The winners of the WallMag Drone Photography Awards 2026 are here — chosen from a Top 100 shortlist of aerial photographers working across India and beyond. Fly Drone · Submit · Win.
📅 Finalists announced: 25 September 2026
Winners announced: 2 October 2026
How Were the Winners Decided?
Nothing here was decided behind a closed door. Every entry was first scored by the WallMag community — open voting, visible on each project page. The hundred highest-scoring entries became the finalists. Only then did our independent jury of working photographers step in and score that shortlist. The final standing weighs jury 80% and community 20%, which is why a frame that moved the crowd still had to hold up to a professional eye.
Meet the Top 3.
🥇 1st Place — Living Patterns
By: Ashwin KV
Thousands of greater flamingos over Pulicat Lake, migrating from Central Asia and Siberia, forming patterns that only exist from above. The subject is a bird; the composition is arithmetic.
🏆 Prize: ₹5,000 worth of Partner Brand Discounts & Coupons; plus Cover Story Feature in WallMag Creator Magazine — a full editorial spread of your winning aerial stories, plus the shared winner benefits below.
🥈 2nd Place — Tumpak Sewu, Indonesia
By: Himadri Bhuyan
Tumpak Sewu waterfall and Mount Semeru in one frame — and as the drone climbed, the volcano's first eruption of the day began to rise from the summit. A landscape photograph that turned into a news photograph mid-flight.
🏆 Prize: ₹5,000 worth of Partner Brand Discounts & Coupons; plus Featured Interview in WallMag Creator Magazine — your craft, journey, and signature aerial style, plus the shared winner benefits below.
🥉 3rd Place — A River of Contrasts
By: Akshay Kanade
A river over Mumbai separating dense human settlement from unbroken green. Shot from above, it reads as a boundary; the point of the picture is that it isn't one.
🏆 Prize: ₹5,000 worth of Partner Brand Discounts & Coupons; plus Spotlight Q&A in WallMag Creator Magazine on your winning drone photography portfolio, plus the shared winner benefits below.
What Every Winner Receives
The Top 3 share the same core benefits, with the magazine treatment scaling by rank — a Cover Story for 1st, a Featured Interview for 2nd, and a Spotlight Q&A for 3rd.
- ₹5,000 worth of partner brand discounts and coupons
- A feature in WallMag Creator Magazine — Cover Story, Featured Interview or Spotlight Q&A by rank
- A Recognition Certificate naming your winning rank
- Brand collaboration opportunities with drone-industry partners
- A showcase across WallMag's social channels
Want to Be Next?
WallMag awards open regularly, across photography, music, dance and design. If your best work is sitting on your phone or a hard drive where nobody will ever see it, this is where it gets seen — judged in the open, by a community and a jury, with your name on it.
Congratulations to Ashwin, Himadri and Akshay — and to every creator who entered this edition. Every entry was seen, voted on and officially ranked, and your certificate is waiting on your My Submissions tab.
