Landscape Photo Competition 2014 No 2 : Results

Judges Comment
So much warmth for such a cold scene. The portrait format suits this well, drawing those lines upwards across the sky. You have framed the birch from low so that it stretches its silhouette into the sky making such a simple but loveable image, perfectly sharp all over. These trees are beautiful and you have given this very solitary one all the place it deserves in this empty landscape of scrubs and of cold. Your composition is nicely divided, you have used your wide-angle lens to bring depth and a grad filter to give the sky those warm tones and colours while keeping the snow so white and cold. Effective work, well done, you win this round!
Photographers Comment
Thank you so much. This is one of my favorite places to walk in the winter. It's barren and often very cold, but the scenery is always stunning. This sunset was one of the most unusual I've ever witnessed, with the sky opening up like an orange zipper. Glad you liked it also. Susan R. Serna, Anchorage, Alaska. Camera: Nikon D7000, 1/80 sec at f/9.0, 42mm, ISO 320. Post processing: Adobe Lightroom.
www.susansernaphotography.com

Judges Comment
This is a lovely photograph. Your play with shadows and lines is striking, the deserted beach too. I love the volley ball nets waiting patiently. You were so close, your technique and your eye are remarkable. It was the tamed nature of this beach which brought you down for this theme.
Photographers Comment
First off, thank you! Such a pleasant surprise! I am quite new to photography. I shot this with my first camera, a Canon Rebel T3i and a Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens. Post-processing was done in Lightroom. The photo was taken in Santa Monica on an extremely windy afternoon. The beach was completely deserted, even the birds had retreated into the city, but the light was perfect, and the desolation was almost palpable, I was hoping to capture just that...

Judges Comment
Most original and fun. You have captured this beautifully, lovely soft light and a wonderful evenly weighted composition. The car poking in is a fun reminder of where we are and it brings a feel of pop art photography. Well done, a firm favourite.
Photographers Comment
My name is Geri Bobeck and I live in Springfield,TN. I am an avid Gardener, play with watercolors, and have a big love for nature. We recently moved from Nashville and are surrounded by the beauty of Nature here in the country. I was waiting in my car for my husband to pick up his van after repair on a country road outside of Springfield when this beautiful tree and sky caught my eye! Believe it or not, I took this photo with my IPhone 4! That's the only camera I had with me, actually the only one I own. I so loved how the photo turned out and on a whim, sent it to you at "I shot it" and am very excited it won Mark of Excellence! Thank you very very much! How inspiring.

Judges Comment
A powerful minimalist view which catches our gaze. Your bold central framing is even bolder with the long exposure softening the sea into melted metal. The white sky adds to the minimal effect, the bird stains make the rock interesting and tell the story. I hope we’ll be seeing more of this.
Photographers Comment
Thank you so much for selecting my photo. It was taken on the North Shore of Martha's Vineyard during the calm before a summer storm. It is a spot I visit often, and the light, water, and sky are different every time. Olympus OM-D E-M5, M.Zuiko 75mm lens, B+W 110 ND filter, 60 second exposure, Sirui 1205x tripod. Post-processing in Lightroom 5.

Judges Comment
Difficult to make an original sunset but you have done pretty well here. Nice fresh tones bring a feel of the evening and the shapes in the white sand and grasses really set off the sky. Shame you have some flare left and right…

Judges Comment
Monument valley makes it through again thanks to this fantastic light and rainbow. Image resolution is too low for this to make the top place. Have you painted out the colour of the clouds?
Photographers Comment
Thanks. I had paid a Navajo guide to take me through Monument Valley. On our way back to the parking lot late in the afternoon, I saw the prismatic colors start to form and asked the guide to pull over. As the colors were forming I kept taking pics. For dramatic effect I did desaturate the clouds. One question: You commented that the image resolution is too low for this to make the top place. This was shot with a Nikon D800. What size files do I need to upload to I SHOT IT in the future? Thanks.
bobjensenphoto.blogspot.com/

Judges Comment
This is an extraordinary interpretation which I have enjoyed particularly. I cannot work out how you have done this. Is it zoom or are you walking along with the flowers in your hand? Anyhow it’s a lovely composition with a real atmosphere of the great outdoors.
Photographers Comment
This photo was shot in Chile at Lago Fagnono in southern Tierra del Fuego. I used a Nikon D7100 camera with a Nikon 10-24mm lens, at 10mm. Being Tierra del Fuego the wind was blowing hard so to "stop" the flowers I shot at an ISO of 5000 at 1/500 sec and f/4.5. When shooting with my super-wide angle lens I like to fill the foreground with a strong subject and blur the background. My name is Dan Gindling and I live in San Diego, Calif.
dangindling.smugmug.com

Judges Comment
You have a wonderful long exposure effect on the water and on the car headlights. The panoramic format works well making the right-left divide even more powerful, this is a cleverly planned photograph which has worked as well as you might have hoped.
Photographers Comment
Thanks for selecting my image! My names Stephen Fasciale. I took this on a D800 with a 70-200 along the Great Ocean Rd in Lorne, Victoria, Australia. It was a 4 stitch pano, with each stitch being a 30 second exposure. I remember it starting to get really chilly as the sun was going down and I had to wait a while for someone to drive past! With my luck, that took a while.
www.stephenfasciale.com