While in general we talk about drones to link them to military technology, The reality is that its use goes much further. Even further from photography, since they are essential tools to analyze the planet and take us to sites that are otherwise inaccessible, such as deep forests, sea depths or volcanoes.
Since its first edition in 2014, the annual Skypixel photography and video contest has rewarded the best selected aerial images among thousands of participants. And this year they were part of the tenth edition 140,000 participants.
The jury of The tenth edition included heavyweights of the industry Like Claudio Miranda, photography directorYoto the winner of an Oscar and known for projects such as The life of Pi, the curious case of Benjamin Button and Top Gun: Maverick; Chenyu Jin, photography directorYoa recognized by Blossoms Shanghai and Like A Rolling Stone; Tianhong Pan, photography directorYoA of ads and founder of the renowned communication media platformeithern mediastory; and Sam Newton, recognized travel filmmaker.
Anne Farrar, deputy director of photography of the National Geographic magazine; Luke Stackpoole, expert in travel and adventure photography; Weimin Chu, renowned landscape photographer and winner of the 2019 National Geographic Travel Photography Contest, the 2023 World Press Photo Prize and the Hasselblad Masters Prize for 2024; and Daniel Kordan, famous landscape photographer known for his impressive images of nature. Come on, professionals fully trained to evaluate the quality of content creators made with drones.
This year’s winning film, The War – My Transformion Journey, directed by Bashir Abu Shakra, It shows the creator of the video completely alone in the midst of vast landscapes. Its objective was to highlight the human experience in the face of the overwhelming magnitude of nature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lzpmbvlHr8
As for photography, The prize fell to Mysterus Realm, taken by GANGERQIA. It’s about One of those images that confuses for its various readings. It could be a human eye, but it turns out to be a pond in which you see a bird and traces of a story that invites the imagination.
Other awarded images, Bulgurcu, include that of a wheat field harvested in the Turkish province of Gaziantep becomes Bulgur after various processes. The resulting bulgur is exposed to the sun for drying. It is necessary to remove it frequently to ensure fast drying. The different geometric shapes that arise during this process are preserved. It is a work by photographer Hanifi.
Another example of taking advantage of aerial photography is Alien model, an image of QB.pixels in which you can see a person in the “geological formation” known as Burri’s crest in Sicily. The Cretto Di Burri, as is known in Italy, is really a work of art by Alberto Burri to honor the ancient city of Gibellina, destroyed in an earthquake.
