We're happy to announce the winner of March's competition, “The Language of Lines.”
For those who don't know, the Light Stalking Monthly Photography Competition carries a $100 People's Choice Award and a $100 Overall Winner Award. The People's Choice Winner is selected by a vote of the community, whereas our guest judge selects the overall winner.
“The Language of Lines” Photo Contest
Lines are powerful tools in photography and are used as compositional guidelines, to lead the viewer's eye, to frame subjects or just as abstract elements in a photograph. The way in which lines are used and the types of lines can change the way a photo looks – for example leading lines leading to a subject or focal point, diagonal lines to add a dynamic mood, horizontal lines to convey stability or balance, vertical lines to show power or strength, curved lines for example an S curve or others to lead the eye or show beautiful flow, for example, moving water, paths, roads, shorelines, etc.
Some of the ways in which lines can be meaningfully used in photography are, using lines to guide the viewer's eye through the composition, exploring dynamic angles for impact, capturing lines that convey a sense of motion, using perspective to add depth to the image, creating abstract compositions focusing on the beauty and form of lines, playing with focus or exploring how lines in landscapes guide the viewer's eye and contribute to the overall composition.
For March's competition, participants submitted some very brilliant photos from various genre that included landscapes, architecture, still life, actions and many more.
When choosing the winning photos, we wanted to make sure that the decision process was based on a good interpretation of the theme, followed by other factors like light, composition, story, details, creative vision, etc. The results are entirely subjective and there are no losers in any competition as we all know.
Here are March's Winners:
First Place: “SkyHawks” by Jean T
Jean's image titled “SkyHawks” immediately captured the attention with all the beautiful lines, colours shot against a beautiful sky. The colours contrasting against the clear blue sky makes the photo look very striking, besides the circular lines that spiral and frame the subject. The soft light has helped to preserve the colours and details/textures in the lines.
Jean has made use of the right shutter speed to freeze the subject's movement which makes for a very clear focal point in the image. The perspective in which the image has been shot, shows great depth with the farther lines blurring away while the closest ones are tack sharp. This photo stands as a perfect example for the theme “Language of Lines” and has been shot with great care and creative vision in mind.
Congratulations Jean T for this beautiful winning capture.
Second Place: “Lines” by Robert H
Robert submitted this visually striking and compelling image “Lines” that is nothing but all types of lines in a frame. Robert's decision to crop the frame tightly to just show what was important is a very clever decision. There are diagonals, verticals, curves and other lines that are either from the elements in the frame or from the beautiful shadows cast by these elements. Without these strong shadows, the image may have looked flat without drama, depth or visual interest and Robert's decision to use the right light at the right time and to shoot from this perspective has made the resulting image more compelling and interesting.
Besides, the colours in the frame are visually pleasing and complement each other. They do not draw much attention, but help in keeping the viewer hooked onto the image, exploring the various areas and how the lines are actually formed. This photo needs to be viewed large and the details explored.
Congratulations on this stunning photo Robert, that is almost abstract.
Third Place: “Suspended” by Glenn Pine
“Suspended” is a very simple yet powerful photo submitted by Glenn Pine and the photo is mostly made up of numerous vertical lines with other smaller lines balancing them. Glenn's creative approach to break the many vertically repetitive lines with the semi-diagonal lines on the right and a different set of verticals on the left was a great one as it adds visual interest, strength and compositional interest to the photo, rather than having never-ending verticals.
Glenn's decision to convert the image to black and white, helps the viewer to focus on the lines and textures in the image, rather than being distracted by any colours or other distracting elements in the frame. The image has also been shot under good light, preserving details in all areas of the frame – both bight and dark.
Congratulations Glenn on this visually interesting photo!
People's Choice Award Winner
Our monthly photo contests also come with a People's Choice Award. The winner of this part of the contest receives $100 worth of store credit on Light Stalking which they can spend as they please on our blueprints, drills, courses or Presets.
The most popular photo for March, voted by the contestants was “SkyHawks” by Jean T which also won the first place in the competition.
We are almost three weeks into this month's photo contest and still have about two weeks left to submit photos to our April's monthly contest. This month, our theme is, “Embracing Negative Space.”
If you would like to join and enter some images into our monthly contest then take a look at your options here.
