ROAM’s Best Portraits of 2020

Crossing the border with Florian Decaux, and more incredible family vacation snaps for the album.

By Liliia DeCos

A family portrait is one of the best souvenirs we can bring home from our trips. What else but our smiling faces can better tell the story of our travels and experiences?

So we judges of the ROAM 2020 Best Family Travel Photo Contest had a ton of really outstanding family portraits to choose from. It made the process of choosing just five incredibly difficult!

Best Portrait

The winner of our Best Portrait of 2020 is Florian Decaux of goflo_travel for his shot, “Riders on the Border.”

Obviously, Florian knows a thing or two about taking amazing family shots:  Every one of his entries to the contest was stunning.  After much fretting over which shot to choose, we decided which this shot of riding donkeys to the village of  Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico, from their base in the Big Bend National Park, Texas, was the one that stole our hearts.

Originally from France but now living in Chicago, this family of six travels often.

“During the five years we have been living in the U.S., we travel and explore with our kids from 4-5 times per year. We believe traveling as a family will develop their creativity, curiosity and open their mind on the world. Each trip creates priceless memories, which is also why I’ve started to create small cinematic videos from our travel. (Check one out here.) The kids love to watch them again and again and I am looking forward to watching these videos again once the kids get older!”

Portrait Honorable Mentions

ROAM recognized four more photographers as Honorable Mention winners in the Portrait category:

Good Morning Mareeba by brit.simon.asha.billie

Simon Greivulis of Perth got these photos near their campground in Ringer’s Rest, Queensland. “We awoke to the sound of these balloons rising near our camp but there was thick fog so we could barely see them. We woke the kids and ran out to the field. We were the only ones out there and the kids were mesmerized. What a ripper way to wake up!”

Says Didrik Johnck, ROAM’s photographer at large and contest judge, “What image really moves me to action? This one.” Even though this picture is taken from behind, we can imagine the faces of the girls and feel the excitement of the moment.

Thrills & Chills by ourdreamsincolour

The Morgans are originally from the U.K. but now live in UAE. They were vacationining in the Bà Nà Hills near Da Nang, Vietnam, when they got this shot their two eldest children on the cable car. “I think it’s a great photo for showing the best part of family travel – all the emotions it brings in our children.  It also shows the different personalities of our kids, our son is a bit scared and our daughter is loving it – but they are both having fun.”

Near the Ostrich Farm by sergey_denischev

Irina Chernobrova took this fabulous shot of her daughter, son-in-law and their kids not far from an ostrich farm in Selyavino, Russia. Says Sergey: “We took this picture for our family travel blog @edem_vse_vmeste. We wanted to take a funny picture that would convey the spirit of our family travels.” Mission accomplished.

Up a Tree by frugalforluxury

Another winner from 2019, Laura from frugalforluxury, shared her exclusive shot of the whole family (thank you GoPro!) looking up a 400-year old tree in Parque Nacional Volcàn Arenal, near Fortuna, Costa Rica. “We rarely luck out with weather when we travel, which means rain or shine, we go out and hike if the day calls for it :)” says Laura. “On this day, we couldn’t wait to hike over the dried lava and up the volcano before pushing through the forest and coming across these amazing trees!”

Check out all of 2020’s prize-winning Portraits in the gallery below (turn mobile devices to “landscape” to view complete photos and caption)  and click here to see the winning photos from 2019.