Looking for the Great Bend

Great Bend of the San Juan River, Utah, USA
When we fly, we like to look out the window. Sometimes we know generally where we are and what we've photographed thanks to a map display on the aircraft. Sometimes, with or without the roaming map, we need to conduct research to determine what is in an aerial photograph.

If we're not sure what we're looking at, we use a variety of methods to determine what is in the picture. We often plot a great circle route map (as a starting point), examine prior and succeeding photographs, calculate time from take off, and try to find the landscape on Google Maps. We also often use Google's Picasa desktop tool to heighten colors and details.

Ultimately, Google Maps is the key, as it shows actual landscapes, but even this can take time as many landscapes can look nearly identical. Once we find the location for our picture, we then need to see if there is an associated name.

In the case of this photo, we used all of the methods described above. There were many similar bends in the landscape, so we had to further refine the criteria and look at the landscape from a variety of angles in Google Maps.