The winners of the second International Drone Photography Contest, organized by social network Dronestagram with support from National Geographic, have been revealed!
Winning authors come from Brazil, France, USA, Mexico, Bulgaria & The Netherlands.
I was really amazed by the quality and the originality of most of the pictures we received from the participants of the 2015 edition of our great contest. Last year we had to make a choice among 2000 pictures. This year we had to review more than 5000 pictures in 3 categories: Places, Nature and "Dronies" (selfies made with drones) said Eric Dupin, Founder and CEO of Dronestagram.
The competition was judged on creativity, photographic quality and respect of the theme (show the beauty of your favorite places) by a panel of experts including National Geographic photographer Ken Geiger (Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer), Jean-Pierre Vrignaud, Editor in Chief of National Geographic France as well as Eric Dupin and Guillaume Jarret from Dronestagram.
Drone photography depicts a new vision of the world, with stunning images taken from low altitude, near field. It is a new photographic language and a new way of discovering things and landscapes that we know, or that we thought we knew.
The winning photo "Above the mist" published by Ricardo Matiello in Brazil is very representative of this new language. Only a drone allows to (re)discover and enjoy this cathedral from this point of view.
Eric Dupin added: Some people want to change the world, at Dronestagram we want to change the way we see the world.
All the results here: http://www.dronestagr.am/contest/
Comments
The biggest danger is the "me too" factor. Only a tiny percentage of UAV pilots will be licensed professionals. And professional does not equate technical proficiency with autopilots, but that's another topic..
Danger? I do not see the danger of flying over a cathedral or to hover over the sea or make a selfie with a light drone in low altitude, or fly over a desertic lagune, especially when these pictures were taken largely by licensed professionals...
Irresponsible
Still extremely dangerous to get shots of anything but a field, but the chance to become a quad copter CEO worth $20 billion might make it worth it.
It's such a shame that competitions like these continue to encourage unsafe flying practices.