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The Results Are In - Part 8

I received a recent award notification for The 8th International Color Awards. This is another of those big competitions that have entrants from over 80 countries and have over 8,000 photos submitted.

Several of my photos were nominated for further judging, and as a result, two were recognized as Honorable Mentions by the jury.

I have to admit that only 4 of the 12 photos in recognition were taken in Italy, the rest were taken here in the USA and Iceland. Here are the photos -- just click on a photo for a larger view.

Honorable Mentions

Abstract Category

This first photo is called 'Bourbon Street R & R'. The photo style is what I call a 'slurred' photo. I used a very slow shutter speed to allow movement of the subject. I have had a lot of fun with this process. The photo, 'Pink House Slurred' below was taken with the same process. You can see many other of these slurred photos on my non-Italy website here.

Fine Art Category

If you are a regular reader of my articles, you have seen 'Busy Day on the Grand Canal' before...and, here it is again. This photo was created using over 80 photos taken in about one hour from the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Be sure to check out that couple in the boat at the bottom-center of the photo.

Nominated

Abstract Category

'Pink House Slurred' is one of the slurred photos mentioned above. It was taken in the Texas panhandle from a moving vehicle at 73mph...this according to the Texas State Trooper.

Architecture Category

The photo of the abandoned church, aptly titled 'Abandoned Church' (catchy, huh?), was taken in northern New Mexico in the small (very small) town of Grenville.

This next photo was taken during a serendipitous lunar-puddle moment in Iceland after a long day of driving The Highlands. It was captured during sunset, which in Iceland literally lasts about 3 hours in the summer. I call this 'Icelandic Barn at Sunset'...I know, I know...another catchy title.

Fine Art Category

The photo called 'Just Around the Corner' was taken on the island of Burano, in the Venetian lagoon. I liked the way the sunlight was hitting the orange-painted plaster of one of the many colorful homes of Burano.

Nature Category

Back to Iceland and the outlet of the Jokulsarlon Lagoon for 'Blue Ice, Black Sand'. This is where icebergs are washed out to sea, only to be washed ashore to die a cold, dripping death. There are more Iceland photos here.

This photo is titled 'Church Rock' because that is what it's called, when translated from Icelandic. It is another photo taken in Iceland during one of those super-long sunsets. And yes, the mountainside is truly that green.

'Evening Seastacks' was captured late one afternoon at Second Beach on the Washington coast on the Olympic Peninsula.

In the extreme north of Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation, you will find the magnificent Antelope Canyon, this being the northern portion of that canyon. The very deep sandstone canyon has been cut over the centuries and I was able to capture it looking straight up with 'Just a Chance of Clouds'.

People Category

In 'Sunday Morning Paper' we see a stylish Roman gentleman reading his morning paper in Campo Trevi, which is home to the famous Trevi Fountain.

Still Life Category

I call this photo 'A Very Still Life', because that is exactly what I saw when I came across it on the island of Burano.

Well, that's it. Some of these photos you have seen before in the other articles with titles beginning with 'The Results Are In...' I'll keep you up to date as I hear about other results coming in.

Ciao for now,

Steve

The Results Are In! Part 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6

Have you ever been going through your email, with the intention of cleaning up old emails, and then way down the list, you find a whole batch of emails that you had overlooked and they were never opened?

I did that recently. What I found was more good news about the results of photographic competitions I had entered. I want to present those decisions to you in this blog…a bit belated, I know. Also, I have had some photos accepted for gallery exhibition recently and I’ll show you those, too.

“‘...your work received a high percentage of votes overall. Certainly an achievement, well done!”

On July 13th, I filled you in on the 7th Annual International Pollux Awards in a blog titled, “The Results Are In”, so I’ll continue in that same heading for this an any future horn-tooting blogs. So that previous email was Part 1 -- so now you get Parts 2 thru 6 of recent accolades.

Note: Even though this web site is generally about things Italian, please don't be disappointed as you will see many recognition photos below which are not related to Italy.

Part 2: The Neutral Density (ND) Awards for 2014

This notification came from an email sent last November – I really need to try to keep up with emails, don’t I?

This is another one of those big contests, which they describe as follows: “The judges reviewed thousands of images submitted from 76 countries. The nominated photographers were selected by highly acclaimed industry professionals, including: gallery owners and curators (Greenaway Art Gallery, Valid Foto Gallery, Susan Spiritus Gallery, Emon Photo Gallery, Immagis, Gilman Contemporary, Tokyo Arts Gallery, Galeria Chroma, Strother Fine Art, McGaw Graphics, Editions Braun), publishers (Kehrer Verlag), editors (Digital Camera Magazine, PhotoBulletin, Soura Magazine, Asian Photography, Art World Magazine) and renowned photographers (Michael Levin, Hengki Koentjoro, Sudhir Shivaram, and Laura Zalenga).” As I look at the photos from the other competitors, I’m very pleased and humbled to be within their midst.

Though a good number of photos were nominated for further consideration by the judges, I received the following four ‘Honorable Mentions’:

[click photos for larger image]

Honorable Mention for Fine Art: Abstract

Honorable Mention for The Environment

Honorable Mention Nature: Landscape 5-Photo Series - 'Beached Bergs'

Honorable Mention for Architecture

Part 3: Black & White Magazine’s 2015 Single Image Contest Issue

I am fortunate to have been published in this high-quality photography magazine a number of times, both for single image and portfolio submissions – and even once for a couple of color images when they use to have an occasional companion color issue. Two photos were recognized in this year's single image contest issue as follows,

Architecture/Interiors

Flowers/Plants/Fruits

Part 4: 9th Annual Black & White Spider Awards

Another interesting contest name. No idea how ‘spider’ creeps into the name (and that in itself sounds creepy, doesn’t it). But I did read on the internet recently that spiders have begun to take up photography – at least the black and white spiders are doing that. Everything on the internet is true, isn’t it?

This one was actually announced in October of last year and was in the same email batch as the Neutral Density Award email that I had missed – what was I doing last fall instead of reading my emails? I can’t remember, but I’m sure it was more fun than reading emails.

With 8,508 entries from 75 countries, this is another one of those huge contests. Their notification email said, ‘...your work received a high percentage of votes overall. Certainly an achievement, well done!’ Regarding the jury that judged the photos, they indicated that ‘the Jury represented the industry's biggest names and tastemakers’, including The Royal Photographic Society, FoMu Fotomuseum, Fratelli Alinari, Stockholm City Museum to Torch Gallery in Amsterdam and more. Nice to have tastemakers involved…I think maybe they were from the Food Network.

Three photographs either placed or got honorable mention and there were others that were nominated for judging. Here are the main three, and then I’ll just put the nominations in a gallery just in case you want to click them to see larger versions of those, which fell into the categories of Fine Art, Nature and Wildlife.

[Note: I just want to say about the first photo that I was particularly pleased about the recognition. This has been one of my all-time personal favorite photos (because of the texture and simple composition), and it’s really nice to see that someone else thought highly of it, also. You may not be able to tell because of the size of the photo, but the laundry on the line is kid’s clothing and bed linens, complete with bunnies on the sheets. You can see the color version of the photo, taken on the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon, here.}

2nd Place - Merit of Excellence in Still Life

Honorable Mention in Nature

Honorable Mention in Architectural [a repeat from above]

Nominated Photos from the categories of Fine Art, Nature and Wildlife

Part 5: Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery

Your trivia question: In what state is the Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery? OK, you got it – I’ll have to think of a harder question next time. Earlier in the year I had a photo accepted for exhibition for their ‘Traces Left Behind’ show. Here is that photo, which I titled, ‘Education Might Help’ – I think you will get the irony. If not, then education might help.

In September, another of my photos will be shown in their ‘Black & White’ show. This is one of the beached icebergs that I photographed in Iceland last summer. I had not thought to convert the original color photo to black and white, because the colors in the original version are so vivid. But, I think it worked out quite well because of the brilliance of the crystal-clear ice. You be the judge.

Part 6: Carter Gallery’s North Valley Art League 2015 Photography Show

OK, here’s another trivia question: In what city and state is this gallery showing held? OK, you got it again!!! How did you know it is Redding, California!?

I think you will be intrigued (and if you aren’t intrigued, then amused) at what the judge said about this photo, which was a ‘Gold Award Winner’ and received a ‘Merit Award’ – I have the ribbon to prove it. Here is his quote:

“What we see, and how the camera records it, may be far off the mark, and it is up to the artist to render the medium to best effect. Forbidding and exquisite at the same time, Beached Berg #2 fully utilizes the range of colors available to photographers today. Careful framing and juxtaposition of near and far bring us in close contact with an aesthetic experience made from the elemental forces of air, water, earth and fire.”

— JUROR – Thom Sempere

Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I had no idea I was doing that…but I’m glad it worked out that way.

Here is the forbidding and exquisite 'air, water, earth and fire' photo, which I’m happy to say sold during the show.

The horn has been tooted and I’ll put it back in it’s case until some other form of recognition might fall my way. Until then…

Ciao for now,

Steve

The Results Are In: Part 1

The results of the 7th Annual International Pollux Awards are in and I’m happy to say that I received recognition in this prestigious competition! There were entries from 1,000 photographers from 62 countries in the competition, and I had 20 photos selected for recognition.

This is a different kind of photo competition than I’ve entered before. Instead of recognizing winning photos, they recognize winning photographers – a bit confusing, but there is a distinction - they say. They take the body of work submitted and evaluate the photos. They then assemble the best photos in order of preeminence to determine the winning photographer. For instance, in the ‘Nature’ category you will see that I was the Winner, but three photos made up that winning recognition for me, the photographer. Get the difference? I’m a bit hazy on it myself, but it doesn’t really matter as far as I’m concerned.

Recognition Categories

There are several photo categories and three recognition categories for the photographers, as follows:

Nominated: These are the photos selected by the competition’s producers that are passed on the jurors for further evaluation to select the Winner and Runner-Up photographers

Runner-Up: A photographer selected for recognition by the jurors but not the Winner

Winner: The one winning photographer for a category