These Award-Winning Drone Photos Will Show You the World in New Ways

When in doubt, zoom out. At least that’s what we tend to tell ourselves when we’re in a bind: to step back, glance at the bigger picture and place our problems in a perspective that allows us to understand just how they might be bigger in our heads than in reality. 

It’s this energy that a competition dedicated to aerial shots seems to be charged with. 

An offshoot of the Siena Festival of Visual Arts held in Italy, the Drone Photography Awards takes a bird’s-eye view of our planet that can seem totally different when seen from above.

The annual awards invite thousands of photographers around the world to use tools, including helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, balloons, blimps, rockets, kites, and parachutes, to achieve aerial images that can shock, stun and inspire. The result is a handful of breathtaking photos that are larger than life. This year’s winning photos, chosen from over 14,000 entries, will be displayed at an exhibition called “Above Us Only” in Italy from October 23 to December 5. 

This year, the overall winner is a photo of a flock of thousands of pink-footed geese hovering over snow-covered ground, a moment frozen in time by Norwegian photographer Terje Kolaas. This photo came out on top among  the thousands of submissions from 104 countries, according to the festival curators. 

Divided into categories like urban, abstract, sports, wildlife, and people, other winners include an old monastery in Russia surrounded by a power plant, an aerial shot of a green turtle returning to sea after laying eggs, a striking rainbow that appears above a surfer on a terrifying wave, and a swimsuit-wearing couple chilling on an iceberg. 

The macro lens with which these images were clicked often inspire striking interpretations, such as a photograph of a congregation of sheep that gets an eerie edge, or a poodle-shaped collection of greenery. 

By taking us to an elevated vantage point, the view from the top teaches us the importance of perspective. Also, it makes for some extraordinary photographs.

Follow Shamani on Instagram and Twitter.