'It's a lot easier than taking pictures from a car!' Stunning images taken by intrepid explorer from his tiny plane... by sticking his camera out the cockpit window

• Alex MacLean, 66, takes the incredible photographs from the cockpit of his small Cessna 182 aircraft
• He has been taking stunning aerial shots since graduating from Harvard and gaining a pilot's license in 1975
• The images are taken all over the world, although the majority are everyday scenes from North America

Surreal: This photograph by Alex MacLean shows a large housing estate in the middle of the desert outside Las Vegas. The 66-year-old takes the photographs from hundreds of feet in the air by sticking his camera out the cockpit window of his tiny Cessna 182 plane

Complex: The bright and busy image is in fact an aerial view of the Ocean City Amusement Park in Ocean City, Maryland

Contrast: The wide expanse and freedom of the sea in Cape Cod, Massachusetts is in stark contract to the oyster cages in the centre of this photograph. Alex MacLean spends around 250 hours every year taking pictures from his small aircraft

Abstract: Simple boats tethered in a Chicago 'daisy dock' (pictured) look almost as if they have been deliberately placed, such is the clarity and colour MacLean manages to capture

In perspective: This aerial view shows ploughed strips in a field near the town of Gooyear in Arizona. Alex MacLean spends around 250 hours every year taking pictures

Repetition: This photograph shows dozens of homes set in neat lines on the Adobe Housing Development site in Las Vegas, Nevada

Incredible: This colourful image shows brightly decorated homes alongside medieval buildings on the island of Burano in northern Italy's Venetian Lagoon

Lines: Hundreds of spectators' cars are seen parked at a Nascar event in Richmond, Virginia. Thanks to the angle from which MacLean takes his shots, even the must mundane objects appear abstract and surreal

Sky high: This aerial view by Alex MacLean shows people swimming in a pool in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The photograph itself was taken in 2012

Bare: This snow-covered orchard was photographed last winter in Bolton, Massachusetts. The stark trees give the snow a peculiar looking texture from the air, almost like the image has been painted

Incoming: This well-lit photograph shows a wave pool on Orlando, Florida. The image was taken by MacLean in 1999

Technique: Hundreds of coal train cars are seen on the tracks in Norfolk, Virginia. MacLean says his plane normally flies itself level, even without the autopilot on, allowing him to focus on leaning out the cockpit window and taking the shot he wants

Overlapping: This stunning aerial photograph shows interchanging flyovers near Albuquerque in the state of New Mexico

Scale: Thousands of logs look almost like matchsticks in this photograph taken above a commerical logging site in Olympia, Washington in 2005

Bright: Colorful shipping containers are seen in Portsmouth, Virginia. MacLean's photography career began with selling functional architectural and landscape images to universities, before deciding to focus on more aesthetically pleasing, artistic images

Spectacular: Not even wildlife can escape MacLean's eye for a photograph, with this shot taken in Rosolina, Italy, showing a flock of pink flamingos mid-flight

Stunning: This 1989 shot shows colorful flower fields near Carlsbad in California. Aerial photography is 'a lot easier than taking pictures from a car' according to MacLean

Spots: This image of boats in Tremont, Maine almost looks like a painting thanks to the solid background and the bright decoration and fairly even spacing of the boats