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Thank you to everyone who entered our Summer Photo Competition 2019.

The theme was the summer and we wanted images that conveyed a sense of summer. As the author Charles Boden said: “Summertime is always the best of what might be”. There were many fantastic entries and choosing the 3 Summer Photo Competition winners wasn’t easy.

1st Place: “Good to be a father” by Jevgenij Scolokov Instagram: @jevgeni_scolokov

This image is so well seen and about the sheer joy of the different generations on a beach in summer. The two babies joyfully held aloft… each mother intent and smiling at her child and completely unaware of the compositional synchronicity created by each other. This symmetry is almost repeated by the two figures bending over in the background. The man runs eagerly toward the cooling sea, and points of interest and tension are captured with his heel floating fractionally in the air combined with the odd flying arms all add to the exuberance and mystery in this moment.

The background elements all play important roles, in particular the hands on hip figure woman is important compositionally, as are the swimmers dotted in the sea. The taller cloud formations sit compositionally well in the frame compositionally and the foreground reflections in the wet sand mirror and balance the whole composition.

Technically I would love it if the file had more detail in the whites of the clouds and wave tops, and a little more depth of field. However, to obtain the high shutter speed to freeze the action, of course a higher f stop has had to be sacrificed.

In the end for me there is something interesting about this image that makes me start to concoct a back story in my imagination…who is the man? Why is he running between the two babies? The title suggests he is the father on one of them… or both?

Summer 2019 Photo Competition

2nd Place: “Where reality leads to my imagination” by Ami Sleepyhead instagram: @amidigiakomo

I make no apology for selecting another beach scene as a winner. This is a mysterious image that I find haunting and intriguing. It could be a dream…I’m reminded of the final scenes in the movie “Tree of Life”. The colour palette is unusual and unexpected. The composition is interesting and layered with a small splash of yellow in the centre area to break the monotones.The ground texture and reflections make interesting transitions in the foreground.
 
For me the vignette is good but a little heavy. Technically there are some dust spots that need removing and the supplied file has quite a lot of colour noise…but the captured misty atmosphere made this an arresting image. 

Summer 2019 Photo Competition

3rd Place: “Arizona State University, Summer Session” by Joseph Podlesnik Instagram: @josephpodlesnik

I love this image! I know it’s not everyone’s idea of summer… but its so unusual. I feel the dry heat and sharpness of a summer sun here so strongly. The light is creating planes of light and dark coloured walls, it becomes almost an abstract pastel cartoon building. The angles and planes of walls creating optical games like an Escher drawing.

The clouds (or vapour trails) play a part in this composition too acting as lines in the sky that begin to mirror the lines of the walls. the sky remains in pastel blue too,rather than a dense blue. The half hidden crane jib arm is mechanical and hard while the half hidden trees and sculpture softer and textured bring in a organic contrast and remind us of more natural forms amongst this brutal architecture. 

There is brave and powerful use of negative space at the bottom of the frame… I might have considered cropping this more, but it would have been too expected and diluted the chosen interesting and odd composition. It also may have diluted the sense of slabs of colour… so this is a good crop!  

Summer 2019 Photo Competition
The 3 winners have been notified by email and have received a masterclass of their choice. For everyone else, thank you so much for entering our Summer Photo Competition, unlucky not to be among the winners. However, if you are interested in purchasing a course – there is a summer sale on! Use the coupon MOPSUMMER15 at checkout with a 15% discount on any masterclass until 31 July. Go to: www.mopmarketingsite.kinsta.cloud 

Have a great summer and enjoy your photography!

Chris Ryan

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