International Drone Photography winners
THE winners of the fourth annual International Drone Photography contest have been announced. The competition was organised and hosted by dronephotography sharing site Dronestagram, the first of its kind dedicated to aerial photography. Also partnered with National Geographic, this year saw nearly 8,000 entries from around the world – a new record for the contest. Both amateurs and professionals were able to submit images to a number of categories: Nature, Urban, People and, for the first time, Creativity.
‘ We were stunned by the 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.’
One of the contest judges (and also National Geographic’s associate photo editor for travel adventure) Jeff Heimsath explained, ‘ The selection process was far from easy; this contest has certainly surfaced the best drone images from around the world.’ The judges were so impressed by the overall standard of entries that they decided to add the Creativity category this year, in order to award three more images.
Martin Sanchez from the US took first prize in the People category with his tennis court image ‘End of the line’ (above). Sanchez said, ‘Since getting a drone it has pushed me to travel to more interesting places.’ In the Urban category, Lebanese photographer Bachir Moukarzel took first prize with his image ‘Concrete Jungle’ taken in Dubai (below). ‘I am so happy and proud that my work has been noticed and selected by the experts,’ he enthused.
First prize in the Nature Category went to Jerome Courtial from France for his shot ‘Provence, summer trim’. ‘I knew it was the beginning of the harvest season, so I hunted down tractors and waited patiently until some started to harvest in a pattern that would create a pleasing composition from above.’
In this year’s new Creative category, first prize went to Thibault Beguet with his photo ‘Next Level’ that he and his girlfriend used to announce they were expecting a baby. ‘I’m very proud about winning this contest, all the more in the special category created for the occasion. I’m sure that our child will be amused by this story when he’s able to understand,’ said Begeut. To see the winning shots visit www.dronestagr.am.