Drone Photo Awards 2025

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I'm so thrilled to announce that I was awarded the 1st prize in the Nature Category in the Drone Photo Awards 2025, hosted by the Siena Awards in Siena, Tuscany, Italy.

I am simply blown away to receive such an accolade. The Drone Photo Awards has been running since 2018, and is one of, if not the most prestigious, drone photography awards in the world. It was attended by some of the most well respected and successful photographers of the current era, from Steve McCurry to Steve Winter, from Ami Vitale to Shane Gross. To be surrounded by such incredible photographers was extremely inspiring.

The awards ceremony was held in the beautiful Piazza del Campo in Siena, inside the Teatro dei Rinnovati. The ceremony was so well done — going through the three awards run by the organisation: the Siena International Photo Awards, the Creative Photo Awards and the Drone Photo Awards.

My Winning Nature Photograph — The Long Shadow

[IMAGE 2] Christopher Harrison's award-winning photograph "The Long Shadow" taken in Oxfordshire, England. Awarded 1st place in the Nature category of the Drone Photo Awards, run by the Siena Awards.

My photograph that won the 1st Prize in the Nature category of the Drone Photo Awards was 'The Long Shadow'.

This was captured in my local area, near Oxfordshire, England, on March 1, 2025. There was rare low mist sat across the landscape, just at the right height with this clump of trees on a small hill (a Bronze Age barrow).

As the sun rose above the horizon, it cast warm striking light through the mist, casting a beautiful, long shadow behind the trees. This results in a simple yet impactful scene, where the closer you look the more you see.

I captioned the photograph as follows:

"On the first day of meteorological spring, the warm sunrise light filtered through the low-lying mist, casting a striking long shadow behind this small cluster of trees atop an ancient Bronze Age burial mound."

I'd like to congratulate all other winning photographers throughout the Drone Photo Awards, the quality and standard of the photographs this year is really incredible. I'm humbled to be amongst such an incredible group of photographers!

You can find the winning images of the Nature Category 2025 here: 2025 Nature Category

You can browse the overall Drone Photo Awards winners and categories here: 2025 Winners

[IMAGES 3-8] Six further frames from the awards and the winning image.

Media coverage

BBC News — "Misty morning shot wins drone photography award"

The article discusses the Siena Awards with some quotes from my interview with my local radio, BBC Oxfordshire, from the 30th September.

Gardenia magazine — an Italian gardening magazine which has a curated Nature feature by Lello Piazza. I have to say, this feature is very well done, and the words beside my photograph were rather beautiful.

[EDITOR'S NOTE — the original post reproduces a long translated passage from Gardenia here in full. See copyright_flag above. Recommend trimming to two or three sentences with attribution and a link. Key points from the feature: it describes SIPA as one of the most prestigious photographic competitions in the world; notes The Long Shadow was also included in the Top 101 of International Aerial Photographer of the Year 2025; notes the 2024 British Photography Awards Landscape win and Sigma Art Photographer of the Year; and describes Brightwell Barrow as a circular Bronze Age barrow about 30 metres in diameter with a small group of beeches on its summit, photographed with a DJI Air 2S.]

The Henley Standard published an article on the 17th October. (No link in the original — find and add.)

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The 'Nature' nominees for the Drone Photo Awards 2025

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The first thing to mention is that the Nature Category in this competition almost stands as the Landscape Category. It's highly competitive and receives entries from some of the biggest names in drone photography from around the world. For me to be included in the final six of this competition is such a humbling experience, and one that I am extremely proud of.

[EDITOR'S NOTE — the remainder of this section, and the "Reviewing the 2024 Nature Drone Photo Awards Winners" section below, are written in pre-ceremony tense. See structural_flag. Either convert to past tense or split into a separate, earlier-dated post.]

Reviewing the 2024 Nature Drone Photo Awards winners

When I was notified of making the list of nominees, the first thing I did was go back to the gallery of the 2024 winners. I have to say, the quality of the photographs is superb.

The 2024 winner of the Drone Photo Awards Nature Category was Xiaoying Shi with their photograph "Ground Vein".

What a brilliant photograph! Xiaoying captured this over the otherworldly geological formations of Factory Butte in Utah. The photograph is a textural treat, with a wonderful edit emphasising the warm light and patterns in the geology. These textures lead up to the distant peak, providing striking leading lines. I particularly love the distant peaks on the horizon, covered in snow. This gives a further sense of scale, and intrigue.

The runner up for the 2024 Nature category was Miki Spitzer with the photograph titled "The Eye of the Dragon".

It's such a great title for this image, as at first glance it did look like an eye. Only upon further inspection do you realise it is a geothermal pool with intricate patterns in the surrounding area. A very worthy runner-up.

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