Incredible Drone Awards finalists reach dizzy heights

The spectacular finalists in the 2019 Drone Awards photography competition show the world from angles that we would never otherwise see.

Govinda players gather together under Dahi Handi to make a human pyramid in order to catch and then break an earthen pot high in the air with the help of a rope, to win prizes. Picture: Money Sharma/2019 Drone Awards

Legendary photographer Diane Arbus once mused that there were things that nobody would ever see unless she captured them with her camera.

That’s certainly the case with drone photography, which reveals the world from vantage points no human being could ever get to, without the aid of a chopper.

The results can be startling, unlocking shapes, patterns or beauty that we simply do not see when we are on terra firma.

As an art form it’s still in its infancy, with the international Drone Awards competition in just its second year.

The winners of this year’s contest have just been announced, with Polish photographer Jacek Deneka taking out the grand prize for his image of cross-country skiers in competition. Taken

during a marathon 50km ski event near a resort town on the Polish/Czech border, Deneka titled his work “A Shoal of Colourful Fish” for the way in which the aerial shot rendered the competitors like luminous, darting tropical fish.

A Shoal of Colourful Fish by Jacek Deneka, Drone Awards Photographer of the Year 2019 winner. The photo shows cross-country skiers during the Bieg Piastów competition in Poland. From the sky, the skiers look like a shoal of colourful fish floating among coral reefs. Picture: Jacek Deneka/2019 Drone Awards

The winning shot was not the only one taken in an extreme environment, with French photographer Florian Ledoux taking out the wildlife category for his striking image of a pod of 20 crabeater seals resting themselves on an Antarctic ice floe.

That shot looks positively balmy compared to Jamie Link’s picture of Chicago’s Soldier Field during a blizzard. Wreathed in snow and rain, the stadium looks leached of colour, its overall bleakness bringing to mind Gotham City from the Batman comic strips and movies.

A group of Crabeater Seals resting on the ice of the Antarctic Peninsula between one dive and another, in search of food. Picture: Florian Ledoux/2019 Drone Awards

Soldier Field Blizzard, Chicago. Picture: Jamie Link/2019 Drone Awards

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Other entries remind us that the world is a pretty colourful place, including Nang Thanh Toan’s photo of a worker in Vietnam surrounded by vivid magenta incense, and Shihui Liu’s image of the Grand Prismatic Spring in the USA’s Yellowstone National Park, a scramble of saffron yellow surrounding an eye of the deepest blue.

Entries were received from 107 countries and Australian photographers were among those commended in the seven award categories.

The winners were selected by an independent jury who assessed each entry anonymously.

See www.droneawards.photo for more.

Making Incense in Quang Phu Cau, Hanoi, Vietnam. Picture: Nang Thanh Toan/2019 Drone Awards

Mirror of the Land. A striking aerial photo of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, the biggest hot spring in the United States and third in the world. Picture: Shihui Liu/ 2019 Drone Awards

Mont Saint Michel in France. Picture: Deryk Baumgartner/2019 Drone Awards

Skyscrapers and Fall Foliage in Central Park, Manhattan, New York City. Picture: JoSon Lee

Edge Rider, New Britain, Connecticut. A BMX rider casts a shadow inside a concrete bowl. Picture: Andy Leclerc/2019 Drone Awards

Black Sheep in Sardinia. Picture: Andrea Marongiu/2019 Drone Awards

Originally published as Incredible Drone Awards finalists reach dizzy heights