Dronestagram is a community that is focused on drone photography. It is a social network that displays photos and videos taken by drone hobbyists from around the world. They have an Android and iOS app but you can also view the photos on dronestagr.am. The styling of the website is loosely based on Instagram where you can comment or like a photo or video but under there is an additional icon that show the number of views of the photo/video
There are also other tabs on the website that show listed information generated from the Dronestagram community.
- Top Pilots shows the highest rated drone pilots
- Top Photos is a list of the most liked photos on the community & you can sort them via a filter
- Top Videos shows the top liked videos
- Map shows the geotagged drone photos where you can zoom photos taken on specific locations
- Professional book is a business directory where you can look for various services like Drone shops, groups, drone flight schools etc. It is quite informative and the locations of the various services are geotagged
- Contest tab gives information about the various contests that will be hold or were held by Dronestagram where participants seek to take the most epic of drone photos
- Dronestagram blog, just like other official blogs, is the newsroom for announcing future events or changes to the ecosystem
Of interest was the second edition of the Drone Aerial Photography Contest which was announced on June 2nd. There was another contest in 2014 and in the 2015 edition, more than 5000 entries were submitted. The photos were judged by a panel of experts from National Geographic. The contest also attracted other sponsors like Adobe, Kodak, GoPro, Parrot, Hexo+ and Picanova.
The prizes won by the 1st , 2nd and 3rd placed contestants were courtesy of the sponsors and they included Parrot drones, featuring in National Geographic website and magazine, Kodak action camera, Adobe Creative cloud photography subscription for a year, GoPro action cameras , Hobbico drones and vouchers by Picanova to print on either canvas, aluminum or Plexiglas.
The winning photos were grouped in different categories: Places, nature and dronies. These are the photos from each category that were placed 1st from each category:
Places category 1st place: Above the Mist by Ricardo Matiello
Nature category 1st place: Snorkeling with sharks
Dronies category: 1st place- Where’s Wally
There are other notable drone pictures that were placed 2nd or 3rd in the contest and you can view them here
I love Dronestagram, you can call it the Instagram for drone enthusiasts. In order to have proper fun with the app, you’ll need to post aerial photos which means getting a drone. Good drones however are expensive, the ones that are come with built in cameras that are stabilized. In Kenya, I was able to see photos uploaded on the community via the Maps tab on the site, from Nairobi to Kitengela and all the way to Amboseli National Park. I’ll highly recommend this social media site for photo enthusiasts and aspiring drone hobbyist and frankly it is better to watch the photos on desktop rather than on phone.
