This month we thought we'd get you involved in helping to decide the final winner of our monthly photo competition for March!
Our Photo Pro, Paul 'Duxy' Duxfield, has narrowed it down to two entries and we would like to involve you in the final decision by voting in our Facebook poll!
To help you decide, here is what Duxy had to say:
Hiya folks and hope everyone is coping with lockdown. And hopefully we’ll all be able to get back to our favourite hobby as soon as it’s safe to do so. Business as usual with the monthly competition though, but we thought we’d mix things up a bit and pick two possible winners for the March contest. And then you can all vote on the final winner on Facebook.
Ok, when I pick the winners I look for something different that I haven't seen before, or a subject that is being presented with the wow factor. And in my dual pick this month I feel that both shots, fulfil this criteria. Firstly though I’d like to say honourable mention goes to Wijnand Plekker for his great black and white study of the Indian Mackerel feeding picture as it was nearly in the final two. I loved it for the repeating pattern and the fact that Wijnand has concentrated our attention on the pattern by converting this shot to a monochrome.
So the two pictures that piqued my interest and admiration were the exciting and dramatic Moray picture from Rudolf, he’s ticked a lot of boxes with this one. The sun hitting the surface is carefully exposed with the strobe lighting the Moray in the foreground, which because of the wide angle perspective of the lens appears to be leaping out of the picture and amping up the drama. The framing is well executed and perfectly balanced too, a great shot.
The next picture choice was Sibylle’s beautiful sunrise picture, definitely worth getting up early at the Red Sea Dving Safari resorts, as evidenced in this shot. And I’d really like to see more topside shots as I think the camps have so much to offer for photography, and not just the underwater opportunities. Sunrise and sunset shots because of the subject matter can often be a bit samey, so you need to be a bit different to elevate them and give them the wow factor. Sibylle has done just this by framing carefully, getting the exposure right, but more importantly the tiny flock of birds skimming the ocean, which is the tiny but vital element that raises the bar to make this picture a ‘wow’ shot.
So there you have it, it’s over to you guys to make the final decision!
