RTF Drone Photo Challenge 21st December 2025 to January 3rd 2026 - Steps and Stairs - Winners Annoounced

You’ve considered, you’ve voted. And the largest group of you decided that Steps and Stairs should be this round’s subject

RULES

The usual rules apply, reproduced here as we know you love checking them every round of RTF.

The requirement is to submit a single still image created using a drone to illustrate the subject of the competition. This round will run from 00:01 Sunday 21st December 2025 until 23:00 Saturday January3rd 2026; the subject is Steps and Stairs

The image must be captured while the competition is open. It is a Reason To Fly Challenge so please show that the image is created by a flying camera!

Editing is confined to colour and exposure adjustments and crop only. There must be no removal or pasting of an object. Stacked images, HDR images and non-spherical panoramas are considered single images for the purposes of this competition.

Images must be posted with the following information as a minimum:

In Capitals as the first line of your post:

THIS IS MY ENTRY

If this is not done at the time of posting the picture will be ignored. Should it be necessary to change your picture then delete the previous picture and add “This is my entry” - as above - as the first line of your new post. If in any doubt contact the Challenges Committee
(@Challenges_Committee)

Further Information is required

  • Location
  • Time and date
  • Aircraft/camera used
  • Feel free to add any further information that you think will be of interest

Voting

The members of GADC will judge images. They may vote for any number of pictures through an anonymous poll open for two days after the closing date for competition entries.

Voting in the poll is open to all GADC members, whether they have entered the competition or not.

The Challenge Committee may request the original media in case of a dispute.

Schedule

The competition subject will be announced every second Saturday around 22:30. The subject will be chosen by a poll of GADC members selecting from three that have been picked at random from the subject list. You may make additions to the list at any time.

The competition will run from Sunday 00.01 to Saturday 23.00 fourteen days later. Voting by poll will be open for a further two days until Monday 22:00

The winner (and second and third-placed competitors if there are sufficient entries) will be announced shortly after the vote is closed

Have Fun! Be Safe!

All flights are the sole responsibility of the individual conducting them. Each competitor must abide by the drone code and adhere to the limitations and restrictions imposed upon them by aviation law, the aircraft being used and the qualifications they hold. Merry Christmas to all who have read this far, a reply would be nice!. If a flight is undertaken in a restricted zone proof of permission having been granted is required.

E&OE

@group-challenges

2 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

I managed to get out yesterday, before getting tied up in the forthcoming festivities and crap weather…

Beach steps, Blackpool north shore, opposite the Imperial Hotel, ///shower.posed.maybe

21/12/25 DJI Mini 2

14 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

1300hrs 26 Dec 25

Air 3S

70mm f/2.8 1/320s ISO 320

Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway Station

No train services today, and no people. I think it works better in B&W, allowing the form to dominate without the distraction of colour.

17 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

Steps leading to the Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum.
3pm 26th December, with a mavic 4 pro

18 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

  • Painswick Golf Course
  • 4pm 26th Dec
  • Mini 5 Pro
  • Steps leading up to Hole number 5

16 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

  • Harrow School Steps (by Speech Room)
  • 10:20 27/12/2025
  • DJI Mini 3

Interesting set of steps between Church Hill and the High Street, Harrow on the Hill. Discovered if too low over the steps, the Mini 3 would drop continuously and had to counter act. The image is HDR as low sun made for very high contrast.

Peter

12 Likes

Nice, good use of hdr.

1 Like

THIS IS MY ENTRY

The Salmon Leap
Great Ayton, North Yorkshire
Sat 27th Dec - 3:41pm
DJI Mini 4 Pro

A lovely little stepped weir, to allow migratory fish to reach further upstream

13 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

Linton Steps

Linton, Yorkshire Dales

Sunday 28th December 2025 @ 14:09

DJI Mini 5 Pro

Popular stepping stones across the River Wharfe at Linton Falls, near Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales

16 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

South Beach, Saltcoats

30.12.25

08:39

DJI Mini 4 Pro

The watch tower for the old tidal pool in Saltcoats. In its heyday the tidal pool would have been full of summer day trippers and holiday makers enjoying a dip under the watchful eye of the lifeguards.

14 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY
• Lowry Footbridge Collyhurst Manchester
• 29th December 12:30pm
• Mini 4 pro

‘Barney’s Steps’ are among the last relics of a dark, crowded valley where the Victorian poor eked out an existence.

They are a feature of ‘old Collyhurst’ that caught the imagination of L.S. Lowry, which he immortalised in his 1938 painting ‘A footbridge’. And, while it’s by Lowry’s name the footbridge is perhaps most commonly known - as ‘Lowry’s Footbridge’.

10 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY
30/12/2025. 11:00
Mini 4 pro

The top of the Big one Blackpool Pleasure Beach, showing maintenance and emergency escape steps/stairs.

12 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

  • Chepstow Cenotaph
  • 31 Dec 2025 @ 1421
  • DJI Flip
    I like the way the grey stone contrasts with the wreaths laid at Remembrance in November. There is also a German Naval deck gun, donated to the town by King George V which commemorates the posthumous award of a Victoria Cross to Able Seaman William Charles Williams from Chepstow and killed at Gallipoli.

17 Likes

A few candidate photos. Not sure yet which one to choose!

8 Likes

THIS IS MY ENTRY

Peterloo Memorial, Manchester
2nd January 2026, 11.18am
DJI Mini 2

This memorial commemorates the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, featuring the names of eighteen of the victims. It sits close to the Peterloo site, in between the Midland Hotel and Manchester Central. The designer was artist Jeremy Deller.

The flat circle on the left shows all the bits that can’t be seen from ground level, for the benefit of those who can’t climb the steps.

9 Likes

the 2nd to last shot in these posts works for me. the simplicity but great impact of a human from 2 perspectives

1 Like

Totally agree, suits the subject well.

1 Like

What an interesting and varied selection of images! Thank you for taking time out during the holiday season to create them.

Now you have another task - to vote for the best! (And you can continue image creation for the current RTF - Statues ) You can vote for up to three entries, the poll closes at 22:00 on Monday, January 5th.

@group-challenges

@Seadog i was thinking of this for an image but im not paying for a quick flight, its absolutely ridiculous that blackpool are charging now, surely theres a way it can be monitored through the app, especially when theres a button that says activate flight

1 Like

Last of the freebie flights for me, in fact last flight within Blackpool FRZ unless they change their policy of charging. Also I used to book a month at a time to make use of weather windows, now another member has been told you can’t book more than a week at a time. I think it’s Blackpool council that is screwing us.