Are these the best drone photographs ever taken?

The winners of National Geographic's annual 'Dronestagram' competition have been announced

Since 2014, National Geographic have challenged all owners of airborne cameras to capture the best ‘drone-taken’ photographs in the world. Each year, the winners are announced across categories including ‘Urban’, ‘People’ and ‘Nature’. For 2017, aerial photomasters around the world have pulled out all the stops, and developed the best batch of images so far. Take a look below.

Here, achieving finalist status in the ‘Nature’ category, @jcourtial captured the Summer fields of provence being trimmed.

Arguably the most striking part of @CalinStan’s ‘Nature’ entry is the man-made road, the ‘Infinite Road’ that stretches from Romania to Transylvania.

Rounding out the ‘Nature’ category, this stunning entry from @FlorianLedoux shows ice formations floating in the East Greenland sea.

Block colours and geometric shapes kick off the ‘People’ category, with @MartinSanchez’s perspective bending entry.

@Helio1412 makes a bid for both ‘People’ and ‘Nature’ in this vignette of a woman harvesting water lilies in a pond in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

La Vijanera in Spain, a fiesta of festive nature, is captured here from above by @FeelingMovie – rounding out the ‘People’ category.

In the rapidly-growing concrete jungle of Dubai, @Bachirm has flown his drone to the heady heights of the skyscrapers. A worthy entry.

Industrial climbers are employed to clean the tower ‘Mercury’ in Moscow, Russia. Here, @Alexeygo catches them at work.

Entered only under the name ‘Peace, Madrid’, by drone photographer @LuckyDron, this display of industrial beauty made it into the ‘Urban’ top three.

Unranked, but commended for creativity, the wittily-named ‘Two Moo’ by @LukeMaximoBell captures two bovine beasts treading the beaches of South Africa.

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