We announce the winner and placegetters for our monthly online photo competition. The December category was ‘water’, and the standard of entries was high.
The winner of AP’s December photo competition category of ‘water’ took a bold approach by using a relatively straightforward technique to capture an amazing location at Dettifoss waterfall in Iceland. Charlotte Goss took her image, “The Power of Dettifoss”, by zooming in to capture the details of the raging water.
By shooting this powerful waterfall using a very fast shutter speed, rather than what is arguably the more common technique these days of ‘blurring’ the water with a slow shutter speed, AP judge Robert Keeley felt she was able to fully capture its frightening intensity. Yet Keeley says the image still had depth to it, thanks to the careful composition, contrasting the waterfall in the foreground with that in the background at top right of the image. Goss says she used a shutter speed of 1/8000s and an aperture of f/4 (relatively wide open), but the darker tones of the image emphasise the boiling power of the scene.
Keeley said the tight focus, excluding all extraneous elements, allows the viewer to really concentrate of the implied danger of the scene. “I think this image encapsulates one aspect of water – its power and inherent dangers – with precision,” said the judge.
Amongst a category which had a large variety of high-quality images , two others were picked as highly commended – ‘Droplets & Light’ by Adam Souter, and ‘Putting Out the Fire’ by David Haworth. Keeley said, “We received many images using blur or frozen close-ups in waterfalls and ocean swells, but ‘Droplets and Light’ was a very different image. Taken from around water level, with some fine highlight and shadows, it is almost abstract in nature, yet still has some depth to it. It almost feels alive.”
The more traditional composition of Haworth’s coastal seascape still had an ethereal, spooky feel to it (aided by multiple blended exposures), and the surging power of the spray appearing over the rocky precipice from above the camera position emphasises the sometimes frightening nature of the ocean.
As the winner of our monthly competition Charlotte Goss has won a Gary Fong bundle, including the Lightsphere Collapsible, Powersnoot and Gear Guard to the value of $250. Gary Fong’s Lightsphere Collapsible lets photographers create studio-quality lighting effects and it’s perfect for location, press, portrait, sports and wedding photography. Shop for the Gary Fong range at www.dpix.com.au
The theme for the January competition is ‘Sport’.
THE WINNER: The power of Dettifoss, by Charlotte Goss. Canon 5D Mk III, 300mm f/4 lens, 1/8000s @ f/4, ISO 1000.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Droplets & Light, by Adam Souter. Canon 7D, 30mm f/1.4 lens, 1/5000s @ f/2, ISO 100. Shot at Bondi Beach, Sydney.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Putting Out the Fire, by David Haworth. Canon 5D Mk III, 16-35mm lens, 1/3rd second @ f/18, ISO 100, Multiple exposures blended.
The winning image in our 'Water' category showed the power inherent in a massive cascading waterfall in Iceland. Image by Charlotte Goss.
