Col-East, Inc. - Home of the largest photo library in New England

Photo Samples

The following images are all available in standard screen sizes through the links. To make any of these your computer desktop wallpaper:

  1. Select the appropriate size for your desktop, a new window will open,
  2. Right click the image, and select 'Set As Wallpaper'.
That is all there is to it. We will be adding and changing the images here as we come across more, interesting photos.


Cape Cod Canal, July 1992

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Just like with a 35 mm camera, it's neccesary for us to fire a few shots after loading the film to get the unexposed film advanced and seated in the camera. For this photo, the aircraft was turning to view the site while the camera operator fired off a couple of lead-in exposures. On this occasion, the "wasted" exposures ended up being wonderful obliques of the Cape Cod Canal looking to the east. The Sagamore Bridge can be seen in the foreground, and Sandwich, Massachusetts is to the right of the canal.


Brooklyn Docks, June 1979

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There is more than buildings, roads and people in Brooklyn, New York. An often overlooked part of the metropolitan area is the docks. Looking at this image you can plainly see how significant the seaways are for supporting cities, and hence the tendency for major cities to be accessible by water.


Newark Airport, July 2001

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Color is not the film choice for most mapping projects, but is greatly preferred when showing summer conditions and for just plain pretty pictures. The little bit of vegetation and water around the airport is easy to spot with the use of color.


Boston Skyline, September 1998

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Unlike the image of the Cape Cod Canal above, this oblique was intentional. Our client was looking to show how accessible an area was to Boston. The Charles River is on the left, and Logan can be seen beyond the city on the right. High obliques (including the horizon) like this are particularly hard on the flight crew, as the camera is looking straight out of the plane's belly.


Champlain Canal Lock #2, April 1988

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Located about 15 miles up the Hudson River from Albany, New York, this photo was part of our annual speculation coverage that we fly every spring. Some of the photos in this particular series have been used to map archaeological sites related to the revolutionary war battles in the area. Schagticoke is on the east bank (bottom) and Halfmoon is on the west bank. The glare of the suns reflection off the Hudson can be seen on the left (southerly) side of this photo.


Newbury, Massachusetts, March 1990

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Usually with a winding river like the Parker you would expect to see land oxbows. The fertile areas here have been worked into productive cranberry bogs, and hide the usual weathering of the terrain. This photo was taken in our spring flying program. We start our spring flying season as soon as the snow melts, and we continue until the time when the buds first appear on the deciduous trees. Since the weather of the northeast can be particularly fickle in the spring, and the fair, clear weather that we need to obtain quality imagery can be difficult to come by, we work from the coastline of New York and New England to the cooler, higher elevations of the inland areas. We can add about 2 weeks to the spring flying season by planning our missions to accomodate the weather/terrain conditions.


Atlantic City, July 2001

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This photo was part of the same project as the Newark photo above, where we photographed 51 airports throughout New Jersey. In this picture you can see the unexpected near proximity of airport, casinos, recreational boating, ocean shore, baseball field and much more to one another.


World's Fair - NYC, May 1964

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Simply amazing how much can be stuffed between expressways, railroads and water. Of course, most of New York City is just as dense. This image is remarkably clear of smog and haze considering it was flown at 10,000'. It would be nearly impossible to get such conditions in the greater NYC today.


Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, April 1971

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River, rivulets, oxbows, sediments, accretion, alluvium. We tend to think of the weathering of the earth's surface as a very slow process. This image shows the tremendous changes that have happened and are happening. You can almost sense the changes yet to come.