These stunning aerial photos of Australia’s outback look like paintings

BY SHANNON CONNELLAN From Mashable

The ‘Sel Rose’ (Pink Salt) series of images was created above Western Australia’s Coral Coast.IMAGE: MARTINE PERRET

Western Australia has a particularly flabbergasting landscape, one photographer Martine Perret felt she needed to get a little higher to capture.

Born in Bordeaux, Perret is a former UN photographer and desk editor at The Australian Financial Review who covered peacekeeping missions in conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, as well as Ebola-affected areas of South Sudan.

Now a local of Margaret River, Western Australia, Perret has taken a series of photographs of the state’s natural landscape from the air, for a new book called Beyond: Above Western Australia.

“As a peacekeeping photographer I had flown almost weekly on UN helicopters on missions to remote places. I had learned there was no better way of getting an understanding of unfamiliar terrain than to see it from above,” Perret said in a statement.

Photographed over a few helicopter flights, the areas featured include Western Australia’s Goldfields-Esperance, Gascoyne, Mid West and Kimberley regions.

“No matter how many times I would study the internet maps of these regions to prepare for my photography flights, nothing would match the beauty of what I could see with my own eyes,” Perret said.

“By varying my flying altitude at different times of day, and playing with the sun’s angle, I could capture striking colours and highlight unusual shapes and patterns.”

Take a gander, they’re pretty stunning.

Salt lake, Kalgoorlie.
IMAGE: MARTINE PERRET

Pink lake, Hutt Lagoon.
IMAGE: MARTINE PERRET

Shark Bay, Peron Peninsula.
IMAGE: MARTINE PERRET

Derby Mudflats.
IMAGE: MARTINE PERRET

Roebuck Bay.
IMAGE: MARTINE PERRET

Lake Lefroy goldfields.
IMAGE: MARTINE PERRET

School of salmon, Hamelin Bay.
IMAGE: MARTINE PERRET

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