Drone Girl to judge Siena Drone Photo Awards 2020

The Drone Photo Awards 2020 is now open for submissions, and this year’s competition has a unique new category: “Empty Cities: Life Under COVID-19.”

The Drone Photo Awards 2020 is part of the Siena International Photo Awards, which was started in 2015. Photographers can enter the main show, the “Siena International Photo Awards”, but can also participate in two spinoff competitions: the “Drone Photo Awards” and the “Creative Photo Awards.” This is the third year of a drone-specific branch of the photo contest.

And what’s at stake for the winner? There’s €500,00 worth of photography equipment, on top of tons of other goodies like the Pangea Prize christal statuette, an awards ceremony in Siena in October in their honor, and a gallery exhibition in their honor.

The Siena awards is a huge event in the Italian town of Siena held during the fall as the town opens itself up to photographers around the world for photo tours around Siena, post-production courses, workshops, conferences and a Siena Stories Workshop, held for about an entire month between the end of October through the end of November.

Perhaps the highlight of the event is an epic awards ceremony and gala in Siena at the Teatro dei Rozzi, Siena theater. The gala celebrates not just the drone photo awards, but all the Siena awards. This year’s ceremony is set for Saturday, Oct. 24 and is still expected to go on, pending coronavirus-related travel restrictions.

This year’s conference will be judged by a panel including Sally French, The Drone Girl, joined alongside five others. The other judges include Guo Jing, who serves as the representative of United Photographers International (UPI) in China; National Geographic photographer and decorated aerial photographer Florian Ledoux, and Arctic photographer and Greenpeace Ambassador Roie Galitz.

How to enter the Drone Photo Awards 2020

The deadline to enter is June 15, 2020, but mark your calendars for May 20. Your first image is free for entries submitted before May 20, 2020. Any images beyond that cost €20 to submit 3 images, and €8 for each additional image.

To enter, upload your images through their website (you’ll need to create an account).

While they’re called “Drone Photo Awards,” images can come from all aerial platforms, including fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, balloons, blimps and dirigibles, rockets, kites, and parachutes.

You can enter in any of their ten categories: weddings, video, urban, nature, people, animals, abstract, sports, series, plus the rather timely “Empty Cities: Life Under COVID-19” category.

Looking for other drone photo contests to enter? Here’s a guide to the best drone contests accepting submissions right now for 2020.

Oh, and need a great drone for taking those photos of empty cities during coronavirus? Here’s my guide to the best photography drones of 2020.

Happy flying, and good luck!