In the world of panoramic photography, there’s no stage quite like the 2025 Epson International Pano Awards. This edition just dropped its winners list, and man, these shots are something else. Think vast mountain ranges glowing under sunrise, jaw-dropping city skylines, and architecture that bends your sense of scale. Out of more than 4,500 entries from every corner of the globe, only a handful snagged the top spots—and every single frame feels like a journey.
Now in its 16th year, the competition continues to honor both pro and amateur photographers who can turn ordinary views into jaw-dropping panoramas. The contest splits into two main categories—Nature/Landscape and Built Environment/Architecture—each bursting with creativity and precision. The artistry, composition, and insane attention to detail in these images show just how far panoramic photography has evolved.
But it doesn’t stop there. Beyond the main titles, there are some seriously cool special awards. The Southeast Asia Open Photographer of the Year, handpicked by Epson’s Southeast Asia team, shines a spotlight on regional brilliance. The Epson Digital Art Prize, chosen by Epson Australia, celebrates the magic of digital post-processing and technical mastery. Meanwhile, the Raw Planet Award rewards those who keep it pure—minimal editing, just perfect stitching. And for that final creative touch, curator David Evans steps in with his personal favorite for the Curator’s Award.
These 16 stunning images are more than just panoramic shots—they’re windows into the world’s wild beauty and human imagination.
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#1. Open Photographer of the Year: "Last Fireworks" by Alex Wides
"The 10-day nomad trip to Algeria turned out to be one of the best adventures ever. After many nights crossing dunes and climbing rocky ridges, I reached a remote viewpoint on the last evening of this amazing expedition. As the sun went down, the sky literally exploded… layer after layer of clouds lit up, painting the desert with fire and gold."
#2. Winner Open Built Environment / Architecture: "Not A Tiny HK Island" by Vitaly Golovatyuk
"This aerial photograph was captured from Victoria Peak, Hong Kong, at sunset. As a technical experiment, I manually shot a 48-image panorama using a DJI Phantom 3 Pro. The final artwork is the result of meticulously stitching and inverting the composite, transforming the city and sky into a mesmerizing, abstract landscape."
#3. Southeast Asia Open Photographer of the Year: "Wildebeest Migration in Kenya" by William Chua
"I’ve been to many places across Africa, but Kenya still remains one of my favourites. Although I’ve witnessed the wildebeest migration countless times, it never ceases to amaze me. Last year, I found myself back in Kenya once again. Photographing the migration is never easy — it demands lots of patience and of cos a touch of luck."
#4. Amateur Photographer of the Year by "The Altiplano Landscape" by Kevin Nyun
"This image was from my last morning in the Bolivia highland. We have been unlucky with the weather for three straight days and the clouds finally cleared at that moment. Bolivia highland, to my knowledge, is less explored due to the difficulty of reaching remote locations and the high altitude of almost 5000 meters. On top of that, snow was quite early this year, and I was in awe seeing the red dessert mixed with fresh white powder.
I will never know when I will get to have a moment like this in the future, so I quickly launched my drone and used the pano tool to compose this image. The total number of images in this composition is 21 images single exposure stitched in Lightroom and processed through Lightroom and Photoshop."
#5. Amateur Built Environment / Architecture: "Through the palette" by Pedro Nogales
"This photograph depicts one of the four towers that shape the financial district of the Spanish capital. More specifically, it’s the PwC Tower, which is the third highest skyscraper in Spain (236 m or 775 ft). Its surroundings merge with garden areas, which connect the spaces between these concrete giants.
The skyscraper peaks through an opening that inevitably brings a painter’s palette to our minds, while inviting us to imagine a world created before being depicted. Within this frame, the tower ascends into the sky, manifesting the modernity and avant-garde design of this architectonic complex."
#6. VR / 360 Award: "Hverarönd Aurora" by Cristoph Simon
"This panorama was taken on a freezing March night in the high-temperature region of Hverarönd in northern Iceland. It was an awe-inspiring experience to stand alone in this surreal lunar landscape, surrounded by the hissing and sulphurous scent of the solfataras and fumaroles, as the delicate green of a single aurora arc transformed into a powerful substorm within minutes, and the Northern Lights danced above and around me in intense colors."
#7. Epson Digital Art Prize: "Tides of Tradition" by Daniel Viñé Garcia
"In this coastal village of Vietnam, survival is woven in silence. These women, working in morning shade and salt-laden air, are the unseen guardians of sustenance. The nets they mend are not mere tools, but lifelines binding sea and community together.
Their anonymity turns them from individuals into archetypes — the enduring backbone of a tradition that predates memory. What the ocean tears apart, they restore, ensuring that each tide can return with promise. They do not face the waves, yet the sea depends on their hands."
#8. Curators Award: "Elysium" by Chris Byrne
"During the late summer months of August the high alpine areas of Mount Rainier in Washington come alive with wildflowers. Starting at the lower elevations and then working into bloom at higher elevations as the days go on. This particular year I had quite a bit of time to explore this park and made three or four hikes on separate occasions up to this location with my main purpose to photograph a tarn that had a perfect reflection of this glorious mountain. And each time that I did that hike, this field of lupine just kept getting better and better."
#9. Raw Planet Award: "Cathedral of Shadows" by Daniel Viñé Garcia
"The day I captured this image, the desert felt endless. During our journey through the American Southwest, one place had always fascinated me—Factory Butte, an isolated monolith surrounded by a labyrinth of badlands. I launched my drone into the still evening air, exploring the textures and lines carved by centuries of erosion. Then, just as the sun dipped low, the summit cast its immense shadow across the land.
I realized I was witnessing a fleeting alignment of light and form, so I captured a full 360° panorama—revealing the sun blazing on one side, the vast shadow stretching on the other, and the raw, timeless silence of Utah in between."
#10. Second Place Open Nature / Landscape: "Sacred Nature" by Marina Cano
#11. Second Place Open Built Environment: "Ambisnaena" by Peter Li
#12. Second Place Amateur Nature / Landscape: "The Wave" by Luis Cajete
#13. Second Place Amateur Open Built Environment: "Great Wall" by Agnes Anna Sadowski
#14. Third Place Open Nature / Landscape: "Jackpot" by Alex Wides
"I first discovered this location about four years ago through a photo that completely captivated me… a suspended lake spilling into a valley, where an epic river carved a perfect serpent of water through the landscape. I told myself: one day, I have to photograph this place.
In 2022 I passed not far from it, but my work took the Lofoten Islands and I missed the chance, for two more years the dream remained on hold. In the summer of 2024 I was finally close again, but the weather was brutal… ten straight days with no clear window to hike up."
#15. Third Place Amateur Nature / Landscape: "Alien Throne" by Julio Castro Pardo
#16. Third Place Amateur Open Built Environment: "Architectural Playground" by Florian Kriechbaumer
