One of the interesting things about the entries in this month's colour theme of “the dynamics of colour” is that so many of the strongest entries chose to use a single colour to draw the reader's interest and I think that says something quite powerful about the use of colour in photography. Simply splashing colour around like it's a fruit salad is not a great idea and even simply jacking up the saturation in a shot are techniques that are often used but not necessarily often used well. These examples are kind of an antithesis to that.
Overall Winner
This photograph by John Dailey really sums up what can be done by limiting a color palette in a photograph. The composition carries this, but the only reason the composition can work so hard is because he has used a limited colour palette to be less distracting thus giving more power to the composition. and a powerful diagonal composition like this is hard for me to walk past. This is an all-round powerful shot and I'm happy to declare it the winner of the August Dynamics of Colour Photography contest.
Congratulations to John for his win and he will be given $100 for his troubles!
Runner-up
This photograph by Diane Rose, who was a longtime Light Stalking member, I think demonstrates a single color palette almost perfectly in combination with an interesting effect. Now I know that Diane likes using unique lenses for a lot of her photography so I imagine this is an example of the effect of one of those lenses but the single purple colour also makes us a compelling image to look at and draws the eye immediately. Honestly, this was very close to being the winner in my eyes and I spent quite a bit of time between this and John's shot above trying to decide which one I preferred more. In the end, it was extremely close.
Special Mention
I love the single color composition of this photo by Pat Garrett. It's tempting to interpret the competition theme as requiring all different colours or contrast in a single image but cat went the other direction and provided just the single yellow image which is a dramatic example of drawing the eye to a center of interest using colour. For that reason I think it fits the theme perfectly and it's a very solid shot in its own right.
The People's Choice Award Winner
August's People's Choice Awards goes to long time Light Stalking member Wendy P.. And honestly, I'm at a bit of a loss for what this actually is, but it certainly fits the monthly theme. some type of paint or plastic spill through a doorway maybe? Either way, it is a solid shot itself and got our People's Choice Awards, so congratulations to Wendy.
Now as I couldn't get my act together to get September's photography competition started early enough, it is actually extended by a week so you have about two weeks to get your entries in. If you're already registered for our monthly contest then you can go over here to submit your entry. But if you're not yet a gold, silver or bronze member then you will need to go via this page to update your membership. Good luck for September which is “Decisive Moments! You should be able to get something great with that theme
