Stunning highlights from the 2021 Siena International Photo Awards

1st Place – Journeys & Adventures. This is My Jungle! A wild elephant attacks a jeep full of people. Yala National Park, Sri Lanka. Sergey Savvi View 20 Images
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By Rich Haridy

2021 Oct 30
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From skydiving over the pyramids of Egypt to having fun at the North Pole, this year’s Siena International Photo Awards spans all corners of the globe. Here is a handpicked selection of the highlights from this year’s spectacular crop of winners.

The Siena International Photo Awards has been running for seven years and has swiftly become one of the annual highlights on the photo contest calendar. There are 12 categories in the competition, spanning the usual suspects – architecture, animals, nature, etc. This year a dedicated COVID-19 category was also included.

Honorable Mention - Journeys & Adventures. Two Worlds. Freediver Brianna Zurlo playing with a giant baby humpback whale. Vava'u, Tonga. — *Honorable Mention – Journeys & Adventures.* *Two Worlds. Freediver Brianna Zurlo playing with a giant baby humpback whale. Vava’u, Tonga.*

Journeys & Adventures is one category delivering exceptional shots this year. Winning the category is a striking shot of a wild elephant reminding a jeep full of tourists who is in charge.

Karim Iliya’s magnificent shot “Two Worlds” is another stand-out in a category full of wild experiences. Taken off the coast of Tonga, the shot shows a free-diver facing off with a humpback whale.

“Freediver Brianna Zurlo playing with a giant baby humpback whale, one of the biggest animals to ever live on Earth,” Iliya notes in the photo’s caption. “At less than 2 months old, she is bigger than a car. For more than an hour, she was playfully breaching and swimming around, while her mother rested below.”

Remarkable Artwork - Sports in Action. Pyramids. Cairo, Egypt — *Remarkable Artwork – Sports in Action.* *Pyramids. Cairo, Egypt*

The Sports in Action category also delivered several stunning highlights this year, including Alessandro Barteletti’s mind-bending shot from the cockpit of an aerobatic pilot right in the middle of a complex formation.

“Ten aircraft fly at an average speed of 600 km/h and at a distance of 2 meters wing-to-wing,” explains Barteletti in the photo’s caption. “’Pony’ is the name given to the pilots of the Frecce Tricolori, the most famous aerobatic team in the world, founded in 1961. Flying wing-against-wing requires absolute mutual trust, achieved through exhausting daily training.”