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

Photographer Martine Perret has taken a series of the state's natural landscape from the air.
 By 
Shannon Connellan
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

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.

SEE ALSO: Take a peek at Australia's open-air exhibition Sculpture by the Sea

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.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable
A photo portrait of a journalist with blonde hair and a band t-shirt.
Shannon Connellan
UK Editor

Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.

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