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Spectacular Aerial Photos Reveal Intricate Beauty of Our World

Flamingos in Rosolina, Italy

The best part about sitting in the window seat of an airplane is the view. As it makes its final descent, you have a breath-taking vantage point where everything appears miniaturized and almost unreal. Photographer and licensed pilot Alex MacLean has spent years “sticking his camera out the cockpit” of a small Cessna 182, capturing what he sees below. The results are grandiose images that have an incredible amount of tiny details.

MacLean's aerial photographs include amusement parks, shipping containers, and docks, in addition to swimmers, surfers, and flamingos. A lot of this subject matter isn't unusual, but its bird's-eye-view shines a new light on what we're used to seeing. The small scale creates a repetition of colors and textures, forming abstract patterns that you'd only see from above. It reveals the intricate beauty of our world that we don't see when we're at ground level.


Floating daisy docks in Chicago


Surfers at Sunset Beach in Oahu, Hawaii


Cars parked at a Nascar event in Richmond, Virginia


Interchanging flyovers in Albuquerque, New Mexico


Bathers in an Orlando wave pool

Ocean City Amusement Park in Ocean City, Maryland


Shipping containers in Portsmouth, Virginia


Loaded coal train cars in Norfolk, Virginia


Commercial logging site in Olympia, Washington

Alex MacLean website
via [The Huffington Post]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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