Landscape Photo Competition 2013 No 2 : Results

Competition Winner : First Prize
$832.80 plus a Leica V-LUX 40 worth $800

Judges Comment
This competition's winner. The scenery, the composition, the cold colours... Everything is right in this photograph, from its technical and sensitively created, low-light capture, to its fine and flattering post processing. I have tried to find a fault somewhere with this but haven't, there isn't one. It is a worthy winner. Depth of field and exposure are perfect bringing detail to every part of the picture, the slow shutter speed has blurred the sea and the clouds, a technique which has magically enhanced those sand patterns as well as the distant island and its slower moving cloud top. Modest levels adjustment and curve control in developing have made the photograph pop and a nice vignette has brought a dynamic finish pulling the eye back into the scene. The scottish isles may make fabulous subjects for photography but it takes great talent, knowledge and a lot of emotion to create fine images like this one. Congratulations and very well done!
Photographers Comment
This photo was taken on the Bay of Laig on the Isle of Eigg in Scotland. The Isle of Rum is in the background. I was attending a photography workshop led by Bruce Percy, this was a top notch experience in every way. I would recommend to anyone wishing to improve their photography skills to attend any one of Bruces world wide workshops. He is a gentleman, an amazing portrait and landscape photographer, and an incredible teacher. One of the many beautiful things about this beach is that when the waves receded, small stationary stones kicked up a darker color of sand that provided amazing patterns. With each wave, there was an entirely different pattern, this provided endless possibilities. The rain was just picking up again when I began this exposure, but luckily there was an offshore breeze so the rain did not soak the filters I had in front of the lens. Mamiya 7ii, 43mm lens, 2 stop hard nd grad and a 2 stop full nd, Velvia 50 film, 12 second exp Raynor Czerwinski
lucidlandscape.com

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
This too is just stunning. You have really taken advantage of the overcast day, the diffused light getting under all of those rocks and deep into the forest. Photography is all about compromise and using the ambient conditions to best effect. We have here great conditions for a long exposure on white water, there is no burn-out and the low contrast works wonders on the soft watery finish. The composition is beautiful too with plenty breathing space around the main rocks, the focus is pin sharp throughout. There is so much detail everywhere, from the foreground moss to the far reaches of the woods, this is a photograph with tremendous depth and it deserves gazing at all over, it simply oozes with a calming green woodland environment. Remarkable and fantastic work. It took a lot of reflection and a very strong winner for this photograph not to get that first place.

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
And here we have a wonderful graphic landscape composition which demonstrates so well that detail is paramount and that a beautiful landscape can be created with just a part of the scene before us. It also shows how important it is to look at a view and to study it before shooting. The fields and walls are charming but the composition of this photograph comes not from a lucky snap. The fine positioning of the road, the yellowish field, the water trough/pool, the tumble down building and the cattle set the eye bouncing all around this marvelous undulating countryside, and bring a balance to the whole making this a beautiful and very illustrative view. Surely this can only be England? In any case i love this photo and your style and would enjoy seeing this in a huge frame!

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
The warm tones and atmosphere of this beautiful shot are reminiscent of the last round's winning picture. You have used the natural lines in this scene to great effect, all converging on the mountain far right and bringing so much depth to the photograph. I love the raspberry sunset (or sunrise) and strangely the foot prints which bring an anchor to the otherwise fleeting foreground. You have captured a beautiful palette of harmonious colours and composed such a peaceful, remote and balanced image. Well done. I feel the darker areas in the top corners, particularly to the top left, are a little annoying within such a light filled scene.
Photographers Comment
My name is Mathias. I'm an amateur photographer from Germany with aprox. 2 years of experience. The photo was taken on Haukland Beach, Lofoten, Norway in april 2012. I liked the green tidal pool and the fantastic sunset colors in the sky. It was a remarkable evening with my first aurora borealis at the end. Unforgettable, beautiful...awesome! I used a Nikon D90 with a 10mm ultra wide lens and a graduated neutral density filter. You are right with the top left corner...an other reason to go back there and make it better next time...
500px.com/der-mathias

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
A lovely contrasty monochrome composition with fabulous real life detail on the foreground trees. The atmosphere of this wood is beautifully captured making one want to wander through the trees, touching their bark. You have given them such a presence, quite remarkable. I love the game of vertical lines, the way the light fades off forbiddingly to the right and the texture of the ground from which the trees have grown. Great effort and such a poetical picture. I think i would have liked a little more of the ground up front, particularly around the first tree - though having said that the tight crop is very effective. :-)
Photographers Comment
I am Roberto Schirdewahn from Germany. I shot this Photo some years ago with a 80-200mm/2.8 ( i use the 200mm) on Fuji Velvia. The weatherside of the trees where light blue. The Velvia shift the light blue to a strong saturated blue. In A age of Velvia it looks good, some kind of surreal. But in the age of photohsop it looks like to much of it. So i decide to change to black and white . This is a total plus for the atmosphere of this magic place. The forest ist called Ghostforrest and is located at the coast oft Eastgermany. Its a cliff on the Baltic Sea.
www.people-fotograf.de

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
Such warmth in such a freezing place. There is something about red skies and ice which is so powerful in a picture. It is the cruiser which makes this really work, it sets off the foreground and those icebergs so well and draws the eye out onto the horizon. It also tells us a story of travel and discovery, of warmth and assurance. Great reflection too from the light. Normally i would say that the depth of field is a little short for the foreground block of ice but here that has worked positively pushing our gaze back out to the distance. Good shot!

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
This is so refreshing! A traditional style landscape with human presence, where man's interference is so tasteful and harmonious. This photograph shows strong compositional ability and creative technique. The moving grass and beautiful exposure, the sheep, the lines of the wind on the water, the way you have captured that rare evening glow, the layers of clouds which drag us so far away... Stunning, well done!
Photographers Comment
My Name is Christian Bothner. For my taste, a very wonderful photo spot where I had also been bitten me really. I did not leave there, I had it on the way out there already in the mind and in mind - the sparkle of the reflective window. And here it is ... That's what I get paid to do a great sky was of course a huge gift. Thank you for given me a Mark Of Excellence.
bothner-foto.de

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
A solitary tree shot with a difference. It is not easy photographing snowscapes, it is often such an unforgiving subject. Once again here is an example of knowledgable light reading, the soft contrast from a partially cloudy sky combined with the low angled light has brought a lovely soft tone to the snow, ridding the scene of damaging contrast and highlighting the rain made river-lets. It is a well spotted and well taken view, nicer than the unnecessary margin and title which add not to the photo, which could have stood so proudly alone.
Photographers Comment
Thanks for the award! This picture was taken at the end of December 2011 near the Austrian-German border. I admit the margin is debatable, at the time i finished the postprocessing of that shot, I thought it looked nice. Taste changes, though.... Regards, Oliver
summerfalcon-photography.de

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
This is a beautiful shot, taken with feeling and understanding. I would love to see this great rock in such wonderful light. You have captured the whole dynamic range beautifully, the sunlight just majestic in the middle of all that shade. Nice sky too and a lovely all round softness. Well done.

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
We haven't seen many wide angled panoramic shots in this competition so it is nice to have such a good example here. A lovely clear lakeside autumn scene, cleverly composed with the sun behind the branches to reduce flare. It is fun with this kind of super wide view to be looking into the sun on one side and with it on the other. It is a tricky job exposing the different shots reasonably, allowing for them to blend together. Nice, more panoramics please!
Photographers Comment
I'm Jim Brick and I took this photograph in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. This is Silver Lake, which is situated on the June Lake Loop off of highway 395. I took this photograph just after sunrise on a fall morning. I used a Canon 1Ds MK3 and a 24mm TS-E lens. I took five vertical photographs from left to right and stitched them together in Photoshop CS6 to make the panorama.
www.photomojo.org

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
And so, thanks to such a high level of entries this time around we have a couple of extra marks of excellence. This photograph, though not technically perfect has such an amazing quality it could not be left out. The view, which seems to be through an airplane window, is quite stunning. This frozen mountainous wilderness with such amazing colour and light can only leave us in awe of the beauty of our planet. This is an example of a photograph where the emotional content is so powerful it far exceeds the technical qualities to the point that they lose their importance, or at least some of it... Focus and detail are of the through-the-window hand-held type but the beauty is just wow. You definitely did the right thing here, sometimes when a moment is so fleetingly awesome we should all just point and shoot ! :-)

Mark Of Excellence

Judges Comment
And here is a photograph which breaks so many of the traditional landscape photography rules and yet has such huge appeal. Here creative art and emotion take over and straight horizons and correct histograms can be forgotten and buried. Brilliant, sensitive and poetical. Love this!
Photographers Comment
My name is Elizabeth Jackson. I took this photo while traveling through Shiprock, NM. I spotted a beautiful, wide open field of sunflowers with nothing but horizon in the back and I had to stop. While taking various shots, I came upon this scene, with one lonesome sunflower standing out above all the rest. I had to capture its beauty. The camera used for this picture was my old, trusted, NIKON COOLPIX L100, though not a professional camera by any means, but still very reliable.