SHE does not enjoy flying. But you won't catch her with her eyes closed, or glued to some book or in-flight movie.

Instead, Julieanne Kost prefers to spend her flight time looking out the cabin window, with a camera held firmly in her lap.

Ironically, to counter the fear of flying, Julieanne chooses to do what most phobic individuals shudder attempting - glancing out the window.

And mind you, when she does, she is not merely staring out into space, but assiduously 'looking out' for textures, patterns, and colours amongst the landscapes below.

"One of the ways I can calm my fear of flying is to take pictures because then it's not me flying - I'm just here taking pictures. It totally removes you from the 'scene' - out there just becomes... out there," she says.

Besides easing her nerves, her habit of taking photographs from the airplane seat has culminated in the book, Window Seat: The Art of Digital Photography and Creative Thinking, which showcases her selection of 150 images taken during commercial flights over a span of five years.

The Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist from Adobe spends some 75 per cent of her time on the road - a bulk of which involves flying - to speak and teach at photography workshops and fine art schools around the world.

Her love and aptitude for photography grew at an early age in her father's darkroom, and has served as an invaluable asset in her role at Adobe, especially in the areas of digital imaging, illustration and customer education.

Julieanne Kost was in Singapore last month, to lend her expertise and experience during the Photoshop World seminar held at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre.

"I do a conference on aerial photography every year, and the funny thing is, a lot of people I meet have their own planes and spend a ton of money, but they are always surprised by the results I get on commercial flights," says Julieanne.

Before you start going shutter trigger-happy on your next flight hoping to achieve some phenomenal results, Julieanne says there are certain things to take note of:

- You have to be seated in front of the engines, because if you are behind, the jet exhaust will create a 'wavy' effect on your images.

- Open up the camera's aperture to f-stop 2.8 and 4, because you are focusing far off into the distance. "People look at my photos and say 'Wow, you get such clean windows' but I don't. It's just that I focus so far off you can't see the dirt and grime," says Julieanne with a grin.

- Shoot in raw instead of jpeg mode, if your camera allows it; and

- Experiment with textures and patterns, and break elements up using the 'rule of thirds'.

"Don't keep your subject dead centre and don't have anything that's straight horizontal or vertical. Keep your subjects at an angle, which makes things more interesting," says Julieanne.

"This one (below) starts a little bit left of centre, and goes down to the right corner. Your eye is taken down there, but because of the empty space it comes back up. And something in the top right corner catches your attention as well."

"I use the camera to simplify the world - make it nice, neat and orderly. Do that by focusing in on your subject and exclude everything else," she adds.

The picture depicting the breakwaters (right), for example, was deliberately composed to isolate the natural elements, and keep the surrounding beach houses and roads out of frame.

Julieanne's passion for taking pictures on the plane, however, doesn't run too well with the occasional passenger sitting beside her. But she shrugs it off with a light-hearted sense of humour.

"People get mad at me because I don't close the window shade and they are trying to watch their movie. But I am like 'Why are you watching your movie?' Look outside! Up to 50 years ago, nobody saw this - it's phenomenal!" she says.

When quipped about how long she took to master the art of digital imaging and illustration, Julieanne humbly replies "all of her 39-years".

'Tech chick' would be too crass a term to describe Julieanne Kost - with her wit, expertise, and life-long learning attitude, she's anything but that.

Photos by Julieanne Kost