The Most Beautiful Images Captured By Drone

5 Dubai During Lockdown

• Photograph: Bachir Moukarzel
• Place: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Lebanese photographer Bachir Moukarzel has been practicing aerial photography since 2014. This photo is from his latest project entitled “The lockdown-Dubai”.

This project went viral on social networks, so much so that it was featured on CNN, Al Arabiya, BBC, and many other worldwide TV stations. This is a great way to gain visibility while keeping busy during confinement!

6 Desert Sunset

• Photograph: Johan Vandenhecke
• Place: Tatacoa desert, Colombia

The Tatacoa Desert, which is not only a desert, but also a tropical dry forest, is the second largest arid zone in Colombia, occupying more than 330 square kilometers of territory. The name “Tatacoa” attributed to it by the Spanish refers to the many rattlesnakes found there.

Johan Vandenhecke is a photographer specializing in drone photography. He’s so talented it’s hard to believe he bought his first drone only in 2018! This photo won the Aerial Photographer of the Year 2020 competition in the ‘abstract’ category.

7 Good Day On a Yacht

• What happens: A drone was flying over this large stretch of water when it happened to come across this yacht on which some women were tanning, topless.
• Question: How would you react if such a situation happened to you when you’re just enjoying the good times? Would you find it funny or would you be chocked?

Nowadays, the availability and low cost of good quality drones make our lives more risky, in a way. You never know when you’ll be spied on from above!

8 Bridge Topdown

• Photograph: Vitaly Tyuk
• Place: Vladivostok, Russia

The bridge immortalized in this photo is the Russky Bridge. Completed in 2012, it is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, with a central span of 1.104 meters. It also possess the second highest pylons, and the longest cable stays.

Vitaly Tyuk is not only a photographer, but also a videographer with a background in IT and finances. He is a self-taught videographer with a unique vision that makes his photos and videos original and creative.

9 Crazy Road

• Photograph: Brian TR
• Place: Tianmen Mountain, China

Tianmen Mountain, whose Chinese name means “Heaven’s Gate Mountain”, is located in the northwestern part of Hunan Province in China. Not only are the winding roads there, but also “the most extreme stairs in the world” as described by the Huffington Post in 2013.

Among other things, Tianmen Mountain possesses the longest passenger cableway of high mountains in the world, with 98 cars, a total length of 7,455 meters and an ascent of 1,279 meters. At the top stands the Tianmenshan Temple.

10 Alien Structure on Earth

• Photograph: Tomasz Kowalski
• Place: Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Petronas twin towers, designed by the Argentine architect César Pelli, have 88 floors and a total height of 452 meters. They were inaugurated in 1998 after 6 years of construction.

They are not the tallest skyscrapers in the world—they were from 1998 to 2004, tough, before being surpassed by Taipei 101, then by Merdeka 118 in 2020—but they are still the tallest twin towers in the world.

11 Bright Blue Beach Water

• Photograph: Feather & The Wind
• Place: Lagoon of 7 Colours, Bacalar, Mexico

Feather and the Wind was created in 2015 by a couple from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Wesley specializes in filmmaking and video editing, while Felicia is a travel writer and photographer.

The goal of their project is to help travelers live better experiences during their adventures around the world. So far, they have visited more than 20 countries on 4 different continents, and have edited hundreds of videos.

12 Sur La Mer

• Photograph: Roberto Corinaldesi
• Place: Italy

Attracted to photography from an early age, Roberto Corinaldesi has won no less than 19 recognitions since 2017, and we have no trouble understanding why! This photo, entitled “Sur la mer” (“On the sea” in English), is absolutely stunning.

The dozens of people in this picture are so small that they almost look like ants swimming in the middle of the sea! This aerial photo was really captured at the perfect moment, and it’s no surprise that even years later, it still wins awards.

13 Pyramids of Egypt

• Photograph: AirPano
• Place: Egypt

Sergey Semonov, photographer for AirPano, explains that their goal is to show our planet “in a manner that nobody has ever seen them before.” On this picture, you can see a panoramic aerial view of the impressive Pyramids of Giza, in Egypt.

Did you know that the pyramids are the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? Indeed, they were built in the 26th century BC. They are also the only Wonders to remain largely intact.

14 Overcrowded

• Photograph: William Markezana
• Place: Dameisha beach, China

Opened to the public in 1999, the Dameisha Beach, one of the largest beaches in Shenzhen, is very popular in China, and the crowd that occupies it fascinated William Markezana, the photographer.

He explains, “The crowd density was so high, I had to gain quite a lot of altitude to make it fit in the frame. […] At that point, those indistinguishable people started to create a pattern that I found even more powerful and fascinating.”

15 Two Moo

• Photograph: Luke Bell
• Place: Cape Town, Western Cape

As the photographer explains, “I launched my drone to capture the scene in a way that was impossible with any other type of cameras.” Yet, this perspective is most interesting, don’t you think?

This picture is a perfect proof that you shouldn’t always believe exactly what you see. If you look at this photo quickly, you will see cows, but not exactly the real ones! It may take you a few seconds to figure out what’s going on.

16 Woman at work

• Photograph: Azim Khan Ronnie
• Place: Quang Phu Can, Hanoi, Vietnam

Every year, at the dawn of the Lunar New Year, hundreds of workers are busy making incense sticks using bamboo bark. The village of Quang Phu Cau is nicknamed Vietnam’s “incense village”.

Originally from Bangladesh, Azim Khan Ronnie is passionate about photography, which allows him to capture moments forever and thus give them significance. He loves to travel and capture beautiful images of the world with his drone.

17 Abstract Greece

• Photograph: Sébastien Nagy
• Place: Chromata hotel, Santorini, Greece

The Chromata hotel is a greek 5-star hotel very popular with tourists. It is located on Caldera Island in the Imerovilgi village, also known as “Balcony on the Aegean”.

Originally from Brussels, Belgium, Sébastien Nagy started getting serious about photography around 2015, using an entry-level camera at the time. Now, he is world renowned and even won the title of Aerial Photographer of the Year in 2020.

18 Bushfire

• Photograph: Robert Irwin
• Place: Cape York, Queensland, Australia

Robert Irwin is the son of the late Australian conservationist and film-maker Steve Irwin. At the age of only 17, he won the Natural History Museum’s wildlife photographer of the year people’s choice award with this image of a bushfire advancing through a woodland near the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve.

It is hard to imagine the fear of the people who were near this place. Nevertheless, one cannot help but find this photo absolutely beautiful and poetic. As if, sometimes, desolation can perfectly rhyme with beauty.

19 Huia Dam

• Photograph: Brendon Dixon
• Place: Huia Dam, New Zealand

The man we see lying on the catwalk is both the subject and the photographer of this picture. This type of selfie captured using a drone is actually called a “dronie”. Yes, it has become a common enough thing that it has been given its own name!

Brendon Dixon lives in Auckland, New Zealand. He owns his own company of drone specialists, Brendon Dixon Films. They specialize in both capturing beautiful shots and creating original, aerial videos.

20 Grand Tour of the Iguazu Falls

• Photograph: AirPano
• Place: Iguazú Falls, Argentina-Brazil

AirPano is a company that specializes in 360° photography and video. This picture of Iguazú Falls is part of one of their first virtual tours and can be admired entirely on their website.

Iguazú Falls are in fact a set of 275 waterfalls forming a front of about three kilometers at the edge of the Iguazu River. Together, forming a kind of inverted “J”, they form the largest waterfall system in the world.

21 Biggest Pumpkin Farm

• Photograph: Tom Maddick
• Place: Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

This aerial photo shows the extent of the UK’s biggest pumpkin farm. Grower James Maxey started growing pumpkins at the age of 13 to make a little money, but today he lives off his hobby!

Each fall, Maxey grows around 25,000 pumpkins on his parents’ farm. Every October, more than 100,000 visitors come to this Kirklington farm to admire his work and choose a pumpkin from among the 20 varieties he grows.

22 Lovers On The Field

• Photograph: Krzysztof Krawczyk
• Place: Poland

About taking that photo, Krzysztof Krawczyk said, “We were looking for some abstraction. We had a boat, a drone and…. a lot of time. A strong wind created a beautiful storm in the field. Perfect weather conditions showed me ‘the eye of the tiger’ or ‘deer eye’ through the couple in the kayak. A wonderful combination: beautiful lovers, fantastic nature, strong wind, and this perspective.”

We must admit that this photo is really breathtaking and poetic. Everyone would like such a photo as a souvenir of their wedding, that’s for sure!

23 Ball Up

• Photograph: Brad Walls
• Place: Sydney, Australia

Born in 1992, Brad Walls has already established himself as an award-winning professional aerial photographer. His specialty: experimentation with negative space, symmetry and leading lines.

This particular photo was a finalist in the ‘Sports’ category of the Drone Photo Awards in 2020. Unfortunately, it didn’t win first place, but it’s no less beautiful and original for that, quite the contrary!

24 Fishing Boat

• Photograph: Trung Pham
• Place: Vietnam

This photo shows a fishing boat from a completely stunning angle! Who would have thought that a fishing boat could look so poetic? In fact, these fishing boats are called “basket boats” and are considered a very important part of the coastal Vietnamese communities.

Not only are they fishing boats, but they are also used as lifeboats in case of emergency at sea, or as lightweight transportation for cargo or people. There’s no doubt about it, these boats are literally essential to these communities!

25 Soccer Field

• Photograph: Michael Schirnhofer
• Place: Henningsvær, Norway

Henningsvær is a small town in Norway known for its fishing, but also for its love for soccer. It’s not hard to believe when you see that the soccer field takes up about half of the island’s surface! They don’t mess around when it comes to soccer.

The village of Henningsvær is only 0.3-square-kilometer, and as of 2018, 510 people lived there. Thanks to the growing popularity of drone photography, the Henningsvaer Fotballbanen (their soccer field) has gained worldwide attention.

26 Humpback Whale

• Photograph: Tobias Hägg
• Place: Iceland

The humpback whale is one of the largest rorqual species in the world. They can measure 12 to 16 meters long and weigh between 25 and 30 tons. That is really huge! There’s a reason the photographer called this photo a “majestic encounter.”

The humpback whales also have a very distinct body shape thanks to their long pectoral fins and their knobbly head. They are therefore rather easy to recognize. Each year, they migrate up to 16,000 km from polar to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth.

27 Christ The Redeemer

• Place: Mount Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Fun fact: The statue, which measures 124.7 feet high (including the pedestal), took 9 years to build.

Now an internationally recognized emblem of the city, the Christ the Redeemer was designed by the Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and realized by the French sculptor Paul Landowski (with the help of the Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida for the head).

Its construction was started in 1922 and finished in 1931. While the statue is of impressive height, one should not underestimate the width of its arms, which are 28 meters, and especially its weight, which amounts to 635 metric tons.

28 Six Flags Theme Park in New Orleans

• Place: New Orleans
• When: September 2005

This Six Flags theme park, previously known as ‘Jazzland’ from its opening in 2000 to 2002, has been closed since Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. This picture was in fact taken about 2 weeks after the disaster.

The damage caused by Katrina was so extensive that the amusement park was never able to reopen. It can still be found near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Interstate 510, but several rides have been salvaged and relocated to other parks.

29 Alone in the Desert

• Photograph: WhoSane
• Place: Al Qudra Desert, United Arab Emirates

Trees are a rare commodity in the desert, so it is important to give them priority. In this case, splitting a road in two to get around them was a natural choice, they didn’t even have to think about it!

Did you know that the Al Qudra desert has several lakes? These are man-made lakes, and they come in all styles. For example, there is the Flamingo Lake, The Last Lake, the Expo Lake, the Love Lake, and the most recent one, the Crescent Moon Lake.

30 Staten Island Boat Cemetery

• Place: Staten Island Boat Cemetery, New York
• Did you know: Founded in the 1930s, The Arthur Kill Ship Graveyard was used to place ships damaged during World War II.

Originally, the boats were simply to be placed there while they were dismantled to resell their parts, but obviously, the plans have changed. The location was even officially named in 2014. So it is now the Dungeon Iron and Metal Scrap Processing Facility.

The place, which contains abandoned vessels, mostly cargo ships and tugboats of the 20th century, is considered an “accidental marine museum”. We can find there the submarine chaser USS PC-1264, the very first US Navy Ship of World War II to have a predominantly African-American crew.

31 Drones of Dubai

• Place: Dubai
• Did you know: Dubai has created one of the most spectacular city skylines on the planet.

Dubai has, without a doubt, one of the most impressive skylines in the world. Any picture of this city is impressive, really, but a picture taken with a drone is even more breathtaking!

More than 3 million people live in Dubai, the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. It’s crazy to think that at the end of the 19th century, Dubai was still a modest and isolated town living mainly from pearl fishing!

32 Laguna De Cotacotani

• Photograph: Alex Mimo
• Place: Lauca National Park, Chile

Lauca National Park, situated in the far north of Chile, in the Andean range, is 1,379 km² and consists of a mixture of altiplano and mountains, mainly huge volcanoes. Just south of this park is the Las Vicuñas National Reserve.

The main attraction of the place is undoubtedly the small lacustrine area formed by the lakes Chungará and Cotacotani, which are just at the foot of the Payachata volcanic group.

33 Fascinating Fortifications

• Photograph: Amos Chapple
• Place: Fort Bourtange, Holland

The construction of Fort Bourtange was completed in 1593. It was originally intended to control the only road connecting Germany to the city of Groningen, which was once controlled by the Spaniards during the time of the Eighty Years’ War.

In 1851, the fort was converted into a village, but living conditions began to deteriorate. In 1960, the local government decided to halt its decline by restoring the old fort to its 1740s-50s appearance, and Fort Bourtange now serves only as a historical museum.

34 World Cup Finale

• Photograph: Svetlin Marinov
• Place: Maracanã Stadium, ‎Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Maracanã Stadium opened its doors in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup on July 16 of the same year. It was also the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games.

Owned by the state government of Rio de Janeiro, this stadium is now run by the sports clubs Clube de Regatas do Flamengo and Fluminense Football Club. “Maracanã” is related to the Rio Maracanã, a river in Rio de Janeiro now channeled.

35 As The Crow Flies

• Photograph: Dendi Pratama
• Place: Bali Barat National Park, Indonesia

Have you always wanted to know what the world around you looks like as the crow flies? Drones finally make it possible! And here, the photographer has taken the expression in its literal sense.

Established in 1995, the Bali Barat National Park covers a territory of 190 square kilometers and has a very diverse wildlife. Indeed, it is home to over 160 animal species, mammals as well as birds and reptiles.

36 Symmetrical parking lot

• Photograph: JP and Mike Andrews
• Place: North of England

This photo by the Andrews brothers can be found in the book Eyes over the World: The Most Spectacular Drone Photography released in May 2020. Despite some empty parking lots, the symmetry is particularly impressive!

The Andrews brothers specialize in abstract aerial photography. They founded the company Aerial Abstract Art, and have been pursuing their passion since 2016. They don’t care what the subject of the photo is, as long as it is abstract!

37 Frightening Lightning

• Photograph: Pete DeMarco
• Place: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The timing necessary to take this perfect picture is very impressive. The photographer is certainly a patient and meticulous person, especially when we know that, on average, a lightning strike is visible for less than a second!

Did you know that at its peak, a typical thunderstorm produces 3 or more strikes to the Earth per minute? And on average, on Earth, there are between 50 and 100 lightning strikes per second, or between 1 and 3 billion of flashes per year!

38 City by Night

• Photograph: Tuan Nguyen
• Place: Saigon, Vietnam

Founded in 1698, Saigon, whose real name is Ho Chi Minh City, is the largest city in Vietnam, occupying about 2,061 km². The name “Ho Chi Minh City” was proclaimed in 1946, but was not officially adopted by the city until after the 1976 reunification to honor the Vietnamese revolutionary and politician Ho Chi Minh.

Ho Chi Minh City has a metropolitan population of about 21.2 million. It is the primary economic hub of Vietnam, but also an emerging international destination, receiving more and more tourists every year.

39 Harvesting Grass

• Photograph: Khanh Phan
• Place: Vietnam

Every year, in August, it is the season of the grass harvest in Vietnam. A farmer is able to cut about 300 bundles of grass per day. These bundles are then sold and used by people in the West to create handicrafts, like knitting cushions, hats, or baskets.

The harvested grass is also increasingly bought by shops who use grass stalks with a diameter larger than 4 or 6 millimeters to replace plastic straws. It could be a very ecological long-term solution to help save our planet.

40 Lombard Street

• Photograph: Bryan Dumas
• Place: Lombard Street, San Francisco

Lombard Street is potentially one of the most famous streets in California, and it is proclaimed the “crookedest street in the world”. This street is a major tourist attraction, receiving about 2 million visitors per year.

It can also be seen in several movies during car chases, including Good Neighbor Sam (1964), Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Magnum Force (1973), and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018).