Free Spirits Jump for Joy at Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah
In May 2011, I drove Hwy 191 North to Canyonlands Field, which serves as both the commercial and private aviation airport for the City of Moab, Utah. It was a clear, windless and warm day at the airport. My friends Tiger Keogh and Terry Carlson,
both of whom work at the airport, had invited me out to watch the
flight action on that busy Saturday. Soon after I arrived, the Great Lakes Airlines
plane from Denver, Colorado landed, followed quickly by several
charter aircraft. Although the commercial traffic was interesting,
voices in the sky kept interrupting my photographic work. Watch First-time Parachutists in Full-motion Video Action
Out past the Redtail Aviation hanger, where we share our MoabAirlines.com
webcam, I saw beyond to the Moab Skydiving Epicenter. There, two
separate businesses, Skydive Canyonlands and Skydive Moab offer tandem
parachute jumps for novices and first-timers. With shouts of joy and
abandon coming from all over the sky, I captured the scene using both
live video and still images. To do that required juggling my Sony Bloggie Touch for the HD video with my ancient Sony DSC-F717 digital camera for the stills.
As
soon as I arrived, a small Cessna loaded with parachutists taxied
around the corner and took off. Soon, I could hear the plane circling
above, but the bright sun masked my view. Until we heard shouts from
above, no one below knew that jumpers were in the air. Looking up, I
soon caught sight of several first-timers preparing to land. Friends
were hooting from below, which set off more hollers from above.One exuberant jumper ran all the way from the landing zone to the staging area. As tears of joy streamed down her face, “It was freaking awesome,” she declared to her friends. Indeed, it was awesome to see humans descending from a blue and white desert sky. The image of mythic humans descending from above conjured my own visions Moab Rockart, which often features the spirit of the ancients floating in the air.
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By James McGillis at 04:34 PM | | Comments (0) | Link
