Lovely Landscapes?

As I gather photos for the July edition of the Guardian's Been There photo competition, I find myself once again contemplating how to avoid cliched images and stand out from the heap of submissions the contest must receive--and standing out is particularly tricky, since the contest is open to professional photographers. They've recently revamped the submission policy, so it's now possible to see my competitors' submissions. The submissions range from lackluster to quite beautiful, and in scrolling through the images that have already been uploaded, I can see a few key commonalities among the images that stand out to me.

The first factor that draws my eye is light. Of course exposure matters, but I'm referring here more to the subject of the photo than to its technical merits. Particularly in photos featuring skyscapes, my eye is automatically drawn to photos which feature bursts of light--especially when the light highlights an interesting feature of the landscape or conveys motion, as in photos of clouds with sunbeams bursting through. The second factor is foreground vs. background--photos with some depth (often but not always those which follow the rule of thirds or incorporate leading lines) catch my eye more frequently; photos in which the foreground and background are indistinguishable seem flat and uninteresting to me for the most part. The final common element in the photos that appealed to me was the successful inclusion of objects of interest. A strategically placed person or object can draw your eye to an interesting part of the photo or create a sense of motion.

So, after thinking about these principles and scrolling through my own insanely large collection of photos, I've narrowed my options down to the following contenders. Which one would you pick? Do you have strong feelings one way or the other about any of these? I have until July 24th to pick my entry, and I'd love to get your thoughts. Remember, you can click on any photo in the blog to see it enlarged. Thanks in advance for the feedback! Oh, and for those who read my last post, I checked in with the judges and yes, panoramas are allowed.

Option 1: Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Option 2: Cape Horn, Washington

Option 3: Eklutna Lake, Alaska

Option 4: Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Option 5: View from Flattop, Alaska

Option 6: Florence, Italy

Option 7: Malham, England

Option 8: Volta Region, Ghana

Option 9: Stanley Lake, Idaho

Long Time Gone

For those of you still out there who have been wondering, I haven't become Amish or signed on for a one-way ticket to Mars. I'm afraid I have a far less interesting explanation for my hiatus from the wonderful world of blogging. I simply haven't had much time to devote to photography lately. At any rate, thanks to those who are still following! I'm just settling in from my big move from Alaska to England, so hopefully my posts will be a little less sporadic.

I'm afraid my time for editing has been minimal, but I did manage to get a few submissions into the Guardian newspaper's monthly Been There travel photo competition, and placed among the finalists for the month of March with a photo of Northwestern Glacier in Alaska. Beyond that, I'm still just trying to make it through the mountain of photos from my trips this last year! Below are a few photos from Berlin, but stay tuned for more from Heidelberg, Dresden, Bruges, Paris, Cologne, Vienna, Istanbul, Florence, Venice, Seward, and Anchorage...

One fun Lightroom tool I've been fiddling with lately is the sliding Clarity bar, which is under Presence on the Develop tab. Cranking it all the way to 100 creates a stark contrast which sharply defines the lines in the photo, while pushing it down to the opposite extreme (-100) creates a soft, fuzzy glow, much like a close-up filter. I don't usually use the extreme setting for most tools, but every once in awhile, approaching the extreme setting can create interesting results. I have a few examples below--do you have a preference? The first photo in the High and Low Clarity groups is the same--just with a different treatment.



High Clarity (+85 to +100)

Berliner Dom

Anchorage, Alaska

Exit Glacier, Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska

Low Clarity (-85 to -100)

Berliner Dom

Berliner Dom

Seward, Alaska

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Berliner Dom

It's That Time Again...

Once again, I'll be entering the Guardian's monthly travel photo competition and, once again, I'm having a hard time deciding which photo to enter. The theme this month is "Journey", and I have several travel photos that I think might fit the bill (below), but I can't decide which is most appropriate. As always, any thoughts/feedback are greatly appreciated!

Option 1: An old helicopter in the botanical gardens in Volta, Ghana.

Option 2: An airplane at the edge of the lake in Alaska.

Option 3: City directions from the Belfort in Bruges.

Option 4: On the boat ride to Ganvie stilt village in Benin.

Option 5: From the bus on a road through the Volta region in Ghana.

(In)decisions

Most of my time lately has been devoted to shooting portraits (see my previous post) and some new travel photos in Germany, France, and Belgium (below), but I also have some exciting news to share. In early March, I decided to enter the Guardian newspaper "Been There" travel photo competition. Much to my surprise and pleasure, I was selected as a finalist for the March competition, and my photo was published online (click here to view my photo, entitled Solitude on Stanley Lake). Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty motivated to enter the April competition, so I need to make some decisions.


Unfortunately, as usual, I'm having a hard time deciding which photo to enter, and the photo is due tomorrow (the 23rd). The theme for April is "Street Life"--anything which captures daily life in an urban setting. I think I have a few shots which capture urban life from my recent trip to Paris. While I'm drawn to the photos of the performer climbing the lamppost with a soccer ball, perhaps the Parisians lounging on the banks of the Seine does a better job of capturing daily life? I also feel that the film grain on the performer pictures is a little distracting--it was a very dreary day, and the ISO settings combined with the high humidity mean there's a lot of noise in those photos.

Suffice it to say I'd be grateful for some external opinions. Is there one that strikes you as fitting the theme particularly well (or badly)? One with more striking composition as compared to the others? I'd love to hear your thoughts!