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Above Atlantic Canada

Aerial Photography by Russ Heinl

Nimbus Publishing - 70 colour images on 88 pages

Cost: $29.95

Hardcover

ISBN 1-55109-322-7

Ready for Take-Off!

reviewed by Ronnie Scullion

The seasoned air traveler will recognize the aerial perspective afforded in this collection of photographic works. The cross-hatched and checkerboard landscapes, as seen from above, are reminiscent of the view from an aircraft window upon take-off or landing.

But Russ Heinl flies in for a much closer look. His landscapes are intimate portraits of rock outcrops, tapestries of farmland, and colourful, storybook townscapes. Heinl relies on the aerodynamic powers and versatility of helicopters rather than airplanes, allowing him to come within dangerously close proximity of his photographic subjects. With a helicopter he is able to hover or 'back-up' into a canyon wall, and fly at break-neck speeds close to the ground.

Heinl's collection of seventy photographs of the Atlantic provinces
capture moments of untold beauty and colour: a golden dusk engulfing Yarmouth Bar at Nova Scotia's western tip, a striking red clay road traversing lush farm fields on Prince Edward Island, and the sombre blues and greens of the fjords and mountain peaks at Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland.

Land and sea formations take on an aura suggestive of modern sculpture as seen from Heinl's vantage point. The gentle curves that outline the Island of Buctouche make it appear as a water nymph or sprite bathing in the Northumberland Strait. A view of Halifax Harbour with its many busy wharves reaching into the waters like the working stevedore hands that are employed on its docks.

How are these spectacular moments frozen in Heinl's camera lens? - the thunderous splash of the majestic Right Whale off Brier Island or the high speed catamaran, The Cat, racing on its way to Maine from Yarmouth. Heinl uses a pair of heavy duty gyro stabilizers. These are attached to the camera's body making them "back-breakingly heavy" says Heinl, but allowing for "the use of slow speed films, slow shutter speeds, and the long lenses in the helicopters." This technique has been refined to an art in conjunction with Heinl's photographic skills and artistic eye for composition.

"One of the most photographed lighthouses in the world. The East Quoddy Lighthouse (on Campobello Island, New Brunswick) is only accessible to visitors an hour-and-a-half before and hour after low tide."

Heinl's work has taken him around the world - to Europe, Alaska, America and over most of Canada. Yet he maintains it was the "haunting  beauty" of the Atlantic provinces that "caught him totally off guard" and that he was to so movingly and successfully able to capture in photographs.

"Above Atlantic Canada" is a handsomely bound hard cover coffee- table-sized book. The volume makes for a truly awesome adventure for the armchair traveler.

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