/2007 10:51 PM
FEMA Trailer Park

On a recent photo mission near Cumberland, MD I came across the storage site for around 1000 FEMA trailers.

The repeating patterns of row after row of trailers is pretty striking.

What’s more striking is that the average procurement cost of each of these was $18,620 per the Washington Post’s March 8, 2007 article on these surplus trailer sites. It’s a whole lot of taxpayer money sitting in a field waiting for disposal.

If anyone is interested in licensing these images for editorial or other use please contact me at 301-330-1390.

Steve Hane

Wide Shot of FEMA Trailer Park, Cumberland, MD

Tight shot of FEMA trailer park, Cumberland, MD

11/20/2007 11:14 PM
Thanksgiving and the train

There are many things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving. My family, health, and my home are the top three, but once those needs are taken care of my success in business would come next. Not just in keeping the books balanced and the numbers black, but that I actually enjoy what I do. There are good days and there are not so good days like in any kind of work. But just often enough there are some really amazing moments when I’m in the air and I’m able to capture something really great. A few of those with some relative frequency are what I plan to post here.

Below are a couple more pictures I really enjoy from a flight I took over Cumberland, MD as I tracked the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad on one its trips from Cumberland to Frostburg.

Enjoy.

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

This shot is cropped in quite a bit to show the detail captured in the locomotive even though I happened to be flying in an airplane over 1000′ above the subject.

Wishing you and your family a happy Thanksgiving,

Steve

10/29/2007 11:38 PM
To LA and back

This past week I traveled out to the west coast to attend the Professional Aerial Photographer International’s Western Regional Conference. It was a great opportunity to meet some of my West Coast based colleagues and thanks to Mark Holtzman of West Coast Aerial Photography I was able to see Southern California from the air.

We took off from Van Nuys airport that was featured in the documentary One Six Right (http://onesixright.com). If you haven’t seen it and have any interest in flying or understanding why I do what I do, see it. As we were taking off I photographed a Cessna 172 taking off on a parallel runway. C-172 taking off Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
We flew north to Bakersfield where my host had a site to shoot and then east towards to Mohave Desert to see what there was to see. We found a massive wind farm than you can see below. There were too many windmills to fit in a single frame, so I hope this gives a sense of the hundreds there were to see.
California wind farm
It was an amazing trip, but I am happy to be back.

This week brings a brand new website to MetroAir Photo as we move into our third year. This new website will feature a calander and a map depicting upcoming photo flights. This week I will be flying sites in the Petersburg, VA area and Hagerstown, MD area. My sites next week will include Frederick, MD and the northern Chesapeake Bay. Please stay tuned to our brand new website and calander for updates on scheduled flights.

If you have questions regarding the new website features or are interested in having a site photographed either in a hurry or on our schedule please call us at 301-330-1390.

Thank you,
Steve

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