I took this photo on an early morning drive on January 2nd from vacations in the mountains to get a shot at a doctor’s and then coming back to join my group. This image - one of the first photos I took in 2020 - then became a strong symbol of a torn mind, dualities, things we need to reconcile… for me, this remained one of the strongest photos I took that year.

This Canary beach is actually a man made lagoon, which made the sea completely flat, especially in the early morning. Very soon, the beach got very full, but this moment must have had been serene from the ground, as it definitely was from the air as well.

Odkaliště Venuše (“Sludge pond Venus”) is probably the last place where you’d look for beauty in the Czech Republic. In the middle of a land destroyed by mining and industrial activity is a pond with a content you don’t even want to think of. Yet - here we are presented with a magically pretty flower… an acid flower, perhaps.

The river that flows from the Alps to the lake brings in all kinds of messages from the mountains - should it be trees or various colorful sediments. Of all the rather more complex images I took at this area this one strikes out clearly… a combination of happiness vs endings, tranquility vs. strong currents, merry colors vs. the blackness of decay. It really depends on what you want to see in this and there’s definitely tons more stories than what the simple view would tell.

In the autumn, it’s a real therapy to take walks in the forests around Prague. And there are a few places to capture the color madness from the air - even to realize that death, which met these two drying out trees, can highlight a beauty everywhere.

This quarry heart is one of the many man made tiny lakes in the very remote area of the Rychlebské mountains on the border of the Czech Republic and Poland. These quarries are a fantastic destination for a couple day hike through the wilderness of the mountains, but from the sky, they reveal even another level of beauty. And mind you, since I don’t artificially create new shapes in the photos during the post production, this heart is “really” there.

This curious path separates two man made ponds. My theory is that the curious shape was there before the ponds, which probably only filled the areas on the side of an already existing road between villages in this part of South Bohemia.

South Bohemia is a region with hundreds of man-made lakes and ponds dating back to the medieval era. These ponds are scattered by many muddy islands, often providing home to many bird species.

Another of my photos which were taken on completely randomly discovered locations. I actually went to photograph something different, but parked right next to this puddle, which caught my attention right after the take off. Needless to say, I spent a generous time right at my spot looking at this colorful beast before flying to my final location (out of which, as far as I remember, not significant photo was made…)

The liquid waste is being dumped from the pipes on the bottom into a pond with already sedimented waste.

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The Koněprusy area is a place covered by many fairly deep forests, which are also a favorite destination for many weekend hikers or tramps.

The Czech Republic saw some heavy droughts in the Spring 2020. Many ponds dried out, especially in South Moravia. When rains brought a few centimeters of water in later, it did not dissolve the dry mud and a "cracked water" pond full of birds was born.

-- This is one of my most tranquil photos. I feel like this is the Swan Lake that was the inspiration for the ballet, the Tchaikovsky music and everything else which is somewhat ethereal, flowing, quiet, slow yet powerful… I took a polite distance to these swans but had been observing them from their perspective for quite some time, totally forgetting about the areas I originally planned for that day's shoot. I totally don’t regret it.

Glacial rivers are a major attraction for my aerial photography as Iceland is a true paradise in this regard. These incredible patterns created by the interaction of the river bed, various sediments brought from the mountains, combinations of many incoming streams and the profile of the surface can provide endless possibilities for abstract discoveries. However, the best views happen when you manage to encounter the true local inhabitants of these magical places… like these geese.

Glacial rivers are a major attraction for my aerial photography as Iceland is a true paradise in this regard. These incredible patterns created by the interaction of the river bed, various sediments brought from the mountains, combinations of many incoming streams and the profile of the surface can provide endless possibilities for abstract discoveries. However, the best views happen when you manage to encounter the true local inhabitants of these magical places… like these geese.

Glacial rivers are a major attraction for my aerial photography as Iceland is a true paradise in this regard. These incredible patterns created by the interaction of the river bed, various sediments brought from the mountains, combinations of many incoming streams and the profile of the surface can provide endless possibilities for abstract discoveries. However, the best views happen when you manage to encounter the true local inhabitants of these magical places… like these geese.

In the autumn, fishermen in the Czech Republic remove water from many of the medieval man made ponds they manage so that they can take out fish and especially carp for the Xmas season - with carp being the preferred meal of the Xmas Eve dinner in the country. The "mud ponds" are then a haven for many bird species.

Many volcanoes have side openings near to them, from which lava flows (not erupts, or just very lightly) down in long lava creeks. This one was about 3 meters wide at a maximum, but the hot lava lasted for at least a kilometer or two down the valley.

This mesmerizing puzzle of shapes, patterns and shades is painted by a river flowing from nearby glaciers straight to the ocean - provided that there isn’t a lava sand barrier between the river and the waves. It took the river about 600 meters around the shore to finally find the opening and enter the Atlantic ocean. This day was very dark, windy and rainy and flying around taking photos was quite an adventure. It was only back home that I realized that what I saw from the top is quite incredible.

Only from the air when flying above the shore, I saw this incredible almost optical illusion of the river looking almost 3D thanks to the play of sediments. But… it’s completely flat (except the little sand barrier between the river and the ocean), there is no ice and the water is free flowing. After checking the maps afterwards, I realized that this pattern is just temporary, aerial maps from other periods showed a very different image. So, it’s likely gone now as well… how lucky we are to be able to witness this!

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One of the oldest forests in Prague is around the summer castle Hvězda (“Star”, because of its shape) where the kings of the nearby Prague Castle would go to hunt and enjoy their time with whatever kings did over the weekends those days. While the summer castle itself is a true medieval gem, I love the various shapes and forms created by the forest especially during winter. Oh, and it’s also my childhood area as I grew nearby and as kids we would spend quite a lot of time there (much to the disdain of our parents and their concerns that something would happen to us over there, which of course even increased its attractiveness for us).

This was only the second day after the first snow which formed only a fine carpet over the still-visible black lava bedrock and the ponds still didn't freeze. It was already fairly difficult to get to this area even in my 4WD and later in the evening that day, the rangers closed the reservation for normal entry for about 8 months, so I was very lucky not with light and weather that day, but also the timing. Yes I did plan to spend several more days in this area, but the photos I managed to take definitely pay back for this result of weather games.

This particular region on the top of Krušné Hory mountains is hugely popular among cross skiers and many international competitions take place there regularly.

This river has a wide delta stretching for more than a kilometer before entering the Atlantic ocean. The colorful surface - which you can see really only from the skies - is caused by sediments brought by the stream from the mountains and their interaction with the bedrock. I could fly there for hours… no, days… and still find mesmerizing new abstract views.

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Many river streams where the colors are created by mixing the sediments from the mountains and icebergs and the river bed of black lava sand and mud.

Sometimes people don’t believe this isn't photo manipulation in Photoshop. And I always reply with my mantra: what you see was really there. No editing of shapes or adding stuff to my photos. Let’s just agree I was very lucky to have spotted this black heart. It did bring some rather dark symbolism for me in the following weeks so I don’t have an easy relationship with this photo, but I guess what else to expect from a heart that intense…

The black sand beaches in South Iceland look especially otherworldly in late September.

In 1973, a United States Navy DC plane ran out of fuel and crashed on the black beach at Sólheimasandur, in the South Coast of Iceland. Fortunately, everyone in that plane survived. Later it turned out that the pilot had simply switched over to the wrong fuel tank. The remains are still on the sand very close to the sea. The photo is almost a rescue mission for a pilot crash landed on another planet - these little red dots are quad bikes of a tour expedition.

I found this place by a pure coincidence - as is the case of quite a few other photos here - when flying from a site that actually didn’t prove to be as appealing as I’d have guessed from the online “satellite” maps (this also happens quite often). But I’m glad I did. And after seeing this photo in large prints, I understand why people sometimes take this part of the forest to their homes!

The large agricultural country area of South Moravian hills is quite difficult to photograph from above - but when you get to the right place, it literally flies. I I spent a lot of time with this photo sailing on its waves, because it contains several almost optical illusions (sometime due to eroding surface due to removed trees, which is nothing great actually), at the same time the colors of the South Moravian spring are difficult to interpret, let alone when you want to extract the spirit you feel there. I found this particular place between Bílovice and Čejkovice by chance, it is not one of the usual South Moravian photo locations.