Mountaineer and aerial photographer Bradford Washburn died of heart failure Jan. 11 in Lexington, Mass.

Washburn was born in 1910 in Cambridge, Mass. In 1933, he graduated from Harvard University and served as an instructor at Harvard's Institute of Geographical Exploration from 1935 until 1942.

Throughout his 60-year career, he traveled extensively, and his aerial images of peaks and glaciers...

Dan Sweet, media service manager for Columbia Helicopters in Aurora, Ore., has taken the top award in an international photo contest for images of helicopters at work. Sweet's winning photo depicted a Vertol 107-II helicopter at a snowy logging operation above Detroit Lake in Oregon's Cascade Mountains.

Outdoor photography can be a demanding business, a constant battle against wind, rain, flying insects and temperature extremes in the search for just the right light and composition. However, some photographers — usually those who pursue their trade with little beneath them but thin air — must add the force of gravity to this list of everyday hardships.

To get their unimpeded bird's-eye views, aerial photographers George Steinmetz, Adriel Heisey and Lindsay Hebberd use some relatively unconventional aircraft: a motorized paraglider, a self-built plane and a blimp, respectively.

"If I fly in rain, I get wet. If I fly into a swarm of insects, I get bugs in my teeth. If I fly through smoke, I get choked up," says the Arizona-based Heisey about shooting from his open-cockpit...

One of the oldest surviving explorers and adventurers of the 20th century, Bradford Washburn, has published his autobiography. Now in his 90s, Washburn looks back on his multifaceted career, which includes pioneering work in aerial photography in Alaska’s mountains, 13 first ascents of Alaskan peaks and a decades-long relationship with the National Geographic Society. The autobiography also offers rare photographs and little-known anecdotes about Washburn’s World War II service and other explorations...