The Best Drone Photos of the Year
Ansel Adams, eat your heart out: Flying consumer drones are snapping some incredible photos.
Drone models like the DJI Phantom 2 (which our David Pogue bestowed a glowing review upon) and the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 come with built-in high-definition cameras so that drone fliers can capture crystal-clear pictures and videos from way up in the sky.
The cameras on these drones can stream a live feed of what they see to your tablet or smartphone. Tapping a button on the device captures a photo or a video.
As you might expect, this has led to several stunning photographs. Recently, the website Dronestagram — a burgeoning social network devoted to photographs taken by drone — partnered with National Geographic to pick its choices for the best drone photographs of the year. Honors were given both to judges’ choice photographs, as well as those drone photos that received the most “likes” from other Dronestragram photographers.
Here are the winners.
First prize went to the Dronestragram photographer capungaero, who posted this shot from Indonesia’s Bali Barat National Park:
Second place was this group shot from Jericsaniel. The photo was taken in the Philippines and gives us a great idea for the next Yahoo Tech staff photograph:
Third prize went to this high-flying shot of Annecy, France, from Dronestagrammer drone-cs:
The most popular photo, meanwhile, was this stunning view of the Tamul Waterfall in Mexico, by Dronestagram member postandfly.
Jams69’s photo of Sanary-sur-Mer in France took home second place in the people’s choice vote:
Svetlin Marinov shared this photo of a football stadium in Sofia, Bulgaria, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the popular football club Levski Sofia:
Want to enter your own drone photo? First, you’ll need a drone (obviously). Second, keep your eye on Dronestagram for next year’s contest. We certainly will be.
