The world can look very different from above, as proved by the Drone Photo Awards. The annual international contest of aerial photography – part of the Siena Awards festival of visual arts – showcases the very best images taken by drone, revealing rarely seen worlds and framing familiar scenes in striking new ways. We’ve compiled some of our favourite winning, runner-up and commended images from the competition this year, plus some highlights from 2022.

The Taj Mahal is an enduring icon – and you've likely seen countless photographs of the mesmerising landmark. But it looks rather different in this birds-eye shot taken from the Yamuna river side. It's seen swallowed by clouds and illuminated by sunshine as the dawn breaks. The photographer describes the shot as "one of the greatest accomplishments of [their] photography career", giving the building a "a floating, incredible surreal look".

It's almost as if this neat, pointed church tower is floating in a turquoise void – but it's actually an eerie echo of a forgotten Italian village, Curon Venosta, which was almost entirely submerged after the construction of a dam in 1950. The village now lies beneath the surface of the resulting Lake Resia and all that remains is this 14th-century spire spiking through the water.

This agricultural process looks mighty eye-catching from above. Here, workers spread the rice beneath the sun to dry it. The photographer describes the process of "raking it out" and "sweeping it back" to make sure it dries evenly, all making for a neat pattern of lines against the popping yellow backdrop.

These ostriches seem to be the only life in the stark desert plains of northwestern Namibia. The photographer says he took the picture 'in the last of the evening light' and the birds' elongated shadows make them look like giants in the wilderness. 

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From the sky, this park in southern Poland looks almost like the pages of a sticker book. The photographer describes the site as "a kind of pearl from the ground and also from the air", as its colourful nature is a break from the typical character of the area, which is known for its industry and mines. The delicate play of light adds extra drama.

Look once and you might not be able to make out exactly what this impressive drone shot captures. Look twice, and it's probably still a blur. The photograph is actually a birds-eye view of a tailings dam (a place where waste products from mining operations are stored). The photographer says: "It reminded me of hurricanes and the destruction they can have on the land; this is also symbolic of the destruction mines can have on the land."

This incredible drone shot doubles as a form of activism, as well as a spectacular piece of art. The photograph depicts the Pallikaranai wetland, which the photographer describes as "one of the few remaining wetlands in India". Sadly, it faces an uncertain future, as 3,500 tonnes of garbage are reportedly dumped here each day. The photographer says this is leading to "rapid shrinkage" of the wetland.

There's no shortage of drama in this shot taken in Mexico's Baja California Sur state. It depicts a giant trio of curious gray whales as they nose up to a small boat. The photographer says the whales and people interact "as if they were friends" and that "the experience of sharing both worlds from a boat is incredible and unforgettable". 

From the air (and even from the ground), Iceland's stark Highlands look positively otherworldly. Here, the photographer captures a series of hulking volcanoes, which unfold in swirls of rust red, brown and acid yellow. The photographer also commented on the rugged road you must take to reach a suitable drone site.

The photographer had a few simple words to say about this dramatic photograph: "Climbing the waves is like climbing a wall". It depicts a pair of surfers frolicking in frothy waves near Palinuro in southern Italy.

With orange rooftops looking like steps up to the jagged peaks just beyond, this aerial view of Gangi, a mountain town in the Sicilian province of Palermo, was commended in the urban category of the awards. Italian photographer Sara Zanini, who specialises in travel and aerial shots, captured the light of an early summer morning to enhance the glow of the terracotta tiles and really make them pop against the mountains, including Etna.

Another view across the rooftops took top place in the urban category. Ukrainian photographer Serhiy Vovk’s impeccably framed overhead shot in the Kartoffelrækkerne neighbourhood in Østerbro, Copenhagen leaves no doubt as to why these homes are so sought-after. The district, characterised by houses with striking teal roofs, was built for working class families in the 19th century and is now one of the Danish city’s most desirable places to live.

Like a frame from Disney’s Frozen, this drone shot captures a magical moment in early winter when Cuejdel lake – Romania’s largest natural dam – is just beginning to freeze over. Half of the photograph shows bare trees that appear to be trapped in the ice, while the other half is yet to be frozen. Highly commended in the nature category, it’s an image that could only be taken from above to really show the striking contrast.

This winning wildlife photo shows flamingos huddling together in almost perfect symmetry (check out the odd ones turned in the ‘wrong’ direction). The wading birds, found on the Miankaleh Peninsula in Iran’s Mazandaran province, sleep together at night and stay close during the day for greater safety from potential predators, protecting each other. Iranian photographer Mehdi Mohebipour captures this admirable sense of community while also picking up the subtle differences in pink plumage.

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Is this the world’s most remote basketball court? It certainly looks that way in this eye-catching image by Yura Borschev, who produced a collection of sports courts in 2021 and was named runner-up in the urban category. The Russian photographer specialises in drone shots and caught this singular moment following a sandstorm, when the court’s blue and green surface was just beginning to peep through.

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Lake Tyrrell is the subject of several photographs shortlisted in the abstract category, and this striking image – which took the runner-up spot – showcases its dramatic, almost terrifying beauty. It would be at home in a gallery among the likes of Jackson Pollock, though this actually shows tyre tracks on the salt pan by the lake, which is the largest of its type in the state of Victoria. The salt lake is around 120,000 years old and its location is also known for spectacular starry skies.

With boats that look like toys and a flurry of indiscernible white shapes filling the frame, this highly commended wildlife photo appears to show a wonderfully surreal scene. It actually captures a relatively mundane yet special moment. Each winter thousands of migratory seagulls gather at this spot in Yamuna Ghat, New Delhi, where people often feed them from their boats. The birds, transformed into blurred lines via a slow shutter, flock here from Siberia, hence the photograph’s name.

A handful of the dramatic drone images in the contest capture singular moments in history, as does this runner-up photograph in the nature category. It shows, in the most striking way, how the late 2021 eruption of Cumbre Vieja on the Canary Island of La Palma altered the landscape. Over three months, the lava flow swallowed more than 3,000 buildings, 56 miles (90km) of roads and swathes of banana plantations, displacing more than 2,000 people.

The dunes of the Namib Desert appear as the feet of a giant in this spectacular shot by Swiss photographer David Rouge. He named the shot Meeting due to how it shows the convergence of the desert with the South Atlantic Ocean. The shot took the top spot in the nature category thanks to its dramatic beauty and the way the light perfectly highlights the soft yet imposing shapes of the dunes as they appear to flow to the water.

It could be an interpretive dance taking place among pine trees. In fact, this aerial photo captures fishing crews catching squid in Quảng Ngãi’s seaweed forest in central Vietnam. They drop nets to circle the squid and draw them towards the boats, where the molluscs are shovelled on. Shown from above, the scene looks beautiful and rather peaceful.

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This polar bear may be hefty enough to break the ice but he’s just a year or so old, and still learning about life in the Arctic. Florian Ledoux took this gorgeous shot on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, between the mainland and the North Pole, during a five-month posting there, and came runner-up in the wildlife category. The young mammal, shown mid-play, was splashing about in the water and testing the ice by jumping back and forth with his sibling, while their mother rested nearby.

Indian photographer Aakash Selvan was highly commended in the abstract category for this perfectly framed shot of the phumdis, or floating islands, on Loktak Lake in Manipur. The largest freshwater lake in northeastern India, its islands – which make up a national park – are unique, forming rough circles of vegetation, soil and organic matter and with spongy, almost bouncy surfaces. The phumdis are also used by locals as enclosures for fishing, and are inhabited by around 4,000 people.

Winner in the people category is another shot where the magic is in the context – only revealed when seen from above. Local photographer Anindita Roy’s fabulous image catches a fisherman napping on his boat at Bangladesh’s busiest port, on the Buriganga river in Dhaka. Fishing crew, like this man using his net as a shelter, usually sleep at night on their small boats.

All the fun of the fair is encapsulated in this photo of one of Europe's biggest travelling funfairs. The tents, rides and trucks of Hull Fair form a kaleidoscope of colours, like a display of retro sweets. The shot was taken with permission from the local council and fair guild, and was commended in the urban category.

Its name is a nod to the beginning of the universe but this rather terrifying shot could equally depict the end of all things. Armand Sarlangue’s Big Bang was crowned overall winner of the Drone Photo Awards 2022, beating thousands of other entries. Shot during the September 2021 eruptive phase of Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano, it depicts a secondary fissure happening a few hundred metres from the main crater. The photo was also taken during a tempestuous storm, and the difficult conditions make the capture especially rare.

You can’t see where this train ends, let alone where the next station might be. The iron trains of Mauritania are among the longest in the world, at around 1.9 miles (3km), and here one is captured weaving through the Sahara on its journey to the coast. Its load – of iron ore mined in Zouerat – is among the world’s heaviest too, while people often jump on to the cars to travel between towns. Justin Jin’s photo fell into the urban category, in which it was highly commended.

Like a gem in a magical jewellery box, this living mural displays a likeness of the most famous and influential princess of the Tang Dynasty. Princess Taiping is here represented in greenery and blooms in different shapes and colours, and she is the crowning glory of Taiping Lake’s Forest Park near Mile City in China’s Yunnan Province. The park has been built on swathes of desert land that’s now an oasis of green spaces and forest. Jingkun Yang’s image was commended in the urban category.

Monsoon season ushers in what must be one of the world’s prettiest harvests in the wetlands of West Bengal, with rural communities gathering blooming waterlilies. The workers’ bright outfits add to the colourful scene, while one is shown completely surrounded by concentric rings of the plants. The aerial nature of the shot makes it, creating the illusion that the worker is wearing a fabulous, swishy dress or grass skirt. Shibasish Saha’s photo was runner-up for the rural theme.

It took a lot of skill and plenty of patience for Bastian Brüsecke to capture this charming image of wild camels in the Omani portion of the Empty Quarter Desert. In fact, the German photographer spent several weeks on an expedition through the arid landscape, taking this shot when they appeared, as if from nowhere, in just the right light conditions to create these wonderful shadows.

Sometimes the interaction between nature and humanity creates art that few imaginations could conjure. This photo, top in the abstract theme, shows workers harvesting in a salt pan in Habra, India. They use rakes to gather the salt into circular lines to allow any water to slowly evaporate under the strong sun. The salt is later collected into baskets and, while the sunburst shapes are delightful to look at, the work itself is laborious.

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