The Long and Lonely Run

Way off on the distant horizon is Steptoe the only recognizable feature on The Palouse when it’s covered in a blanket of snow. The photo mission wasn’t the background but rather, the pair of 450 Stearman. We had already made one orbit and my attention was on the subject until the end of the pass when the vastness grabbed my imagination. What was it like a hundred years ago when the lonely pilot launched and as far as they could see was an open landscape? No real maps, no weather forecast, no search and rescue, just the pilot and the heavens. I wanted that feeling in a photo so we made another pass, arranging the two Stearmans further apart and further from the photo platform. As you look over the photograph, I wanted you to feel the long and lonely run.