Category: Photo Contest

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Photo Contest Winner: “Full Moon”

We have a winner! I am pleased to announce that photographer Ron Byram of Charlotte, North Carolina, has been selected as the winner of the “Full Moon” photo contest. Here is Ron’s winning image:

Here is what Ron had to say:

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Hello, I am Ron Byram from Charlotte, NC. By Day, I am a Computer Analyst. I have done amateur photography since I was 10 years old. But since 2010 I have been into DSLR photography.

On weekends when I’m not on call and I’m off my chain, my wife and I travel through North Carolina, South Carolina, and other states to photograph nature and landscapes or action and sports.

The photo was taken in December 2020 at the Pocosin Wild Life Refuge in eastern North Carolina. My wife and I have been going out to the refuge for the last 5 or so years to get away from work and see what we could capture.

The full moon was the Full Cold Moon and the last one of 2020. The birds in flight were snow geese at sunset.

The geese were in a corn field feeding and the moon rose up over the tree line. The geese lifted off and swirled around and around. This was my first time trying this. I was not 100% sure about my proper settings or if the geese would fly in front of the moon.

I used my Canon 7D Mark II on tripod, with a 150-600mm lens on a ball head mount. The exposure was 1/8th of a second at f/11 and ISO 100 in Aperture Priority mode. I was exposing for the moon, and I guess I got lucky.

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I’d say there was much more than luck involved in capturing this photo. Ron made a plan to visit a good location at the right time to photograph the full moon, and was able to make the most of the geese flying around him.

As the winner of this GreyLearning Photo Contest, Ron wins a Tamron 100-400mm lens (https://bhpho.to/39NWhRy). Congratulations, Ron!

 

 

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Contest Winner: “Animal”

Photographer Marc Lombardi has been selected as the winner of the December 2018 GreyLearning Photo Contest with his photo of a group of snow monkeys in Japan. The theme for this photo contest was “Animal”, inviting photographers to submit their best photo featuring animals.

Snow Monkeys by Marc Lombardi

Marc had this to say about the photo:

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The image was taken in Jigokudani snow monkey park situated in the valley of the Yokoyu River near Nagano, Japan. I was on a winter wildlife photo tour and we spent three days at the monkey park, hiking about 30 minutes each day up to the area where the monkeys gather by the hot springs. These monkeys were huddled near the hot spring stream that flows down from the mountains. I captured the image with a Sony a7rIII and 100-400 GM lens.

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As the winning photographer Marc will receive a Tamron 70-200mm lens valued at US$1199, thanks to a sponsorship from Tamron USA.

Congratulations to Marc on a beautiful winning image! You can view more of Marc’s images from Japan and his other travels to the ends of the earth here:

https://marclombardi.zenfolio.com

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Contest Winner: “Abstract”

Photographer Frank Waters has been selected as the winner of the September 2018 GreyLearning Photo Contest with his closeup image of a flamingo. The theme for this photo contest was “Abstract”, inviting photographers to submit their best photo where it is not immediately obvious to the viewer what the subject is.

Flamingo Detail by Frank Waters

Frank had this to say about the photo:

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This photo was shot at the San Diego Zoo. It was taken with a Canon T6i  equipped with a Canon EF 28-135mm lens. My settings were pretty simple:  f/16, 1/200th of a second at ISO 200, with automatic white balance and manual exposure settings. The lens was fully extended, at 135mm, as the birds were pretty far from the closest place I could stand. I also used a tripod, because of the extension of the lens.

When I imported the photos into Lightroom, at first I was not terribly thrilled. They just looked like simple photos taken at the zoo. But upon closer examination, I liked the quality of the feathers, and I thought I might be able to make a decent composition with a pretty severe crop. There was not a whole lot of processing in Photoshop. I added a Levels adjustment layer and a Hue/Saturation layer. I brought out the highlights in Levels, and brought out the yellow a bit, while decreasing the luminance of yellow at the same time.  

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As the winning photographer Frank will receive a Tamron 18-400mm lens valued at US$649, thanks to a sponsorship from Tamron USA.

Congratulations to Frank on a beautiful winning image! You can view more of his photography on the following pages:

https://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/1396981/

https://500px.com/alfalfa19

https://www.instagram.com/frankwatersv/

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Contest Winner: “Skyline”

Photographer Brad Larsen has been selected as the winner of the August 2018 GreyLearning Photo Contest with his panoramic image of the Seattle skyline. The theme for this photo contest was “Skyline”, so Brad’s panorama was a perfect fit.

Seattle Skyline Panorama by Brad Larsen

Brad had this to say about his photo:

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The photo, obviously of Seattle, was taken from Alki Point in West Seattle. I used my Canon 5D Mark lll with a 70-200mm ll, shot at 1/60th of a second at f/10. I stitched 7 photos together using Photoshop. Most of the editing was done in Lightroom with a few adjustments in Photoshop. This was probably the 5th or 6th attempt at creating a panorama that actually worked. The trial and error part being a good learning experience.

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As the winning photographer Brad will receive a US$100 Amazon gift card. Congratulations to Brad on a beautiful winning image! You can view more of his photography on his website here:

https://www.bradlarsenphotography.com/

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Contest Winner: “Dazzling Night”

Photographer Nick Noble has been selected as the winner of the July 2018 GreyLearning Photo Contest with his image of the Frisco Pier in North Carolina. The theme for this photo contest was “Dazzling Night”, inviting photographers to submit their best image captured at night.

Frisco Pier by Nick Noble

Nick had this to say about capturing this photo:

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Frisco Pier is (was) in North Carolina in the part of the coast known as the Outer Banks. It was in the town of Frisco, just a few miles from the more famous Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Frisco Pier was for fishing. It was heavily damaged during Hurricane Irene in 2003 and then again by Hurricane Earl in 2010. It closed 2010 and was abandoned until fall 2017 when it was taken down. With no lights, it was a hazard to navigation near the shore.

My photo was taken in March 2017 on a dark no moon night about 5am (sunrise at 7:15 am, so 5 is about 45 minutes before Astronomical Twilight). Camera information: Canon 5D Mark IV, Sigma 20mm f/1.4 lens at f/2, ISO 6400, 30 seconds.

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As the winning photographer Nick will receive one year of full access to the GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle.

Congratulations to Nick on a beautiful winning image! You can view more of his photography on his Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/NickNoblePhotography/

You can also find Nick on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/nsqr/

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Contest Winner: “Magnificent Monochrome”

Photographer John Gafford has been selected as the winner of the June 2018 GreyLearning Photo Contest with his image, “Channeling Leonardo”. The theme for this photo contest was “Magnificent Monochrome”, inviting photographers to submit their best black and white (or otherwise monochrome) photo.

Channeling Leonardo by John Gafford

John had this to say about capturing this photo:

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While on a recent trip to the Provence region of France, I was walking around the Arles Saturday market, when I spotted a distinguished looking elderly man dressed in black wandering through the market. I followed him for a while, hoping to snap a candid picture of him. After a few minutes, he happened to gaze up toward a nearby building and at that moment, I snapped this image. With his white beard and black shirt and jacket, I thought it would make a great black and white image. I shot the image at 1/250 second, f/8, ISO 200 at 210 mm with a Nikon D800.

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As the winning photographer John will receive a copy of Exposure X3 software for optimizing and organizing photos, thanks to a generous sponsorship from Alien Skin Software.

Congratulations to John on a beautiful winning image! You can view more of his photography on his website here:

http://www.johngaffordphotography.com/

You can also find John on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/johngaffordphotography/

 

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Photo Contest: “Magnificent Monochrome”

The theme for the GreyLearning Photo Contest for June is “Magnificent Monochrome”, providing photographers with the opportunity to submit their favorite black & white, sepia tone, cyanotype, or other monochrome image. Alien Skin Software is sponsoring this month’s contest, offering a copy of their Exposure X3 software for the Grand Prize.

UPDATE: You can view the winning image and get details about how it was captured here:

Contest Winner: “Magnificent Monochrome”

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Contest Winner: “Reaching Out”

Photographer Bob Kirschke has been selected as the winner of the May 2018 GreyLearning Photo Contest with his image of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The theme for this photo contest was “Reaching Out”, focusing on images that were captured with a relatively long lens to bring in a distant subject.

As the winning photographer Bob will receive a Tamron 70-210mm lens, thanks to a generous sponsorship from Tamron USA.

Bob had this to say about capturing his winning image:

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The image was taken on September 27, 2015, from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It was taken with a Canon 6D and the EF100-400 IS II lens. The plan was to shoot the full moon rising that evening. Of course while waiting I was shooting the Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Cœur, and the Avenue des Champs-Elysée.

This shot was one of only a hand full that were not of the full tower. Not sure why I even took the shots at the time. When I returned home and started processing the images I really liked the composition but didn’t like the color image as I worked on it. So I took a chance and started processing it in B&W. I used Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro 2. I felt like it was a much more interesting representation of the image that way.

I am a corporate pilot for a New York-based company. We operate worldwide and I get the benefit of being able to capture images in some amazing places.

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Congratulations to Bob on a beautiful winning image! You can view more of his photography on his Flickr page here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/swabby111/

To learn more about the Tamron 70-210mm lens that was the grand prize for this photo contest, you can visit the Tamron USA website here:

http://www.tamron-usa.com/product/lenses/a034.html

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Photo Contest: “Reaching Out”

The theme for the GreyLearning Photo Contest for May is “Reaching Out”, meaning capturing photos that involve reaching out with a long lens to draw in a distant subject. The Grand Prize for this contest is a Tamron 70-210mm f/4 lens valued at US$799, thanks to a sponsorship from Tamron USA. Please note that for this contest the winner must reside in the United States.

UPDATE: You can view the winning image and get details about how it was captured here:

Contest Winner: “Reaching Out”

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Contest Winner: “Water”

We are pleased to announce that photographer Doug Haight has won the April 2018 GreyLearning Photo Contest with his image of a boat wake at sunset. The theme for this photo contest was “Water”, and as the winning photographer Doug will receive one year of free access to the full GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle.

Sunset Wake by Doug Haight

Doug shared the following details about his winning photo:

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It’s from a series I have been working on for some years now shooting water using slow shutter speeds. Looking back at the metadata I was surprised to see that this one dates back to 2009 when I was still shooting JPEG files with a Canon 40D, which is a far cry from the Raw files from my Canon Mark II with much better glass these days.

This shot was taken at 1/4 second, f/2.8 and 800 ISO. On this particularly calm evening I was trying to capture the way the setting sunlight caught the very crest of the small wake of my boat while retaining that smooth flow of the lake that you can only get with a slow shutter speed. For me this shot perfectly captures the last light of that warm still night summer night on the lake.

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Congratulations to Doug on a beautiful winning image!