A certified pilot turned Instagram star took these stunning aerial photos around the world

Adam Senatori

Ever since he was a kid, Adam Senatori dreamed of being a pilot.

After fulfilling that dream by becoming a commercial airline captain, Senatori was unfortunately laid off and forced to take a buyout. Faced with a new challenge, Adam looked for other opportunities and began making the transition from commercial aviator to commercial photographer.

Senatori tells Business Insider that it was his iPhone that first sparked the idea to take pictures from the air. "After I left the airlines and was flying for fun, I started taking some quick shots with my iPhone and that's when it triggered that I had something unique. I could fly, or had friends that could fly me, and take photos," he says.

Through the Instagram account he started five years ago, Senatori's unique images have found a new, wider audience. He was one of the first photographers that the company featured on the Instagram blog, and he's gained around 850,000 followers. While social media usually moves at lightning speed, Senatori's workflow is usually much slower, as he usually shoots with a Medium Format Digital Hasselblad H4D.

Don't worry though, he never pilots and photographs at the same time. "Anytime I'm in the air, we either take the windows off, or if it's a helicopter, we always take the doors off so I that I can have a clean shot," he told us.

Check out some of his jaw-dropping images below, with a selection of quotes from our conversation with him.