Eighty-one entries in DPC’s Best of 2009 Challenge signed up to be guinea pigs for this experiment. Over the past week, the five of us have traded close to 200 PMs as we ranked, re-ranked, argued, debated and discussed your entries. We looked at the entries numerous times over the course of our judging, trading opinions over the technical and artistic and creative merits of each. Here are the results of our deliberations, presented with ribbons for the winners, along with some of the thoughts and comments we shared along the way. You should know that we only considered the entries of people who signed up for the side challenge ... there are hundreds of other deserving entries in the main challenge that are not considered here.
Street Photography by Melethia Outstanding street photography ... multiple story lines throughout the frame. ... Intensely human, delightful vignettes ... The trash inspector! The pose of the shooter with the arched back! The expression on the subject’s face! The guy on the right holding his cup, the chatting gals on the left! The guy on the far left, the only one that may be aware of all this circularity of events… The way it’s all squared up perfectly is wonderful. ... Simple mastery of its genre, a wonderful example of seeing and reacting to the serendipity before its gone.
Festival Spirit by denbote Straight from the pages of NatGeo ... engaging and energizing. The strong facial expression and vibrant colors contrast well with the dark background ... makes me think beyond the visual stimulus of the image ... Stuff that should be in focus, is. Stuff that should be flowing and blurred, is. Great control of foreground and background lighting. ... interesting subject presented in an interesting way. ... colors, contrast, subject combine for considerable Wow. ... perfect composition and focal point ... filled with energy, transports us to a different place.
I'm ready for my closeup! by paulbtlw Personality from a fish, my gawd! ... pleasing blur with just enough of a hint of the whole to give great definition to the subject. ... just the right DOF ... exceptional, visually pleasing and unique ... excellent work with BW ... just tickles me no end. ... an alternative to the usually-too-sterile DPC view of things.
PaddleFace by glad2badad It’s ambiguous, it’s compelling, it’s an emotional Rorsach Blot of an image ... the blank face allows the viewer to read almost anything into it they want. ... Pink Floyd meets Rene Magritte ... fascinating imagery, simple tones and that line pulls me right to the paddle and boy. ... There is no generic story to be found in this image, it's all about the viewer and past experiences....... powerful, masterful composition ... just the right amount of net and table and negative space above his head... Technically well done with lighting, contrasts, and composition (utilizing a strong leading line).
Navajo Spirit Rising by Ja-9 absolutely excellent ... a completely personal envisioning of a spot that’s become a DPC cliché ... a sense of exploration and journey ... it just keeps me coming back ... the framing of the bright background creates that sense of crawling through a cave or tight space, on the verge of freedom. ... an unusual take on the subject ... composition of the photo into three "bands" is brilliant.
Awarded to those entries that made it the ribbon round
Born to Ride by mpeters A complete mastery of his craft from posing, to costume, to lighting, to composition, to processing. ... The kid is priceless, and, along with the humor, is the main draw. ... the look of consternation on the kid's face, which is obviously not possible to coax out at will, was the serendipity that puts the picture over the top. ... delivers an emotional payload ... love the tilt of the image and the perfectly placed parents watching anxiously in the background.
Contact by RianBotes got me right from the start. That groundstrike is not something you see every day, or ever. ... immediate, visceral shock-and-awe impact ... demonstrates the power, beauty, and the inherent danger of nature ... Maybe it was just dumb luck. Maybe we have a Ben Franklin-esque photog searching for a near death experience. But whatever, the existential moment was caught, captured and presented.
Laurelindórinan (Land of the Valley of Singing Gold) by nshapiro a powerful, powerful act of seeing, a fine landscape ... good job of combining different textures and features into one image. ... meshes five separate features (sky, waterfall, water, rock, plant) ... great job composing the scene drawing on the strength of the wide angle lens, drawing us to the flowing water. ... creates a strong desire to be there. ... the processing gives it an otherwordly feel that works well with the landscape, without competing with it..
the line of beauty by posthumous a stunning work of art ... I just sit and stare at that goose. Such beauty in it's death. ... how purely this one’s seen, how well it resonates with me. ... strong, balanced composition that delivers the emotional impact
Awarded to those entries that rounded out our Top 20 overall
Awe by LevT the mesas are classic and iconic, and the altostratus clouds add a great contrasting geometry. ... feel the implied respect, and connection, of the cowboy and the land. ... hazy, low contrast horizon, gives a dreamy effect, and adds a subtle depth to the imagery. Fantastic.
Power and Grace by njsabs close to being a tour-de-force from a lighting/toning perspective ... this is about worship of the human form, which in 99.999% of us is imperfect. ... it's about overcoming the limitations of imperfection. ...
cata hari by skewsme Unique, both in presentation and execution ... creates a sense of mystery with respect to the cat. ... works well in generating abstract thoughts of floating cat heads! ... the subtle cat intrigues.
Together They Leap by jasonlprice Joyful image, makes me want to go home and play with the kids, ... an immediate wow factor with color and pose ... the processing is kinda “gee-whiz”... the glow really captured me, a perfect treatment for the image ... a fine photo, superbly seen and captured
Divine Sunset by bnilesh strong contrast, layered depth to the photo ... great technical mastery to pull off a contre jour composition while still giving rich, pleasing colors and many gradations of tone. ... a picture I wish I could have taken. ... fantastic scene, a strong sense of peace. Simple as that. ... layered hills, effective framing of the scene with the trees, pleasingly rich colors. ... very well done landscape
Urban Landscape No. 9 by PennyStreet How sexy can a street scene get?! ... Superb technicals. Forms. shapes. Textures. Focus. Lighting. ... killer well-seen ... interesting juxtaposition of lines and form, and one that I can see blown large and hanging in a highrise office.
Still For Ever, Fare Thee Well by scarbrd There’s such a sweet energy going on here in the most understated way ... tones are rich and engaging ... the glow on the rocks is amazing ... the red in the stones, while almost supersaturated, make the lighthouse glow compared to the desolate landscape and gray clouds. ... unique and well lit scene
As The Rush Hits My Brain by Hipychik The energy and story still pull me in. I really want to know what's behind that door! ... she seems caught in time, those moments between adolescence and adulthood, uncertainty and expectation ... Sid Vicious would probably roll over in his grave at the "punk for punk's sake" feel.
Shhht, I'm still asleep... by GiorgioBaruffi original ... backlit treatment and water droplets give us a new look. ... sharpness is exactly right (on the eyes) ... sillhouette captures strong blacks yet we get color and detail in other parts of the picture ... very pleasant bokeh on those golden gossamar wings.
I've chased the shouting wind along... by vawendy Very high degree of difficulty. ... Reminds me of a vibrant Audubon plate. ... a masterpiece of a capture, full of fascinating detail. ... technically wowed by this image.
My BEST Subject of 2009 by wildiris love it for the colors, the shallow DOF, and the subject blends so well with the color palate ... love the shallow depth of field and the creamy, colorful, bokeh. ... expression of the critter is engaging, as if it is flexing, in an attempt at intimidation.
Please take the foregoing results for what they are – the results of a productive, collaborative exercise in a different way of voting, and seeing, at DPC. We don’t claim our results are perfect. We often disagreed with one another, none of us ranked the images precisely in the order you see them presented here, and we all had personal favorites that didn’t make it through to the final round. A different jury would likely have come up with different results. Take what you will from this exercise.
For me, the process was challenging, thought-provoking and highly enjoyable. I can’t thank my fellow jurors enough for giving unselfishly of their time and effort, and approaching this project with the right combination of seriousness and good humor that made it a success.
Congratulations one again to all the winners, both with the jury and the voters and a big thank you to EVERYONE who participated in this experiment.
Once again, here are all the entrants in the side challenge. (Entries by jury members were not considered for jury awards). If you think someone got jobbed by us or the voters, leave them a comment! If you agree with us or the voters, leave them a comment too!
This was awesome and so much fun to be a part of! Congrats to all the winners and many thanks to the judges! I am so thrilled to get an honorable mention! And Dennis, YOU ROCK!
Not bad for a shot that scored a 5.5! :)
The lineup is quite a bit different than what we often see in challenge results. I'm pleased that some entries I felt were underrated in the public challenge got the kudos they deserved this time around.
What a fabulous thread! I didn't get a chance to vote (or enter) this challenge, but it was wonderful to read all about some of the outstanding images here. Clearly, a lot of thought & work went into this, and it shows. Many thanks for taking the time & effort to put this together!
See the original thread for those. Awards were given for category winners by popular vote, but as judges we just considered overall winners. It was starting to get a little cumbersome :-)
Actually, you can see that we have, I believe, a "button winner" representing each category, but that's just the way it shook out; top 5 were all from different categories...
Congratulations to all. EstimatedEyesworked hard to make this happen, so thanks for your efforts Dennis! I also want to thank the jury as a whole, it was a great experience!
Congratulations to all. EstimatedEyesworked hard to make this happen, so thanks for your efforts Dennis! I also want to thank the jury as a whole, it was a great experience!
It was a great experience. And I also want to recognize the cat herding talents of Bear_Music. When we'd (I'd) get off track, Robert brought us back into the herd. Thanks Robert!
congrats to Melethia, congrats to all other winners and participants, big thanks to the jury for the outstanding work (loved to read the "citations", well done guys!) and for my HM :), and finally very big thanks to EstimatedEyes for coceiving the idea and seeing it through!
Thanks everyone for all the positive comments and energy. I would love it if this idea took off, and other juries formed to give us another way of looking at the challenges.
I also want to give another shout out to the top scorers among the voters in this challenge, previously annnounced in the original thread for the side challenge.
Congrats everyone!! This jury idea needs to move forward.
eta: meaning we need more of it.
I don't know... it's a fine forum diversion, but I disagree. We already have a voting system in place, imperfect as it may be. Just my gut reaction, not to take away from the fun of this exercise.
