- Days Remaining 63
Event History
This is the second year of the competition.
Copyright Policy
We acknowledge that the entrant retains full ownership of the copyright in each Entry.
Image Usage Rights
All Entrants agree that any Entry submitted to the competition may be used by the Organiser for the purposes of judging the Competition, and marketing and promotional purposes of the Competition. Winning entries will be used as follows and only with respect to promoting the competition: • displaying the winning entries at public exhibitions promoting the Awards; • inclusion within the Organiser's and Event partners' websites and magazines, an awards book, magazine or similar (in both paper and digital media); • inclusion in future publications and websites promoting the Awards, such as a 10-year anniversary compendium of past winners; • inclusion within any material promoting the Awards; • sub-licensing winning Entries to the press (such as magazines and websites) for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any exhibition. Please note, these organisations do not need to contact you separately for permission to use your photo in connection with the Competition; • allowing vi
At the International Aerial Photographer of the Year awards, we believe there are many ways to create stunning aerial photographs. Whether you're using a drone or a balloon, a helicopter or a jet plane, it's not up to us to tell you how to capture your aerials. It's not up to us to tell you how to edit your files either, but it is up to you to surprise us with different angles, unusual locations and new creative ideas! And then leave us with the tough job of awarding the Top 101 aerial photographs of the year.
We have no categories and really the only rule is that you can't use AI to generate content. We want to see what you have personally captured or created.
Like our sister International Landscape Photographer of the Year award, your objective is to have one or more of your entries accepted into the Top 101 aerial photographs of the year. This gives you a place in our exclusive book which is published online and can be purchased as a 'real' hard-cover paper publication as well.
Of course, we'll tempt you a little further with a total of US$10,000 in cash prizes and printed copies of the book for the major prize winners (see the rules for full details).
To enter, just size your best photos to 3000-4000 pixels on the longest side, save them as a JPEG/JPG and upload them to our site. The entry fee is US$22 per image, and if you enter by 23 April 2026, every fifth entry is free. Final entries are accepted until 30 April 2026.
When the competition closes, our judges will use calibrated monitors to judge each photograph, giving it a score out of 100. Judges can open each and every entry and view it pixel for pixel on their monitor if required - and this is invariably done before they give their higher scores. Technique and craft are just as important as creativity for the top awards.
Once the first round of judging is completed, the top scoring 101 photos are selected and checked to ensure they comply with the rules (not taken before 1 January 2021 for example) and that there are not two or more photographs by the same photographer that are very similar (we are looking for variety). There is also a limit on the number of photographs a single entrant can have in the Top 101 - no more than four, just to share the experience around. We then move into the next rounds of judging, as outlined in our rules, to determine the Photographer of the Year (1st, 2nd, 3rd), the Photograph of the Year (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and four special subject awards. This can take two or even three rounds of scoring and comment before the judges come up with their final result.
We hope you enjoy preparing your aerial entries and the best of luck!
