Skip to main content

These could be the 9 best drone images you see all year

Imagine an Instagram that’s just for drone photos. Got it? Good, because that’s what Dronestagram is all about. Now, imagine that all the best photos from Dronestagram get put into one place, and you have the International Drone Photography contest.

Hosted by Dronestagram, the international contest welcomed entries in three categories, through the month of June: travel, adventure and sports, and nature and wildlife. The panel of judges, which happens to include National Geographic’s Patrick Witty and Emanuela Ascoli, just released the winners in each category, and they’re nothing short of spectacular.

Recommended Videos

The winners all had interesting stories in how they captured their shots. Michael Bernholdt, the first-place winner in the nature and wildlife category, spent hours on Google Maps before his first dedicated photography trip with his Phantom 3 Professional, looking for interesting shapes and planning out shots.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

In the adventure and sports category, Max Seigel was shooting with some friends in the desert when he spotted a big crack in the rock about 400 feet up from the ground — and that eye earned him first place.

And, Francesco Cattuto, a software engineer, picked up his first drone after being impressed by a friend’s Phantom Pro. On a walk, the fog was too thick to see much, so he decided fly his drone above it and shoot from above, managing to capture his winning travel category shot of the Basilica of Saint Francis in Umbria, Italy.

The winning photos will all be published in National Geographic, with prizes ranging from a drone to a backpack.

Scroll through the winners gallery above to see the story behind each shot.

[amz_nsa_keyword keyword=”Photography Drone”]
Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Astronaut’s photo shows Earth as you’ve never seen it before
Earth as seen from the space station.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit already has a long-held reputation for creating stunning space photography, and his latest effort will only bolster it.

Shared on social media on Thursday, the image (top) shows Earth as a blaze of streaking light, an effect created by using long and multiple exposures to capture cities at night across several continents.

Read more
This GoPro camera is $100 off at Walmart today
The GoPro Hero 12 Black Creator Edition set up on a small tripod on the beach.

When it comes to high-octane sports and other speedy scenarios, our phone cameras can only do so much to capture the action. That’s why there’s such a big market for action cameras, and one of the O.G. camera companies in this realm is GoPro. For years, GoPro has been delivering HD and 4K cameras that are both durable and user-friendly, which is why we’re glad to shine a light on this fantastic offer we found while vetting Walmart deals:

When you purchase the GoPro Hero 12 at Walmart, you’ll pay $300. At full price, this model sells for $400.

Read more
The excellent intermediate Canon EOS R10 camera is $86 off at Walmart today
Canon EOS R10 camera mirrorless with STM lens attached and flash up

I recently grabbed a Canon EOS R50 bundle for a trip to the Dominican Republic. I did a lot of research before I made my decision, sifting through the best camera deals, and the two options I essentially narrowed down were the R50 and the EOS R10. The biggest difference between the two is that the R10 gives you more granular control over some of the photoshoot settings. R50, on the other hand, was designed assuming you'll mostly use the automatic shooting modes. That's a great option for novices, while the R10 is better for intermediate to more skilled photographers. Why am I telling you all of this? Because the excellent Canon EOS R10 camera is on sale at Walmart for Black Friday, discounted by $86 to $760 instead of $846. It is one of the better early Black Friday camera deals I've found so far. It comes with an 18-45mm lens. Needless to say, that's a great deal. Comparatively, the R10 with body only -- no lens -- is .

 
Why shop the Canon EOS R10 camera in Walmart's early Black Friday sale?

Read more