and the new zeiss zm ...

goes to ...

erik borst of amsterdam, the netherlands.  not only is zeiss sending him their zeiss ikon zm body but he's also getting the zeiss biogon t* 2,8/28mm lens.   edit:  i just saw that erik sent me an email about the camera settings ... canon 30d .. 16-35L/2.8 at f/7.1 and 1/640th.  see ... not only was it digital but it was also colour! ;)  i'm totally not biased. ;)

yes, i know ... it's in colour.  i know everyone would probably have thought a b/w photo would have won.  it was fun watching the votes coming in.

and the final tally ... resulted in the erik's photo winning.

not only do i love the fact the horizon is nice and straight ;) ... but i love how many different things are going on.  funny that after i've checked out the guy looking at his camera to the older guy making his photo to the woman doing something in the background i'm drawn to the guy in the center with his binoculars ... and i end up smiling because of the little girl looking at what i'm assuming is her mother.

patrick kahn also commented ... "This photo is perfection, composition and color-wise, it is stunning. It has a painting-like quality to it, the rich tones and the background which is almost surreal. The people in there bring life to this already beautiful setting, and they look almost vintage, as if this shot had been planned and cast. The dark-non descriptive clothes bring contrast and enhance the strength of the imagery without beeing a distraction. Just an incredible shot."

hoping to get some more quotes from the judges.  wanna thank ben roberts, bill pierce, severin koller, nhat nguyen, patrick kahn, laith majali, hossein farmani and elinor.  there is no real order to this list i just took it from the original announcement page on uber.  rip.

and a huge-huge-huge thank you to richard at zeiss for both sponsoring the prize and ... keeping his word even after uber crashed and burned.

yes, i'll have some words about that whole sitch soon.

again, thank you richard.  that was beyond cool.

we got 600+ entries.  there were some amazing photographs to look at.  the choices were difficult. 

soon ... i'll post a blog with photos representing all of the judge's choices.  in the meantime ... the two following photos -- even though there's no prize therewith associated -- represent 2nd and 3rd places...

2nd place was ...

by markus hartel of new york city.  very nice moment, mate.  thank you so much for entering.

and last but certainly not least 3rd place goes to ...

by christian rollinson of the united kingdom.  i think you'd be stoked, christian, if you know who liked your photo the best out of all of them.

maybe i'll tell.

maybe i won't.

we'll see.

i'm stoked for erik of amsterdam!  it's so nice knowing you used your contacts and were able to get a photographer -- a deseving photographer, of course -- a new piece of gear and an amazing piece of glass.  i wonder if wank ever did anything like that? ;)

again, thank you judges, submitters and, of course, zeiss. 

yes, i have lotsa photos to share.  scans.  some digi.  that said ... i've been beyond busy.

good stuff.

but beyond busy.

hopefully, i'll be able to post more over the next couple days.

archiving has been taking up a lot of time.  it's been nice, though.  tedious.  but.  nice.

hope this finds you all well!

thank you all for your patience with the contest.  i know many were anticipating the results.  me, too, actually. 

cheers from the not-so-smoky-la.

p.s., guys ... everyone who posts stuff on the web should learn about iptc and including at least copyright information on your photographs.  aperture does it very well.  so does photo mechanic.  photoshop is clunky.  dunno about light room.  but ... seriously ... when your iptc information is in there all someone has to do is see the file info and at least have a clue as to who made the photograph.  i'm just saying.

Comments

[C Weeks]

@flipo: glad you liked the selections, mate. i will watch markus' blog now for sure! :)

[C Weeks]

@rich: glad you agree, mate. i think this is a much more difficult photograph to "make work" than a solitary subject.

good switch, man, it's so important to be able to tag your work in the iptc.

wish my backups were instant. sometimes they take half of the day. :(

but .. whatever ... at least my shit's safe!

cheers for the comment, mate.

[C Weeks]

@scott: glad you agree!

[C Weeks]

@markus: hey mate! glad you enjoyed the photographs. it's kind of easy when one of yours was right in there. you were very very close. yours is the kind of photograph -- along with the winner, of course -- i'd love to have on my wall. if you have an extra 16x20, let me know. ;) thanks for your entry and i look forward to more of your blog entries, mate.

[C Weeks]

@pat: very nice stuff. i'm going to do a post with a bigger selection, too.

[Thorsten Overgaard]

Great shots, I like them all. No 3 I've seen before and it stood out. Somehow I'm glad to see the most surprising one being no 1 - because I hate when you can predict style of winners.

All three could have won no 1

[Erik Borst]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments. I appreciate it! A little background info on my winning photo: It was made during a trip to Scotland in May this year. We went on a ferry to the little island of Iona. There was this somewhat hazy, blue-ish light that day, which struck me. I took around 30 shots on the ferry and 2 of this specific moment. The passengers were all focussed on the beautiful surroundings. I was more focussed on them.

I will update my portfolio website this weekend with more series, which contain more shots from that Scotland trip. If you would like to stay updated on my work, I can recommend you to subscribe to my newsletter. Again, thanks! Peace, Erik

[Matt Jan]

Great photos, post more entries!
Well done to the 3 place getters.
Great Job!

[ben roberts]

hello all

i was one of the judges in the competition. as chris has mentioned there was whole heap of entries to go through. i wittled it down fairly quickly to around 15-20 contenders. Erik's picture was winner for me simply because it was different!

i think a lot of photographers take the idea of "street photography" way too literally. too put it into rather blunt terms (and to quote a close friend) -

"i mean, how many random fuckers walking down a shitty american sidewalk can you photograph, right?"

Erik's photograph is fun to 'read'- it has a stillness to it, in spite of plenty of action going on. there's a cute mimicry going on between the key figures in the frame, and the colour palette is is calming - it's really consisent throughout the image. It's a photograph that is just really good to look at, and when the competition is about a single image, this is really important.

cheers

ben

[Christian Rollinson]

i was so pleasantly surprised to see the winning shot. it's not your typical street shot for starters, and there's so much to see. it almost has a posed feel to it, as you'd find in an advertisement, there are so many elements to it. just a great capture. amazingly, i have sat on that exact same deck a few times and recognised the decor instantly!
hats off to the organisers and judges of the competition, and zeiss for coming through with the goods. i'd also like to give an especially large fuck you to all the dissenters from the past months who bad mouthed the whole process. you see, the good guys came through.