Virtual Expert: Jim Patrico

Jim Patrico was awarded first place in the Pictorial category in the 2007 AAEA Photography Awards Program.

We were doing an article on Union County, S.D., for our annual "Best Places to Live in Rural America" feature, which is heavy on photos. I already had done quite a few people pictures and wanted a good scenic to round out the story. In casual conversation, one of my sources mentioned that at that time of year, there was often a morning mist in the air, especially in the southern part of the county where the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers converge. I thought an aerial photo might capture that mist while showing off the county's natural beauty. I watched the weather forecasts and found a pilot and plane.

On the day we picked to fly, I met the pilot a little before dawn at the Sioux City, Iowa, airport. As we took off, the sun broke the horizon. The light and mist married in a spectacular way that was beyond my expectations. I soon learned that to get the best effect, I should be shooting back toward the sun but at a high enough angle that I didn't get lens flare. So we looked for land features that would work with the light. I wanted earth-bound features that poked above the mist. We found that in several spots, but the best was the small town of Jefferson, SD, which has a church, a cemetery and a grain elevator that showed through the mist. We circled a few times, and I shot until I thought I had what I needed. As we left Jefferson and headed off to search for other scenes, I gave the pilot a big thumbs up. We knew we'd been very fortunate that morning.