Landscape Photo Competition 2013 No 4 : Results

Judges Comment
One man and his dog. Well here is photography at its absolute best. I have been entranced (and troubled) by this image, coming back again and again to look into it some more. It is perfect. But is it a landscape?…Yes it is. Is it “nature at its best”, yes it definitely is. Original? Absolutely! But also technically excellent, artistic, well composed and researched. This image is in a class of its own, it is so powerful yet so simple. It tells a story of life and its values, worth more than a thousand words. The way the man is dragging his feet while returning to the monotony of his terraced house (and life) from a natural escape to the park, a resourcing walk under the cotton clouds. This is fantastic work and although this photograph touches the fringes of this landscape theme it can be the only winner. Congratulations for a truly inspiring photograph.
Photographers Comment
This image was shot last July in Edinburgh at the edge of Holyrood Park. When I arrived at that location where landscape gives way to cityscape, the shot and framing seemed obvious, but I was really lucky to have, just at that same time, this man and his dog, and this cloud following them to the city. Leica MP, Summicron 35mm with circular polarizing filter, Kodak Ektar 100 film.
www.niamoreplov.eu

Judges Comment
Well had we not have had such an outstanding winning photo this would have been this round’s best. I love the beautiful colourless tones from this snowy and foggy scene. You have given each tree plenty space, enhancing their differing shapes and characters; the silver birch is beautiful in the foreground, its straggly form glorified by the pine and the larch behind. The exposure is perfect, the tracks in the snow slowly creeping out of the white. It is a lovely eye-pleasing minimalist composition which would make a fabulous enlargement to hang on the wall. Great photo, well done!
Photographers Comment
Thank you for the encouraging words. My name is Willi Vetter and the image was taken within the moorland areas near Dornbirn/Austria using Canon EOS 5D II with EF 24-105 mm 1:4 L at 35 mm (F/4, 1/320 s and ISO 200; raw processing in CS5). Congratulations to the winner.

Judges Comment
Nice country scene taken in foggy monotone conditions. The road leads a strong line to the tree and the sun through the fog completes the game of shapes. I expect this was a spontaneous shot… Well spotted, composed and executed. Well done, one of my favourites.
Photographers Comment
Thank you for the Mark of Excellence award. My name is James Markus and I'm a photographer in western Michigan. I love the fog, and tend to go shooting when a good fog rolls in. This particular day had the added benefit of being able to see the sun trying to break through. I shot this with a Nikon D800 and a Nikkor 50mm f1.2 ais manual focus lens. Visit my web site, and you can see the Fog, Haze, or Mist gallery for more images of this type. Congratulations to all the photographers of the selected photos; beautiful work!
www.photomatter.com/

Judges Comment
I love the warm colours, the slanting light, the beautiful composition, the sharp all-over focus… the movement on the water’s surface and the way my eye is drawn into the distance. This is a perfectly taken landscape photograph but it lacks that little bit of magic to make a winner.
www.facebook.com/tobiasryser.photographie

Judges Comment
The red evening sky sets off the orange of the pumpkins making this such a nice warm toned image. The square format is strong and the short depth of field cleverly holds the eye on the foreground subject making this a very good pumpkin photo. Perhaps a longer depth of field, with sharper focus all the way back to the distant pumpkins, would have drawn attention more to the size of the field and the crop, making this same view into a very good landscape photo. ☺ ( P.S. I don’t understand how you got such a sharp sky and horizon when the distant pumpkins seem out of the focus range at this screen definition (?)
Photographers Comment
I used a tripod and shot two photos with different exposure. You are right, the sky and horizon are to sharp, the autofocus did this! I multiplicated both pictures with a mask in photoshop. The result isn't perfect :-) Thank you for the good comment! I shot it with pentax k30 camera.

Judges Comment
A lovely minimalist image created with obvious technical ability both on location and in the digital lab. Is the starfish not out of place? distracting from the harmony of the composition. Perhaps it would have been more tranquil with just the round form of the jellyfish…(?) In anycase the photo is both interesting and beautiful and a refreshing style for this competition.

Judges Comment
Beautiful view of the Matterhorn. Good exposure and a nice (though maybe a little too strong) neutral density grad filter have brought the real and the reflection together with almost equal light. The foreground is grassy and interesting and gives an important sense of scale to the lake but also extra depth to the composition. It is a shame though, i think, that the cloud’s reflection is masked by the tree’s, and the grass. Clouds are often tricky to place in a composition as they tend to move before we take the photo, but they can be so important to the final balance of things. Maybe a step to the left (...splash!) and a slightly lower angle would have ‘moved’ the cloud to the left where it would have had more space and value, and a reflection, making a new anchor point in the lake for the viewer.
www.facebook.com/tobiasryser.photographie

Judges Comment
Blurry to some, beautiful to others. I love slow shutter in-forest photography techniques which are tricky to get right, but which can be so creative. You have succeeded in visualising an atmosphere and in taking its picture. You have made strong lines and shapes from the trees and their undergrowth giving a harmonious yet surreal effect with a beautiful pastel palette of colours. Taking your photography one step further has made this picture beautiful and interesting. Well done.
Photographers Comment
Thank you for choosing once again one of my pictures as a finalist in one of the competitions. My name is Stefan Betz and I am a nature and wildlife photographer from germany. I shot this pictures while testing a 1ds Mark III in combinationen with an EF 50mm 1.8. I wanted to create pictures with a painted look a like. It seems it worked. Greets & Thank you Stefan Betz
www.betz-naturfoto.de

Judges Comment
Well done, you have made a very original photo from a very unlikely location. A real life landscape which shows the beauty of lousy weather. The black and white works well, adding to the cold and wet and the through-the-windscreen view makes a story. A well balanced and graphical picture with full marks for its original approach to this theme.
Photographers Comment
The image was shot with Pentax K5, traveling in Austria.