Cameras have a changed a lot over the past hundred years. They got smaller and lighter, became more electronic, film gave way to digital sensors, and we now have flying cameras commonly called “drones.”
Aerial photography started at least as early as 1858 by Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (aka Nadar) who photographed from a hot air balloon in France. But most photographers didn’t have a hot air balloon handy so they had to find other ways to get a high camera angle:
Circa 1909. (US Library of Congress)
Photographing New York City from 18 stories above Fifth Avenue, circa 1907. (US Library of Congress)
Emery and Ellsworth Kolb work together to photograph a canyon wall in Grand Canyon, Arizona, 1908. The brothers used this technique frequently. (US Library of Congress)
The Kolb brothers became famous for their Grand Canyon photography. Their photo studio was literally perched on the edge of the canyon.
On the overhanging rocks at Glacier Point, 3,300 ft. above the valley, showing Yosemite Falls in Yosemite, California, 1902. (US Library of Congress)
“Jersey” Ringel records movies (newsreels) from the wing of an airplane, 1921. (US Library of Congress). Of course, for this photo to exist, there was another photographer in another plane.
William James Sr. records movies (newsreels) from a plane in Canada, 1916. (Toronto Archives). For this photo, there was no other photographer. This is a self-portrait.
William James Sr. takes photos from a ladder in Toronto, circa 1914. (Toronto Archives)
Sky High Photography
