Here's what it's like to watch New York's Fourth of July fireworks show from 7,000 feet in a private plane

• As millions of New Yorkers gathered to watch the annual Macy's Fourth of July fireworks, a few lucky people got to see them from the air.
• Photographer and private pilot Filip Wolak took his Cessna 172M out with a pilot friend to photograph this year's show.
• The photos are breathtaking - scroll down to see what the fireworks look like from above.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Millions of New Yorkers flocked to either side of the East River on Thursday for the annual Macy's Fourth of July fireworks show - but a few lucky New Yorkers got an especially unique view of the action.

During the half-hour fireworks spectacular, nearly a dozen private and sightseeing aircraft were seen circling and hovering above Brooklyn to watch the fireworks display. In addition to a few helicopters that operate tourist flights above the city, a small airplane spent the show circling off the southern tip of Manhattan.

Filip Wolak - @filipwolak on Instagram - is a commercial and art photographer who also happens to be a private pilot. He and a friend, Krys Krudysz, took Filip's Cessna 172M Skyhawk, a four-seat single-engine propeller plane, out above the water to watch the fireworks on Thursday. As Krudysz took the controls, Wolak got to work with his camera and three different lenses.

"It was too dark for any zoom," he told Business Insider. "That made shooting a lot more difficult because the frame was actually achieved by the position of the plane."

He stayed slightly above 7,000 feet for the whole show to avoid Class B controlled airspace, in which he would have required a special permit and would have been required to stay in constant contact with air traffic control. At his flight level, he was well clear of any departing or approaching traffic from the nearby airports, and Kris was able to monitor the onboard radar for safety.

This was his first time photographing the fireworks from this height, and the results are stunning, eerie, and breathtaking. Read on to see the amazing photographs.