Provence, France

First Place, Nature

Provence, France
Photograph by jcourtial

The Best Drone Photos of the Year

See winning photographs from the fourth annual Dronestagram contest.

Photographers across the globe are taking to the sky, using drones to capture eye-catching images not so easily documented once before.

To distinguish this work, the fourth annual international Dronestagram contest is recognizing outstanding drone photos in this emerging field.

“We were stunned by the great 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.”

The most frustrating part, Jarret added, was that judges wanted to reward more than three photos in each category. As an unplanned result, contest coordinators decided to award three extra pictures in a new category titled “creativity.”

“I was blown away by the creativity of the photos in this contest," said

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