Stunning Aerial Photos Reveal The Beauty Of Planet Earth From Above

For nearly 40 years, American photographer Alex S. MacLean has been taking pictures from the sky.

In 1975, the photographer started the Landslides Aerial Photography project to provide illustrative aerial photography for architects, landscape designers, urban planners, and environmentalists. 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.

MacLean is a fully-licensed pilot, and flies in a fuel-efficient carbon-fiber Cessna 182 plane, all the while recording nature, agriculture, architecture, and humanity from a bird's-eye view.

His photos not only reveal the incredible scale of our natural and man-made surroundings, but show the environmental impact of human intervention on farming, the ocean, and the American landscape as a whole.

Massachusetts-based MacLean estimates he has spent over 6,000 hours in the sky photographing America. He has won numerous awards, and written 11 books filled with his photography. Maclean's photos were also recently exhibited at the Beetles + Huxley gallery throughout March 2014 in London.

See more of his incredible aerial photography below, as well as at the artist's website, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram pages.

Directionless lobster boats float in the waters near Tremont, Maine.

Tracks of tomatoes in the fields of North Central Ohio.

Bathers swim in wave pool in Orlando, Florida.

A boneyard of old military equipment and planes in Tucson, Arizona.

Surfers behind breaking waves at sunset beach in Oahu, Hawaii.

Colorful shipping containers in Portsmouth, Virginia.

People tanning poolside in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A golf oasis in the arid Desert Hills of Las Vegas, Nevada.

A housing development (that looks like pieces in the game of LIFE) in Beaverton, Oregon.