Nacho Guani is a powered paragliding photographer and cinematographer in Uruguay. Here’s how it works. He straps a small motor onto his back, like a backpack, runs a bit to take off, and is suspended in a seat/harness beneath the paraglider’s wing.

Nacho’s paraglider flies from 15 to 45 mph at altitudes from Steadicam height to 18,000 feet. He carries his Canon 5D Mark II aloft, taking stunning stills and videos. His aerials of Uruguay are breathtaking. Here are some scenes from his forthcoming book.

Nacho writes poetically about his aerials. “Vast wilderness is not that easy to find nowadays. We might even have forgotten, amid all the concrete, how it feels to look into an unending horizon. Was it not to feel how birds felt from up above that got us into the whole enterprise of flying? Yet, now it’s all about getting as quickly as possible from one place to the other.

I try to return to our roots. To glimpse how we once interacted with nature. Why we wanted to fly, and what an absolutely awesome view we have from above. I have flown pretty much all over Uruguay capturing the freedom and beauty of nature. The word “green” comes short when used to describe Uruguay’s countryside. On my unique paramotor, I travel through shades of green, blue, yellow. I try to capture the breeze and the scent of nature. These are some of the reasons why we have to take care of our “Mother Earth.” I hope you will enjoy my bird’s eye view of Uruguay and its people.

Poetry can run in pairs. Nacho’s wife is the famous ballerina Maria Riccetto, who was a solist with the American Ballet Theatre. She was the dance double for  Mila Kunis in Darren Aronofsky’s film Black Swan.