Every photographer's work tells a story, and for the most talented, that body of images has a unifying character, a sense of how the artist sees the world and, by extension, who that shooter is. For West Seattle, Washington, resident Long Bach Nguyen, that world is one of contrasts---darkness and light, air and sand and sea, wild landscapes and urban geometry.
For years, Nguyen, who was born in South Vietnam and came to the United States in his childhood, has, as a professional landscape, aerial and travel photographer, captured the world from on high, amassing a stunning portfolio of images from around the world. But the subject of most of his work is the vast canvas that is Washington state, with its singular urban gem, Seattle, with its lights and spires and structures of concrete and steel and glass.
He shoots from a variety of platforms, though clearly the Beechcraft T-34 is his favorite, and his experience as a pilot is vast. After soloing as a Civil Air Patrol cadet in a Cessna 150 as a teenager, Nguyen has built a remarkable record of experience as a pilot, with 20,000 hours of flight time in a range of aircraft, from light singles to jets flying to every corner of the country and much of the globe. He is a corporate and professional demonstrator pilot in addition to his work as a photographer.
And he has continued to give back to the aviation world through his service flying search-and-rescue missions, locating eight missing aircraft and four survivors of those crashes over the years.
While Nguyen has photographed city and wild landscapes around the world, the work that we present here in Air to Ground III is of Washington state, which, with a landscape ranging from desert to forest to sea and sound, has offered Nguyen a range of visions to last a photographer seeing the world from on high a lifetime. ---Isabel Goyer
Boeing 737 Max in different liveries parked at Grant County Moses Lake airport. Nguyen took this shot through the passenger window of an Embraer jet during training while he was waiting his turn to fly the approach. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
Climbers at Grant Peak on Mt. Baker with the North Cascade Mountains as a backdrop. A friend was seeking to summit Mt. Baker and asked if Nguyen could photograph his group. Flying the Cessna 182 at 11,000 feet, he had no way to tell which group was his friend's. After 40 minutes, he took one last shot before heading back. And it turned out to be the right group. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
A strand of evergreens seem to huddle for warmth in a hollow created by mountain winds gusting around them. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
While on a flight in the T-34 to catch some sunset shots, Nguyen spotted this once-in-a-lifetime view, the powerlines at Lake Complex Natural Area in Enumclaw, Washington, lit up in orange by the setting sun lighting up the ground fog along the power line road.
The photographer Long Bach Nguyen in the front seat of a T-34 with his wife, Katherine, celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary and reliving their wedding night, when the couple spirited for their honeymoon in a different T-34.
Nguyen and his friend were doing mountain search flying proficiency in his friend's Cessna when the photographer noticed the dramatic lighting on this Cascade's slope. He quickly changed to black/white mode and used spot metering to capture this image. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
The imposing figure of Mt. Rainier towering over the Seattle skyline. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
Standing lenticular cap clouds on Mt. Rainier. Long Bach Nguyen spent about an hour loitering here, watching the light change as night grew nearer and capturing this stunning image in the process.
Nguyen captured the smoky blue silhouettes of Mount Stuart and the Cascades during a season of forest fires several years ago. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
The Seattle Space Needle rising above the fog. Nguyen took the shot out of a Cessna 182 slowed down and on autopilot as the fog rolled across the Bay and the west side of Seattle while conveniently leaving Boeing Field in the clear. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
Nguyen was giving a friend a mountain flying lesson while on the way to the Three Fingers formation when he caught sight of the lookout covered in snow. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
Long Bach Nguyen got this alpine scene of Twin Lakes in the Cascades with Columbia and Williams Peaks creating a majestic backdrop.
Students filled the Quad at the University of Washington (U-Dub, to locals) with the cherry trees in full bloom. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
The Seattle cityscape at sunset. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
Georgia O'Keeffe? Nope. The Cascades created this modernist shape with snow drifts filling a steep feature in the mountainside. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
A striking glacial erratic in a farm field. Erratics are glacially deposited rocks different in nature from the local rock, somethings picked up from terrain hundreds of miles away and then deposited as the glacier retreats. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
For perhaps the ultimate wingtip shot, Long Bach Nguyen captured the total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017.
A settling pond in deep blue and trimmed in green dramatically contrasting the neutral fields around it. Photo by Long Bach Nguyen
