I have seen so many amazing sights from the window of an airplane: lightning storms all along the eastern seaboard as I flew from D.C. to Miami; the thin, green ribbon of the Nile tracing its way through the Sahara; the flood-stricken Great Plains states; the mast of an enormous sailboat poking through the fog as we took off from Orange County, California; the Grand Canyon and the Meteor Crater in Arizona; the Milky Way and countless full moons and sunsets. As I think about those experiences, I feel indicted by Louis CK’s widely viewed Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy rant on Conan O’Brien’s talk show.

So, on a recent two hour flight, when I found myself in a row by myself, I moved from the aisle to the window, put away the stacks of reading materials I had brought and pulled down my camera from the overhead bin. It was hot on the ground and the air was hazy, but I still took about 250 photographs along the way. It was another example of a recurring phenomenon in my life as a photographer: the camera helps me to see. The world is an amazing place. I need to remember to slow down and look at it.

Here are a couple of images from my recent flight:

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The surprisingly ubiquitous camel, which we saw everywhere from the desolate wilds of the Sinai to the busy streets of Cairo.

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One of the pyramids at Giza, photographed early in the morning just as the fog was lifting.

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We were able to take a short break in the middle of the trip and spent an afternoon watching kiteboarders and windsurfers tearing it up along the coast of Israel. The mountains in the background are in Jordan.

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On the left is a Bedouin musician we met at a camp near Wadi Musa in southern Jordan. On the right, a pilgrim is lost in meditation in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

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My intrepid travel partner, Colby, photographed at the beautiful Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Cairo.

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