In a new photo series by Reuben Wu (@itsreuben on Instagram) he extracts alien landscapes out of already-kind-of-great Earth landscapes by flying an LED light above the scene with a drone. The photographs look alien and eerie, but with that touch of optimistic exploration that harkens back to the Golden Age of sci-fi.

To get the photos, Reuben attached a Fiilex AL250 LED designed specifically for drones to a 3DR Solo. Each image was layered from multiple lighting positions to get the exact look and features Reuben was going for.

Reuben explained to us some of his thinking behind the series: I wanted to show an uncommon perspective of the world by moving away from natural lighting in remote landscapes and creating my own atmosphere. We see so many images of the world lit by the sun, so this series explores the idea of lighting a vast landscape with a controllable light source. I saw the night as a 'blank canvas' on which to illuminate just the parts of the composition. I chose to portray only natural landforms because I was interested in the idea of observing an untouched unexplored new world and the incomprehensible scale of time that they allude to. All photographs by Reuben Wu, used with permission.