Best Aerial Photography: Winners Of The International Drone Photo Awards

The ‘Photo Of The Year’ and the winners in nine categories of the Drone Photo Awards 2023, have been released by the renowned Siena Awards festival of visual arts that organizes the competition.

The overall winning shot, ‘Must Resist’ by Israeli photographer Or Adar, depicts thousands of protesters partially concealed by three enormous billboards in Tel Aviv, during demonstrations in March against the government.

The competition is open to aerial images and videos taken from flying platforms that include fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, balloons, blimps and dirigibles, rockets, kites and parachutes.

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The Drone Awards contest, according to the organizers, is “the most important worldwide competition about aerial photography and video, dedicated to a different photographic genre deliberately separated from being compared to traditional photography.”

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This winning photograph, along with the other awarded entries, were selected from thousands of submissions received from participants from around the world and will be showcased in the exhibition “Above Us Only Sky” taking place for the first time at the extraordinary San Galgano Abbey in the beautiful historical city of Siena, Italy.

The Siena Awards festival will run from September 28 to November 19.

Photo of the year

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Israeli cities in March to protest against a government plan to overhaul the country’s court system.

This aerial view was taken in Tel Aviv.

Sports

Amidst intense cold, the renowned tightrope walker Nathan Paulin successfully crossed a 200-meter-long, 2.5-centimeter-wide “highline” at Pointe d’Areu in the Aravis range in France’s Haute-Savoie at an altitude of 2,460 meters.

This incredible achievement required the dedicated efforts of a team of six individuals over the course of three days to execute this world premiere.

A group of runners at the start of the Dead Sea Marathon, racing towards the misty horizon as they appear to be crossing the sea in a manner reminiscent of the biblical story of Exodus from Egypt.

Wildlife

In the eastern province of Sri Lanka, wild elephants with their keen scavenging instincts have developed a peculiar, distressing and dangerous behavior of searching for food in a designated garbage dump near the forest.

It’s disheartening to witness these majestic creatures resorting to such destructive and unhealthy habits.

A shark gracefully glides through a dense school of menhaden fish off the coast of Southampton, New York, during the summer of 2022.

Groups of king penguin chicks congregate around a freshwater pond in Gold Harbour on the remote island of South Georgia. Both molting adults and chicks refrain from entering the water due to their non-waterproof feathers. Instead, they gather near freshwater sources to stay hydrated.

Ng snapped a bird’-eye view of a group of buffaloes dipping in a pond to cool off on a hot sunny midday. The contrasting colors of the buffaloes and their surroundings created an eye-catching, earth-toned image.

In Baja California Sur in Mexico, gray whales interact with people as if they were friends (in Spanish “amigos”).

Urban Settings

A playground full of joy hidden somewhere deep in the south of Poland shows its beauty in the first flash of sun from above. This region is known for its mines and strongly urban character of architecture, so such a colorful playground is a kind of pearl on the ground and also from the air.

The 14th-century church tower in Italy stands as a poignant reminder of the sunken village of Curon Venosta. In 1950, the entire village was submerged following the construction of a dam, resulting in the creation of the artificial basin known as Lake Resia. Today, only the church tower remains.

The human-shaped town of Centuripe in the Enna province of Sicily glows in the rainbow light of sunset.

The Taj Mahal emerges at dawn — seen here from the Yamuna River side. A layer of clouds and mist was covering the river, imparting a floating, surreal look to the timeless Mausoleum.

People category

Sun-lovers bring their brightest towels, swimsuits and umbrellas to the shores of Cascais, Portugal, creating a wonderful, vibrant wallpaper when viewed from above.

At the onset of spring, the people of Iranian Kurdistan joyfully embrace the arrival of the new year by kindling a bonfire and merrily dancing around it. This tradition, called Nowruz, is celebrated in various countries.

In a salt dune, two women and four men are working and creating patterns. It helps to soak the salts in sunlight. They work six days a week from 9:00 am to 5 pm, creating multiple patterns that impress especially from overhead.

Opening the day at the strawberry field looks from above like the opening of a theater curtain before a big show. This shot was taken at the end of winter near the Israeli city of Hadera.

Haitians wait at Dajabo to cross the border to the Dominican Republic for Friday’s binational market day.

Nature from above

The beauty of the cycle of life, as fallen trees rest gracefully in dried-up ponds amid autumn’s vibrant hues. The photo was taken in South Bohemia when the ponds dry before winter.

“I have visited this place several times before,” said Vijayan. “But last year it was disheartening to witness the sea ice melting as early as June. Our ship was able to navigate through the melted ice and reach the ice cap. However, even the ice cap had begun melting earlier than usual.”

From above, this drone photo of a geothermal pool in Iceland looks like an eye.

“When visiting the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland, I never thought that I would get the best image while the volcano was dying out,” Viñé writes. “At that time, the volcano was intermittent and every 10-12 hours of eruption it would die out. One of those times I saw a skull…smoking.”

Abstract Category

The Colorado River basin has been severely impacted by a combination of poor management and prolonged drought, reaching a critical point of no return. The intricate patterns formed by the water, metaphorically resembling the lungs of the earth, have become depleted and are teetering on the edge of collapse.

An alluvial river flows like a river of fire from the mountains to the ocean on the southern shoreline of Iceland — an island country that serves as a mecca for aerial photographers.

This photo is one of a series: Thousands of vibrant red chili peppers are harvested under the scorching sun before being sorted for delivery to spice companies in Sariakandi, Bogura, Bangladesh.

More than 2,000 women work across nearly 100 chili farms in Bogura to supply local spice companies with high-quality chilies for their recipes. Among the vast quantity, they meticulously pick out any inferior chili peppers. Chilies hold great significance in Bengali cuisine, widely enjoyed in Bangladesh, and are incorporated with other spices in a variety of meat dishes, including chicken and beef.

All galleries of winning photos and series here.