Derry Ainsworth wins first place in the Drone category at the 2026 Golden Shot International Photography Awards
- Derry Ainsworth
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
The committee behind the annual 2026 Golden Shot Photography Awards has officially announced its winners, celebrating the world’s most compelling visual storytellers. Standing out among thousands of global entries, celebrated Hong Kong-based photographer Derry Ainsworth was awarded a double-victory. Ainsworth has taken home the coveted First Place (Gold) title in the Drone (series) category, alongside a Second Place (Silver) win in the Mobile Photography category.
With these dual victories, Ainsworth reaches a new milestone, now holding an astonishing 29 photography awards over the course of his career.
Gold Standard: The Winning Drone Series - 'Hong Kong From Above'
Ainsworth’s first-place series captures the complex relationship between structural rigidity and fluid environments, offering viewers a breathtaking look at urban topology through a highly precise, geometric lens.
The gold-winning submission relies heavily on symmetry, scale, and atmospheric conditions, utilising a series of striking images provided as his official entries:
'Zipline' - Derry Ainsworth - A spectacular, crisp top-down shot capturing a massive cargo ship loaded with red and white shipping containers as it cuts through turquoise waters, passing directly beneath a highway suspension bridge. 
'Containment' - Derry Ainsworth: A masterful framing of urban density, showing a massive container ship perfectly positioned out at sea, viewed directly through the structural "dragon gate" opening of a towering high-rise apartment complex. 
#tags - Derry Ainsworth - A mesmerising aerial view looking straight down at symmetrical public housing blocks shaped precisely like hashtags, transforming high-density architecture into an abstract graphic layout. 
Suburbia - Derry Ainsworth - A stark, split-perspective aerial photograph that establishes a perfect dividing line between a dense grid of orange-roofed suburban houses on the left and geometric rural fish ponds on the right. 
'Mountainside' - Derry Ainsworth - A misty, cinematic shot documenting the silent majesty of the Tian Tan Big Buddha statue sitting peacefully on a dark, forested mountainside as heavy clouds roll across the peak. 
'Poolside' - Derry Ainsworth: A vibrant, geometric top-down capture of the Kennedy Town Swimming Pool, charting the crisp blue swimming lanes contrasted against sunbathers and colorful umbrellas lining the deck.
Silver in Mobile Photography: 'Chasing Colours'
Proving his artistic adaptability extends far beyond high-altitude drone sensors, Ainsworth also claimed the Second Place Silver award in the highly competitive Mobile Photography category.
His winning entry, 'Chasing Colours', shifts focus back to the human scale. Captured entirely on a mobile device at a famous rainbow-hued public housing estate's basketball court, the photograph is a vivid celebration of color, movement, and candid street life. The composition juxtaposes the iconic pastel facade of the estate with a mother and child walking across the vibrant green and blue courts, while a massive, hot pink balloon floats dynamically in the foreground.
A Career Milestone
The Golden Shot jury commended Ainsworth's unique ability to transition seamlessly between rigid, grand-scale aerial geometry and the fleeting, intimate moments of street level. With his lifetime tally now sitting at 29 professional accolades, these twin wins firmly solidify Derry Ainsworth's status as an artist operating at the absolute peak of his creative powers.
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