For nearly 40 years, American photographer Alex MacLean has been taking pictures from the sky. The fully-licensed pilot shoots almost all his breathtaking aerial photography from a small Cessna 182 plane, sticking his camera out of the cockpit window for a bird’s eye view.
Photographing American and European landscapes from 5,000 feet and above, MacLean’s pictures reveal the hidden geometry and gorgeous patterns of the world around us.
I hope you aren’t afraid of heights, because you’re about to go on a magnificent ride.
A boneyard of old military equipment and planes in Tucson, Arizona
Floating Daisy Docks in Chicago, Illinois
Flower fields in Lompoc, California
Directionless lobster boats float in the waters near Tremont, Maine
Surfers behind breaking waves at sunset beach in Oahu, Hawaii
Bathers swim in wave pool in Orlando, Florida
A golf oasis in the arid Desert Hills of Las Vegas, Nevada
People tanning poolside in Cambridge, Massachusetts
A housing development (that looks like pieces in the game of LIFE) in Beaverton, Oregon
Colorful shipping containers in Portsmouth, Virginia
Tracks of tomatoes in the fields of North Central Ohio
A dirt biker in Boulder City, Nevada
Estuarine sand plumes in Wellfleet, Massachussetts
An American flag playground and a basketball court in Stow, Massachussetts
A shipyard in Newport, Virginia
An adobe housing development in Las Vegas, Nevada
An orchard covered in snow in Bolton, Massachussetts
Brightly painted houses in Burano, Italy
Cars parked at a Nascar event in Richmond, Virginia
Phelps Dodge Large open pit mine and tailings
Desert Housing Block in Las Vegas, Nevada
Drainage Patterns in Clark County, Nevada
Flamingos Taking Flight in Rosolina, Italy
Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California
Interchanging flyovers in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Landfills in Staten Island, New York
Loaded coal train cars in Norfolk, Virginia
Logging Rafts in Olympia, Washington
Ocean City Amusement Park in Ocean City, Maryland
Oyster cages in Cape Cod, Massachussetts
People swimming in a pool in Cambridge, Massachussetts
Snowmobile Tracks on the Clearwater River in Alberta, Canada
Strips in fields in Goodyear, Arizona
Check out more of Alex MacLean‘s photos on his website. Share the beauty of our planet with others below! More people need to see this.