Image of the Week: Really Big Air

The most compelling artists take common things and—through their unique presentation of them—force you to look at them in a different way. Photographer Jay Nichols is one of those artists.

Speedonthewater.com’s Image of the Week below by Nichols presents a perfect example. If you have participated in or even watched a poker run, you’ve seen a parade of high-performance powerboats. You’ve seen them one or two or three or four boats at a time. You seen them filled with waving passengers and their drivers. You’ve focused on the boats and the faces, and the good times in front of or next to you.

Boyne Thunder in a quiet moment, as viewed from above. Photo courtesy/copright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.

But from 1,000-plus feet above the water, they take on an almost-connected, serpentine appearance. The combined mass of the boats and the beauty of surroundings, in this case the waters between Lake Charlevoix and Lake Michigan during the Boyne Thunder Poker Run earlier this month, becomes your focus.

It’s not a view you get every day. It’s a moment of wild, go-fast boat action. But it redefines “big air.” And it sure is beautiful.