India, March 14 -- When shooting from a small, open-top aircraft, it is advisable not to hold on to anything. That way, the arms stay clear of the fuselage and vibrations do not blur the photograph. "If one's right leg is tied to the seat with a scarf or a piece of rope, it is possible to work in perfect security and to move freely in all directions."

That's Alfred Buckham, describing how he took his remarkable aerial photographs, in an interview with Amateur Photographer magazine in 1929.

If that sounds insanely risky (please don't try any of it, anywhere), it was.

"My journey nearly came to an abrupt conclusion over Buenos Aires," Buckham said, in another interview, this time with London's Morning Post, in 1933. As he drew back out o...