Open Getaway’s January 2015 issue to page 20 and you’ll find a feature on taking artistic imagery, as well as the results of our previous competition on the theme ‘transcending the photograph.’
Our January competition sponsor is master photographer Heinrich van den Berg, a much published and highly awarded creative photographer who has just released a mammoth book titled Reflection. Reflection combines years of exquisite photographic work with poetic philosophy, to create a coffee table book that deserves to be on proud display.
The winner
Thank you for all the beautiful images that were entered into the competition.
We are happy to announce the winner of the limited edition copy of Reflection, valued at R1980, as Johann van der Walt with his image ‘The Dead Tree.’
Johann took this image using his infrared-converted Nikon D70. He said, “This is an infrared photo with a custom white balance. The sky came out an amber colour while the foliage came out blue. In Photoshop I used a channel mixer to swap the red and blue channels around in order to get a blue sky. It was taken near Cannon Rocks in the Eastern Cape.”
Winning image: The Dead Tree by Johann van der Walt.
Finalists
Finalist: Touch&Go. Image by Karin Swanepoel. On our 4×4 trip to the West Coast, Sept 2014 we stayed over in Strandfontein. We noticed a large number of seagulls at the Harbour and went to investigate, only to find that there is a Potato Chip Factory at the Harbour, which attracts seagulls. Potato peels are discarded into large trucks. One of the Workers were standing on top of a load to chase seagulls away as they tried to get a bite. To me, this photograph is one which I can best describe as ‘perfect timing’, taking into consideration the seagull near his head and hand.
Finalist: Image by Robyn Gwilt. This was taken on Fish Hoek Beach one evening at sunset. And although we get the beautiful sunrise over False Bay, we often get the soft beautiful ‘throw over’ from Noordhoek in the evening. I felt a static photo just didn’t do this soft light justice, and used a slow shutter whilst panning to give it this ethereal feel. I particularly like that the breaking wave is caught mid-action, and the lip of the wave is lit by the last of the sun. Canon 5Diii F22, 1.4sec, ISO 50 and I think my Canon 24-105mm F4 lens.
Finalist: Follow Me. Image by Daryl Visser. Is photography an art form? Yes it is… Some artists express emotions, feelings, moods and passion through art. A painting or a sculpture. Yet, we as photographers can produce master pieces of art with the passion we have for the subjects we photograph. So many people take a photo but fail to capture the moment along with the emotion. How do you allow people to feel and see what you felt and saw when taking an image. It can only be described as an art form when you capture all of the above and the person looking at the image, feels it the same way you did.
A panning photo of Zebra sprinting through tall grass at Ithala Game Reserve.
You can see December 2014’s Masterclass competition results here.
