Tore Ofteness Shoots the Moon

I spent the first eight years of my life in rural Norway, surrounded by water, hills and mountains. In order to see it properly, I climbed trees for a higher perspective. When I came to Bellingham, the landscape was much like Norway so I quickly felt at home – but airplanes have replaced climbing trees. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are surrounded by beautiful landscapes – the Salish Sea to the west and the Cascade mountains to our east. I have long been drawn to the mountains – especially to photograph them from the air, which shows them in context and gives one a sense of scale.

These photographs were done over a period of more than twenty years and are part of a continuing project of documenting the changing seasons and our changing climate. One part of this project has been my attempt to photograph all 12 full moons rising over Mount Baker. Since 1993, I have managed to get nine of them. Our weather has been the main reason for not yet getting all twelve. The missing moons are January, March and June, some of our wettest and most cloudy months, but I’m an optimist and every year I hope to get lucky. I feel that if I’m going to take on difficult project, I may as well shoot for the moon!

Born in Norway, Tore Ofteness‘ life-long love affair with aerial photography began in 1964 while serving in the military. His early experiments photographing from fixed wing aircraft with a Kodak Brownie camera led him to a career in photography that has earned widespread acclaim, including a recent Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Aerial Photographers Association and a City of Bellingham Mayor’s Art Award.