Panikos Wins 4 Awards
I’m still buzzing after my success at the London & Essex
MPA Awards a couple of weeks ago! I came away with 1 Win and 3 Awards of
Excellence! Panikos is now officially the London & Essex Landscape
Photographer of the Year, winning the accolade with his stitched (4 images
stuck together) shot of Mono Lake at sunrise!
As this is actually single image comprised of 4 high resolution images stitched together, a full size print if this image, without it being stretched (enlarged) would print up to 4ft (1.2metres) wide with incredible detail!
The stunning shot of Mount Whitney through Mobius Arch got an Award of Excellence in the landscape category also. This was taken at sunrise. To get the shot though, I had to be there while it was still dark (PITCH black – I might add!) only to find that other very keen photographers had already camped at the very spot I needed to be to get the shot. This spot was a rather small rounded rock that could only fit one person, and their tripod, at a time to get the image. As you can see, I got there in the end! And it was worth it!
The other Two of the Awards of Excellence were in the Pictorial/Illustrative/Art Category, with one shot of a raindrop on a plant, coincidentally also taken at Mono Lake. Once again, the aim was to get a shot of the sunrise across the lake, but it was raining all morning. So rather than be put off by the rather grey & damp conditions, I thought it would capture the mood of morning if I photographed the raindrop. If you look carefully into the raindrop, you can actually see the inverted image of the winning image above within it! Thank goodness I remembered to take the 100mm Macro (Close-up) lens with me. It would have been impossible to take the shot without it.
The final Award of Excellence was of a hillside at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. Again this was taken at sunrise, indeed that is why the 30-60 minutes either side of sunrise or sunset are called “magic hours” for light. The soft, diffused light brought the contours of the sweeping hills to life. Had the sunlight hit these undulations, the beautiful rich, warm hues would have been lost.
So all in all, a good evenings work! A big thanks to the judge for the night, Ray Lowe, who certainly doesn’t mince his words when it comes to critiquing images!
If you’d like to see all the winning images from the competition just follow this link:
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/21466658/1/winning%20images/MPA%20winners?h=ff599a