When I started traveling regularly a few years ago, I did what all smart business travelers do - I asked for aisle seating. What a mistake that was!

Sure, with an aisle seat you can use the bathroom more easily. And you do get off the plane a bit faster. And you can stretch your leg into the aisle and lean away from a large companion. Of course on the short flights I usually have (under three hours) the bathroom's not much of a concern. As for getting out, the person on the aisle is all of one or two people ahead of me. With a window seat I can lean into the window for a bit more room (and not get clobbered by the flight attendants running up and down the aisle), and nobody's climbing over me to get to the bathroom. Also, when I need to get work done on my laptop, I control whether the window shade is up or down.

But here's the real reason I love that window seat - the view. You just can't beat that God's eye view from high up in the sky. I assisted a commercial photographer during high school, and one of my favorite things to help him with was shooting aerials. In those cases we were in small, single-engine planes with windows that opened to shoot out of. And we were relatively close to the ground. Now, of course, I'm much higher in the sky, and obviously the windows won't open Despite that, I still love that view. And I still love shooting pictures from there.

That's one reason I try to keep a compact camera with me at all times. It's easy to carry and doesn't take up much space. Lately I've been using a Nikon Coolpix 5100. Its 12 megapixels are really more than I need, but the optical VR is a great help. When the light's right, when I'm not over the wing, when I've got a good window to shoot out of and when there's not much distortion, I have the chance to make some neat pictures. I especially love the flights out west to and from Kansas City, where I get to fly over the canyons of the southwest and the mountains. In fact I often choose my seat when booking the flight by which side of the plane I want to see out of.

Just this Monday I flew home from Los Angeles. It was a beautiful sunny day, and so I had great views of the area around Lake Powell and the snow covering the Rockies coming into Denver. The patterns of the land, light reflecting off water, and the shapes created by human activity all made for some neat pictures. Because of the altitude, which results in a lack of contrast (not to mention the poor quality of the window) the pictures often need some extra contrast. Adding a slight S-curve in editing software fixes that easily, as you can see.

So now you know where to find me on a plane. Snug in my seat by the window, either asleep, working on my laptop or enjoying the spectacular views.