Winners of the 2022 UAV Coach Drone Photo Contest

We are pleased to share that we had over 400 submissions to our drone photo contest this year!

Watch this video to learn a little more about the winning entries, or keep reading to learn more about the contest and see the winning photos.

Contest Details

The UAV Coach Drone Photo contest featured three categories—Urban (city/architecture); Nature (environment/landscapes); and Animals/People.

Here’s how the winners were chosen:

• Our panel of five judges narrowed the submission down to five photos per category
• The UAV Coach community voted on these five photos to choose the final winners in each category

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted a photo, to everyone who took the time to vote, and to our five judges. We really appreciate all of you!

Now without further ado, here are the winning photos from the first ever UAV Coach Drone Photo Contest.

Grand Prize Winners

Below are the three winning photos. Each winner received a $250 Visa gift card.

Urban (city/architecture)

• Drone pilot/photographer: David Wald
• Photo details: This photo was shot in Atlanta, Georgia from the Jackson St. Bridge on a DJI Mavic 3

Nature (environment/landscapes)

• Drone pilot/photographer: David Geoffrey Gosling
• Photo details: This photo was shot at Copacabana in New South Wales, Australia on a DJI Mini 3 Pro

Animals/People

• Drone pilot/photographer: Bruce Moore
• Photo details: This photo was shot in Louisville, Kentucky on a Skydio 2

Fun fact—Bruce was doing a 3D map of a house when this red shouldered hawk came out of nowhere to say hello. No animals, drones, or people were harmed in the capturing of this shot, but needless to say, Bruce was pretty startled but able to finish his mapping mission safely.

Runners Up

Here are the three runners up. Each runner up received a $50 Visa gift card.

Urban (city/architecture)

• Drone pilot/photographer: Thomas Fogle
• Photo details: This photo was shot in San Francisco with a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. It was taken in 2020, during the fire on Pier 45. 

Nature (environment/landscapes)

• Drone pilot/photographer: Gale Ensign
• Photo details: This photo was shot in Shiprock, New Mexico on a DJI Mavic 2 Pro.

Animals/People

• Drone pilot/photographer: David Navis
• Photo details: This photo was shot in Maui, Hawaii on a DJI Mini 3 Pro.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in our photo contest this year!

We had a great time doing this and we definitely plan to do it again in the future. From all of us here at UAV Coach, wishing you blue skies and safe flying!