although the first,raher primitive photographs were taken as 'stills' on the ground, the idea and practice of looking down at the earth's surface emerged in the 1840s when pictures were taken from camera secured to tethered balloons for purposes of topographic mapping .Perhaps the most novel platform at the end of the last century is the famed pigeon fleet that operated as a novelty in Europe.By the first world war,cameras mounted on airplanes provided aerial views of fairly large surface areas that proved invaluable in military reconnaissance.Frome then until the early 1960s, the aerial photograph remained the single standard tool gor depicting the surface from a vertical or oblique perspective