You should always, ALWAYS ask for a window seat. Forget the trouble of not being able to get up to go to the bathroom, or the inability to stretch your legs—none of that will matter if you stumble across a view like the ones you’re about to see below.

From Mount Rainier, to the Alps, to Dubai, to the grand canyon, you never know what’s going to show up outside your airplane window.

And for those of us who can’t afford to go gallivanting around on aerial photography trips, that window seat may be the best chance we ever get to capture the world from above. Scroll down and be inspired:

If you’d like to browse through more of the aerial photography on 500px, go get creative on the search page here. Or, for a more professional aerial photo fix, check out this ISO collection from a couple of months ago.