Aerial photography, persimmon harvest in China

The popularity of aerial photography is constantly increasing among professional and enthusiast photographers alike, thanks to the growing diffusion of drones. Amongst the photographs entered in the contest by SkyPixel, the world’s most popular aerial photography community, one of them in particular caught our eye. Here is our review.


We have already given you an overview of the winners of the photography contest by Skypixel, the world’s most popular aerial photography community, in collaboration with the aerial robotics technology producer DJI (link). The winners of the Photo Story Contest 2017 were chosen out of over 44 thousand candidates from 141 countries, a testament to the huge popularity of this photography genre, which offers us unusual perspectives of the world. 
One particular aspect of this contest that we were very impressed by was the high number of images depicting rural life scenes. Strictly regulated in many countries, and less so in others, the use of drones is quite difficult in urban centres, due to the presence of buildings and the lack of space. In the countryside or in the wild, though, drones allow us to discover glimpses of rare and unexpected beauty, often invisible to the human eye.
This is the case in the series of images that was awarded second prize at the SkyPixel Photo Story Contest 2017 in the “Story” category, for the Professional Group: “Persimmon harvest in golden autumn”. With their camera installed on a remote control drone, the photographer observed the fields of persimmon, with their many deciduous trees that have been grown in China since time immemorial. The Chinese people attribute four virtues to the persimmon trees: they are long-lived, they provide great shade, they offer birds a good place to build their nests, and they are not attacked by parasites. Sustainability-wise, it is the perfect tree, as it does not require the use of pesticides and has several nutritional properties.
The visual story displaying the overall context of the orchards on the land below, coupled with the coloured fruits seen from a macro perspective, brought us to the conclusion that another virtue may be added to the ones already described above: the photogenic quality of the fruit itself which, with its warm colour, breathes life into the cold autumnal days, given that it isn’t harvested until late in the season, when the tree has already lost its leaves.

Christiane Bürklein

SkyPixel Photo Contest 2017
Find out more: https://www.skypixel.com/events/photocontest2017
Images: courtesy of SkyPixel - https://www.skypixel.com/photos/13056109-adb4-4642-943e-c0f06deeb989