Photo Tags : black and white : Photo

Judges Comment

The use of tilt-shift in this photo creates the impression of a game with models, and after a while you see that it is a real graveyard and not a dream or a game. The composition where we take the viewpoint of the person in the image is very intelligent. It’s a great image.

Photographers Comment

This was captured in October, 2007 using a Canon 20D at the Santa Monica pier, in California. A group of veterans & volunteers were placing a cross in the beach sand for every American soldier killed in Iraq. They continued to do this each and every Sunday throughout the eight years of war. I recall at the time there was much controversy over America's casualties being hidden from the public eye. This served as a poignant monument to these brave men & women. I took several shots from up on the pier but this one stood out for me because it caught the foreground figure toiling away with the heavy cart, the second cart with still more crosses to be placed, the waving half-masted flag and the perfectly aligned crosses stretching off into the distance. I added a diorama-like perspective in post using FocalPoint plugin. -Mike Dobbs.