a lavender field
a road in Translyvania Romania
an ice formation in Greenland
a court in New Jersey, U.S.
water lilies in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
La Vijanera in Spain
the city of Dubai
a window reflecting Moscow
Madrid
cows in South Africa
sand in France
family in France
children playing football on a field
people doing aerobics in Laos
motorbikes crossing a bridge in Thailand
a family
Tatacoa Desert, Colombia
the Sirigiya, Sri Lanka
Igauzu Falls, Argentina
a surfer in Portugal
Transylvania, Romania
the Great Wall, China
Toledo, Spain
1 of 23
First Place, NatureProvence, France
Photograph by jcourtial

The Best Drone Photos of the Year

See winning photographs from the fourth annual Dronestagram contest.

ByCasey Smith
July 06, 2017

Photographers across the globe are taking to the sky, using drones to capture eye-catching images not so easily documented once before.

To distinguish this work, the fourth annual international Dronestagram contest is recognizing outstanding drone photos in this emerging field.

“We were stunned by the great quality of the pictures submitted this year,” said Guillaume Jarret, Dronestagram’s managing director. “The level [of talent] has considerably increased, and the technology has, too.”

The most frustrating part, Jarret added, was that judges wanted to reward more than three photos in each category. As an unplanned result, contest coordinators decided to award three extra pictures in a new category titled “creativity.”

“I was blown away by the creativity of the photos in this contest," said Jeff Heimsath, one of the contest judges (and also National Geographic’s associate photo editor for Travel and Adventure). "The selection process was far from easy, this contest has certainly surfaced the best drone images from around the world.”

The photos in this gallery showcase the top three winners and additional finalists in each category: Nature, People, Urban and Creativity.

Nearly 8,000 entries—a new record for the contest–were submitted from around the world by professional photographers and amateur drone enthusiasts. Together, they celebrate the beauty of drone photography. Jarret says: “It’s a new photographic language and a new way of seeing the world, a way to see everything just like a bird.”

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