Under the wing of the plane: clouds, storms, thunderstorms in stunning pictures of the pilot

A pilot from Ecuador, Santiago Borja Lopez, works for Ecuador Airlines and posts stunning photos with views from his cockpit. His pictures show a lot of interesting weather phenomena — from incredible storms to lightning.

These shots are so impressive that one of them won a prize in the prestigious National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2016 photo contest.

Source: santiagoborja.com

Pilot Santiago Borja Lopez works for a major airline in Latin America and during flights often becomes a witness of the raging elements.

Jorge never leaves his Nikon D750 camera — neither on the ground nor in the air.

Right from the cockpit of the airliner, the Ecuadorian takes stunning pictures of thunderclouds and lightning discharges.

This shot titled "Pacific Storm" took 3rd place in the Landscape category at the National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2016 photo contest. From the cockpit of an airplane flying at an altitude of 11 thousand meters, Borja filmed an exciting scene — lightning cuts through storm clouds.

"I really like this photo because it makes it possible to feel the amazing size of the storm, its power. At the same time, it is amazing that you can safely fly in still air without coming into contact with the elements. Storms are difficult to shoot, because lightning discharge occurs very quickly, there is no tripod at hand and a lot of reflections of internal lights from the equipment interfere."

Clear sky over Miami.

A blinding storm.

Every time Santiago has an opportunity, he takes out his camera and captures the beauty he observes in the air. According to his photographs, you can follow rare weather events — storms, lightning and rains.

Clouds over the Ecuadorian city of Quito.

Clouds at sunset.

Flying over the Colombian Amazon.

The pilot says that he has managed to combine the two greatest passions of his life — flying and photographing.

Pilots of South American airlines have a bonus: they have to fly over regions where storms and storms occur most often, and they can observe these natural phenomena with their own eyes.