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Seen from above, a road, shoreline, roofline, or field can stop reading simply as a place and become pattern, geometry, or abstraction. Top View: Drone Photography Contest by Top Photo Awards is built around that shift in perspective, inviting photographs in which the aerial viewpoint is central to the image. The submission deadline is September 26, 2026, and the contest is open worldwide.
A free Top Photo Awards account allows two entries, with larger entry allowances available through Basic, Plus, and Pro accounts. This gives the competition a place among Deartline’s free photo contests, while photographers can find a wider range of current opportunities through the main photography contests listings.
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Prizes and Recognition
Top View rewards winning photographs through digital recognition and editorial visibility across the Top Photo Awards platform.
- Award Badge and Certificate: Winning places receive an award badge and a downloadable PDF certificate.
- Featured Article: Winners may be presented in a dedicated article on the Top Photo Awards blog.
- Social Media Spotlight: Selected winning images may be featured through the platform’s social media channels.
- Online Gallery: Top works may be displayed in the online gallery for continued recognition after the contest closes.
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Categories or Themes
Top View has a single aerial theme rather than separate competition categories. The subject matter is deliberately broad, provided the photograph depends on a clear drone perspective.
- Aerial Landscapes
- Urban Photography
- Architecture
- Travel Photography
- Abstract Aerial Photography
- Top-Down Perspectives
- Patterns & Geometry
- Creative Drone Photography
This breadth allows the same call to accommodate natural scenery, cities, buildings, human activity, and highly graphic compositions. Photographers interested in comparable drone photography contests can explore Deartline’s dedicated aerial photography category.
Dates and Entry Fees
Top View remains open through late September, with results following after the Top Photo Awards judging period.
| Submission deadline | September 26, 2026 |
| Results | Within 45 days after the contest closes |
Entry options:
- Free account: Up to 2 entries.
- Basic account: Up to 4 entries.
- Plus account: Up to 6 entries.
- Pro account: Up to 8 entries.
- Extra entries: 2 credits per additional photograph.
A free account is sufficient to participate with two photographs, while additional entries require credits or a higher account level. This also makes Top View relevant within Deartline’s free photography competitions for photographers who want to enter without upgrading their account.
How to Enter
Photographers must create a Top Photo Awards account, choose Top View from the active contests, and upload their images through the platform. JPEG, JPG, and PNG files are accepted, with a maximum file size of 10 MB. The general submission guidelines require a minimum size of 500 × 500 pixels and recommend approximately 2000 × 3000 pixels, using sRGB or Adobe RGB.
Submitted photographs must not contain text, logos, signatures, or watermarks. For this contest, the image must have been captured with a drone and the aerial viewpoint should be an essential part of the photograph.
About the Jury
Top View is judged by the Top Photo Awards team. The platform uses anonymous judging, so photographers’ identities are not shown while entries are being evaluated.
For contests handled internally, the TPA team reviews the entries and determines the winners. Top Photo Awards also maintains a broader international jury panel of photographers and creative professionals, although no individual member of that panel is specifically assigned to Top View.
Why Enter Top View: Drone Photography Contest by Top Photo Awards?
Top View is narrow in its method but broad in what photographers can put in front of the camera. Requiring a drone perspective gives the competition a recognizable visual language, while landscapes, architecture, travel, urban scenes, human activity, and abstraction can all fit within the same brief. That makes composition and viewpoint more important than belonging to a particular subject category.
The emphasis on geometry is also worth noting. Roads, coastlines, rooftops, agricultural fields, waterways, and groups of people can produce very different photographs once scale and viewpoint are altered. The contest specifically looks for patterns, symmetry, repetition, lines, and visual structure alongside more conventional landscape or urban storytelling.
For aerial photographers considering the top photo contests currently open, the free two-image allowance provides a straightforward way to enter a specialist theme. Winning work can also receive a certificate, award badge, editorial feature, social media presentation, and longer-term visibility in the Top Photo Awards online gallery.
Rules and Copyright
We reviewed the official rules of the Top View: Drone Photography Contest by Top Photo Awards to summarize the key participation requirements, copyright terms and image usage conditions. Before entering, we recommend checking the complete rules published by the organizer.
Rules
- The contest is open to photographers worldwide.
- Images must be captured with a drone and use an aerial viewpoint as a central element of the photograph.
- Color and black-and-white photographs are accepted.
- JPEG, JPG, and PNG files are accepted, with a maximum file size of 10 MB.
- Images must be at least 500 × 500 pixels; approximately 2000 × 3000 pixels is recommended.
- Submitted images must not contain text, logos, signatures, or watermarks.
- Photographers must own the rights to their entries and any required releases or permissions.
- Photo editing is permitted, but entries must remain photographic in nature. Fully AI-generated or primarily computer-generated images are not eligible for this contest.
- Users aged 13 to 17 require authorization from a parent or legal guardian to use the platform.
Copyright and Image Usage
Photographers retain copyright and ownership of the images they upload to Top Photo Awards. The platform does not claim ownership of submitted photographs.
Uploading an image nevertheless grants Top Photo Awards broad permission to use, reproduce, distribute, display, and share it through the website and related services. Submitted work may also be used in marketing materials, blogs, articles, social media, and other promotional publications connected with the platform.
The terms additionally permit cropping, manipulation, combining images, creating derivative works, and modifying metadata for operational or promotional purposes. These usage rights remain in force while the content remains available on the website. Materials already created, published, or distributed before an image is removed may continue to be displayed or used afterward.
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For more information and to participate in the contest, visit: the official website.
