Free Photo Competition 2014 Week 2 : Results

Photographers Comment
A very BIG THANK YOU to all those that voted, not only for my photo, but for all the great images that were in this competition! My name is William Osborn, this is the Hiwassee River in Reliance, Tenn and was photographed using a Nikon D70 with a Nikkor 18-105 AF-S lens and attached Circular Polarizer . There has been virtually NO POST PRODUCTION on this image..NONE.. believe me, I live on Photoshop, but this was just one of those shots that was perfect when the shutter snapped.
williamosbornphotography.com

Photographers Comment
I had just driven completely around Lake Tahoe. When I had started out, it was snowing on the other side. But by the time I reached this sunset spot, the snow had melted and the snow clouds were breaking up. I wanted to use a slow shutter speed to get the water to look silky and mysterious, but also wanted the breaking clouds ablaze in recently departed sun. The problem was the sky was too bright even with graduated filters to get the water to look the way I wanted. By photographing the sky detail first and then waiting over a hour to get low enough light for the slow shutter speed exposures, I was able to fuse these two time differences together to reveal the dynamic Tahoe harbour scene. I knew that most of the shots of this challenging lit vista were going to be too over exposed, while others way under. By covering a range of techniques, I knew that a few would turn out just right - giving me one of my favorite shots of Lake Tahoe, “Twilight Cove” See The Video Below:
youtu.be/pkTIdHaybLA

Photographers Comment
My name is Blair Wacha. Although I've been in to photography for about 40 years, not digitally until 2012. I enjoy travelling, especially through the mountains and desert of western US. I shoot with a Canon T4i and use mostly Canon lenses. Glad to share my work with you! Blair
www.imagesbyblair.com

Photographers Comment
Thank you for your votes! My name is Shelly. This photo was taken in my backyard in Broken Arrow, OK. I used a Sony A99 to capture this snowflake. There was very little processing, maybe a little sharpening.

Photographers Comment
Thank you. This photograph was taken after a massive ice storm in Oklahoma City. I used my Nikon D3100. The title is "The Narcissist." Cindy Viol

Photographers Comment
I decided to visit this famous little tree in the fall in hopes of capturing its red event, but when I finally found it, it was a yellowish color. At first I thought I had the wrong tree! After visiting with the locals, they explained to me that the Japanese Maples in this area only turn yellowish during low rain years. The lower the rain, the more yellow the color before it turns red, and then the red is not as fiery. And the yellow color is very fleeting - only a couple weeks max usually. I set up my equipment and waited to shoot images when the sun was at its brightest during thinning cloud cover. I was informed that rain was on its way, so I only had an hour or so. When the diffused bright sun filtered through the yellow leaves along with a warm camera filter, The Golden Age was recorded. And then it poured! To this day, I have only seen this tree yellow only in a couple photographs.
CraigBill.com

Photographers Comment
Photo: Puffed Up Gear: Nikon D5200 w/ 55-200mm lens. Processed in Lightroom 5. This little fellow was bouncing around the backyard and balancing on the suet feeder during one of those bitterly cold Polar Vortex days we recently experienced here in upstate NY. Thankfully, the suet feeder is only a few feet from the sliding glass door, thus allowing me to get a nice view without having to freeze my fingers off. Of the handful of shots taken, this one stood out the most as striking a nice balance of desirable qualities. Thanks for all your votes! -Christopher Wheeling

Photographers Comment
I stayed up most of the night to get shots of this amazing arch at every time of the day... but I knew that I had to be right on time to get the moonrise images that I wanted. During the sunrise event though, It’s fierce! Tons of people gather around with little hope of a clean shot. Even though I stayed up until 3:30am photographing this image, "Moonshine" (accompanied by a tiny amount of sleep) another photographer still beat me back to the arch and staked out his space at 4:00am before sunrise! See Video Below:
youtu.be/_3f6g_P-bUY