Aerial Photographer of the Year Awards showcase 2026 winning images

The 2026 Aerial Photographer of the Year Awards announced its top images on August 9, recognizing work captured from drones, helicopters, airplanes, and hot air balloons. The competition, now in its second year, aims to reveal patterns, geometry, and ecological relationships visible only from above.

Azim Khan Ronnie won the overall portfolio prize for a series shot with DJI Mavic 4 Pro and DJI Mavic 3 Classic drones. His winning image shows thousands of migratory Siberian seagulls feeding at Yamuna Ghat in Delhi, India, where the birds congregate from November through mid-March.

Vitaly Golovatyuk received the Aerial Photograph of the Year award for a single image taken at Elk Park near Dongtai City in Zhejiang Province, China. The photograph captures a bird sitting on a small, clear lake surrounded by red grass, with the sky reflected so clearly that the bird appears suspended in air.

Dylan De Haas placed in the Top 101 with "Circle Of Life," documenting a tiger shark carrying a green turtle in its jaws at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. The image records a rarely witnessed predation event at the water's surface.

Other recognized photographs include Paolo Lazzarotti's "Complete Rainbow" off Sardinia's northeastern coast, Marcin Zajac's dawn view of the Golden Gate Bridge framed by its own cables, and Kah-Wai Lin's "Thunder Of Hooves" showing Yilki horses crossing a dusty plateau in Cappadocia at sunset.

Neil Vincent photographed a southern right whale mother and calf resting in shallow water near Budgewoi Beach, New South Wales. Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove captured a volcanic crater in Iceland erupting amid steam from torrential rainfall, while Zhengze Xu documented a single oryx walking on dunes in the Namib Desert, Namibia.

Fabio Pappalettera froze a white horse rolling onto its back in northeastern Italy. Valeria Castiello photographed the Sirente crater lake in Abruzzo, Italy, which may have meteoric origins. Sapna Reddy shot a herd of elephants at dawn from a hot air balloon over the Serengeti.

Chin Leong Teo captured four women and a dog working rice terraces in Bali. Wayne Montag photographed Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone from a Cessna 172. Marco Di Marco documented seals on a frozen Icelandic lagoon gathered around a crack in the ice, and David Soldano captured Wild Horse Butte in Utah's high desert.